Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Dawn of the Decadent

Christopher Lasch and our culture of narcissism 

An excerpt from Witness to the Fall

Long before Donald Trump’s malignant narcissism plunged the United States and the world into a hall of mirrors, thought leaders like Christopher Lasch warned about an emerging psychic assault on humanity and a breakdown of culture.

Most of the population has been reduced to incompetence by professional elites, Lasch charged in a controversial book, The Culture of Narcissism, while the family is simultaneously being undermined by advanced capitalism. The personality itself is under attack, he argued, by bureaucracy, a therapeutic culture, and “the domination of our whole experience by fabricated images.”

As Michiko Kakutani explained in his 2019 book, The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump, Lasch was ahead of his time in defining narcissism as a “defensive reaction to social change and instability.” A cynical “ethic of self-preservation and psychic survival” afflicted the nation, Lasch believed. It was the symptom of a country grappling at the time with defeat in Vietnam, growing pessimism, a media culture centered on fame and celebrity, and “centrifugal forces that were shrinking the role families played in the transmission of culture.”



Shortly before Lasch helped President Jimmy Carter write his memorable, televised “malaise” speech in 1979 (Carter didn’t actually use the word), I taped and published an interview with the historian about his analysis of contemporary society. “It’s almost as if we can’t experience things directly anymore,” he explained, more than a decade before the Internet went public.

“Something only becomes real when it’s recorded in the form of a photographic image, a recording of the human voice, or whatever. The result is that our whole perception is colored, and I think it has a mirror-like effect. People find it difficult to establish a sense of self unless it’s reflected back in the reaction of others or in the form of images.”

In The Culture of Narcissism, Lasch extended the word’s definition to include “dependence on the vicarious warmth provided by others combined with a fear of dependence, a sense of inner emptiness, boundless repressed rage, and unsatisfied oral cravings.” He also added secondary traits like “pseudo self-insight, calculated seductiveness, nervous self-deprecating humor… intense fear of old age and death, altered sense of time, fascination with celebrity, fear of competition, decline of play spirit, deteriorating relations between men and women.”

Even more disturbing, he asserted that the narcissistic personality was ideally suited for positions of power, a callous, superficial climber who sells him or herself to win at any price.

Today, all of this rings like a prediction about the shape of political leaders to come.

Since Lasch also argued that capitalism was part of the problem, specifically by turning the selling of oneself into a form of work, I asked him to explain. “Capitalism takes bureaucratic form,” he said. “Advancement and success depends upon the ability to project one’s personality and to project a winning image, rather than competence in any given job. Your own personality becomes the principal resource to be marketed.” More than 40 years later, this sounds very much like the Trump-ist mindset.

Mass media were largely responsible, Lasch said, since they create both a sense of “chronic tension” and a “cynical detachment” from reality. And it wasn’t just the advertisements. “By treating everything as parody, a lot of TV shows reflect the same distancing techniques,” he explained. “Everything is a put-on, a take-off. And nothing is to be taken altogether seriously. We now have a whole genre that parodies other popular forms, creating a kind of endless hall of mirrors effect. It becomes very difficult to distinguish reality from images. Finally, the distinction collapses altogether.”

Somewhat depressed by this diagnosis, I tried to refocus on the bright side by asking about the difference between the debilitating detachment he had described and a more healthy skepticism.

“A person could even experience both reactions at different times,” Lasch replied. “This raises a very important political question too, because the thrust of institutions might have a very healthy political effect in reducing people’s dependence on big organizations, making people more willing to solve their own problems. But, on the other hand, it has so far expressed itself as a crippling cynicism in the whole political process: no change is possible at all, and all politicians are corrupt.”

Worse yet, he asserted that the modern American family promoted the development of narcissistic people. Many mothers are no longer confident of their ability to raise children, he said, and many fathers no longer have work that provides an example to follow. “The atrophy of older traditions of self-help has eroded everyday competence in one area after another and has made the individual dependent on the state, the corporation, and other bureaucracies. Narcissism represents the psychological dimension of this dependence.”

Popular culture feeds as a parasite on the narcissist’s primitive fantasies, Lasch continued. It encourages delusions of omnipotence while at the same time affirming feelings of dependence and blocking the expression of strong emotion. The bland and empty disco-supermarket-mall-mellow facade of mass existence can be overwhelming. Yet within people there was also enormous anger for which bureaucratic society provided few outlets.

