Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Who's the REAL Manchurian Candidate?



                               

Ezra Levant's recent description of Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson as the "Manchurian Candidate" for his  ("foreign-backed") opposition to the Gateway Pipeline is more than just remarkable hypocrisy. In view of  China's $20 billion investment in the Alberta tar sands, and the fact that China is also the market for the Gateway oil, (i.e. Levant is a leading apologist for Red China as both investor and customer--and if that isn't a conflict of interest China would probably like it to be) Levant's accusation satisfies the scientific meaning of  projection.  Wikipedia defines this problem as it was first diagnosed  in Freudian Psychoanalysis:


"Psychological projection or projection bias is a psychological defense mechanism where a person subconsciously denies his or her own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to the outside world, usually to other people. Thus, projection involves imagining or projecting the belief that others originate those feelings.[1]
Projection reduces anxiety by allowing the expression of the unwanted unconscious impulses or desires without letting the conscious mind recognize them.
An example of this behavior might be blaming another for self failure. The mind may avoid the discomfort of consciously admitting personal faults by keeping those feelings unconscious, and by redirecting libidinal satisfaction by attaching, or "projecting," those same faults onto another person or object.
The theory was developed by Sigmund Freud - in his letters to Wilhelm Fliess, '"Draft H" deals with projection as a mechanism of defence'[2] - and further refined by his daughter Anna Freud; for this reason, it is sometimes referred to as Freudian Projection.[3]"

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