Lasch was expressing harsh and then-contrarian views, some that liberals, conservatives, and even radicals hesitated to embrace at the time. For example, he believed that American society was fast approaching a point of moral dissolution, but charged that both the “welfare state” and permissiveness were among the causes of the impending collapse. At the same time, he saw hope in the potential for resistance among working people who retained religious, family, and neighborhood roots.

One of his targets was the “awareness” movement. In that regard, when I asked what Lasch thought about Erhard Seminars Training (Est), an extension of the human potential movement, he offered that it did have some appeal as an “antidote” to narcissism. Yet his reason was chilling. “It entails a certain amount of arbitrary discipline, a kind of submission to authority that you find in some religious cults, too,” he said. “People who lack meaning and structure are likely to turn to some sort of authoritarian solution.”

In view of this, I wondered where he thought the necessary vision for change would come from. “There is more resistance among people who really don’t have much stake in the present economic system, people who are victimized by it,” he replied. “Their working environment is not invaded by bureaucracy in the same way. And the second thing is that they have some cultural resources, like religion, that help to counteract this. Of course, all these things are often sneered at as evidence of the backward mentality of American workers. We’re going to have to view that in a much more positive light.

“One of the problems I see is an erosion of any sense of moral responsibility. That’s closely linked to the loss of competence. And religion is one impulse that helps to keep alive the sense that people are responsible for what they do. It represents a sort of moral realism that is very important now.”

But the family, church, neighborhoods and institutions were all under assault, Lasch warned. And, although somewhat skeptical about what he viewed as a gradual shift toward state socialism, he acknowledged that “the state is going to have to play a larger role,” particularly in areas like energy and resource allocation.

On the other hand, he also foresaw a risk that turned out to be all too real: that an expansion of the state’s role, combined with exploitation of reactionary tendencies in the family and church, could spark the authoritarian surge he feared.

Monday, March 17, 2025

Nullifying Autocracy: How to Fight Trump’s Powerplay

Withdrawal of consent can make a difference. Nullification is a form of active resistance and disengagement from illegitimate authority, and certainly preferable to continuing to depend on obsolete notions.

By Greg Guma

“Nullification is not a “fringe theory,” asserts conservative constitutional scholar Joe Wolverton II. “It is, in fact, an explicit constitutional mechanism designed to prevent federal usurpation—a principle that predates even the ratification of the Constitution itself.” The article in which this controversial argument appears, published on the Tennessee Conservative website, presents arguments you are not likely to see in mainstream sources. 

I’d like to add a few more, specifically focusing from a more progressive perspective on how we can begin to resist autocracy. As Donald Trump makes good on his threat to weaponize the Department of Justice and FBI against his “enemies,” both political and personal, nullification can become an effective tool to protect basic rights and fight back.




Traditionally, nullification occurs in court when a jury declares a defendant not guilty despite agreement — beyond a reasonable doubt — that a crime was committed. It is a legal form of popular resistance, a way for citizens to respond to malicious prosecutions or the unjust enforcement of laws. At times it has also been used to free popular defendants.

But the strategy need not be restricted to courtrooms. The Brennan Center for Justice explains: “At a time when essential human rights like bodily autonomy are under attack, immigrants face deportation on trumped-up charges, and the government has threatened to use its vast power to punish undesirable citizens, it is easy to feel powerless.” However, by employing nullification strategies, “the people retain the power to fight back and protect the freedom of their fellow Americans.”

As I explained in Restless Spirits & Popular Movements, “The argument for nullification rests on the theory that the states created the national government. Therefore, they have the right to judge the constitutionality of federal laws and potentially refuse to enforce them. Nullification was used when American colonists nullified laws imposed by the British. Since then states have used it to limit federal actions, from the Fugitive Slave Act to unpopular tariffs.” 

Like other states, Vermont had direct, dramatic experience with nullification early in its history. In November 1850, for example, the state legislature approved a so-called Habeas Corpus Law that required officials to assist slaves who made it to the state. The law rendered the Fugitive Slave Act effectively unenforceable. This was a clear case of nullification, a controversial concept even then. Poet John Greenleaf Whittier recommended such tactics, while Virginia governor John B. Floyd warned that they could push the South toward secession. 

Even earlier, support for nullification emerged in reaction to the Adams era Sedition Act. This was one of the key events that prompted the Kentucky Resolve of 1798, written by Thomas Jefferson, and the almost identical Virginia Resolve penned by James Madison. In Section One of his version, Jefferson stated that federal authority wasn’t unlimited, and, if it went too far, need not be obeyed. 

The national government wasn’t the “final judge” of its own powers, Jefferson suggested, and various states had a right to decide how to handle federal overreach. Madison’s Virginia version declared that, in the case of a deliberate and dangerous abuse of power, states not only had a right to object. They were “duty bound” to stop the “progress of the evil” and maintain their “authorities, rights and liberties.”

Ten years later, after President Jefferson enacted a trade embargo in response to British maritime theft and the kidnapping of sailors, legislatures nullified the law using his own words and arguments. On February 5, 1809, the Massachusetts legislature declared that the embargo was “not legally binding on the citizens of the state” and denounced it as “unjust, oppressive, and unconstitutional.” Eventually, every New England state, as well as Delaware, voted to nullify the embargo act.

Today, defenders of the status quo — and that includes AI responses to inquiries about nullification — argue that it is merely a rhetorical tool, a theory “without legal or practical application.” Yet, even before the Trump administration began its assault on various parts of the US Constitution, state legislatures were debating laws designed to nullify federal actions in areas from gun control and health care reform to marijuana possession and overseas troop deployments. More recently, it has been mentioned as a strategy to resist unfair abortion regulations, defend birthright citizenship, and challenge immigration laws.

Ironically, one of the early nullification fights emerged between states and the federal government in the 1800s, a precursor that ultimately led to the Civil War.

The Supreme Court has consistently upheld the principle of federal supremacy, arguing that states cannot nullify federal laws. However, if a Court majority doesn’t acquiesce to the Trump regime’s current push to nullify the separation of powers, due process and other constitutional guarantees, there is little doubt that Trump will not hesitate to defy it. He has already taken the first steps by side stepping and declining to follow court orders. In doing so, he is providing the spark for additional local, state and regional nullification moves to follow.

Wolverton goes further than I would in his judgement about the historic role of the Supreme Court. He accuses it of being “an accomplice in the unconstitutional expansion of federal power” for two centuries. But I do agree with him that the Court has frequently “rubber-stamped unconstitutional federal overreach” and “is not the final arbiter of what is and is not constitutional.” That power rests in the Constitution itself. 

His viewpoint also points to another argument I’ve made over the years. Although the left and right have been culturally polarized for generations — disagreeing over racism, abortion, immigration, climate change and the distribution of wealth — there is some common ground. One area that could prove crucial now, as the federal government slides toward autocracy, is the belief that withdrawal of consent can make a huge difference. Nullification is a form of active resistance and disengagement from illegitimate authority, and that is certainly preferable to continuing to depend on obsolete notions about federal-state relations and an 18th century social contract that can no longer protect us.

Friday, March 14, 2025

MANAGING CHAOS: Adventures in Alternative Media

An eye-witness account that explores the unique, tumultuous history of Pacifica radio and alternative media in America. 

“a great read…revealing and sometimes brutal” 

the Progressive

Full Review: Who Will Tell Us the News?


“A real page-turner” — David Goodman and Marc Stern

On the Air: Radio with a View interview, 9/22/2024


On Town Meeting TV: 

Meghan O’Rourkc interviews Greg and Robin Lloyd 


After an eclectic career, Greg Guma discusses the evolution of radio and television, the impacts of concentrated media ownership, the rise of the alternative press, his own work in Vermont — before and during a progressive revolution that changed the state’s power structure, and decades later, how he managed the original listener-supported radio network. 


Weaving together an intimate chronicle of what he saw as Pacifica Radio’s first post-revolution CEO and episodes from his earlier life as a stressed out student, rookie reporter, radical organizer and unconventional editor, Guma explores the challenges of maintaining democratic institutions in a culture of distrust and polarization, of striking the delicate balance between truth and advocacy, observation and participation, and of managing conflicts with persuasion instead of force. 


Managing Chaos is a media saga, a personal story, and a cautionary tale.


…a skilled writer who has immersed himself in Vermont life and politics for decades.  — Sasha Abramsky


…the first executive in Pacifica who has been willing, and able, to share his experiences…. They ought to be required reading for all PNB and LSB members.  —  Nalini Lasiewicz


…a powerful voice. — Michel Chossudovsky 


Buy Managing Chaos

317 Pages, illustrated, Maverick Books


From the book…


“The deeper I looked the more convoluted and intractable the problems appeared: Charges and counter-charges of secrecy, waste, racism, sexism, harassment and violence, turf battles over local fiefdoms, manipulation, and alleged fraud. It seemed like a fratricidal war with no end in sight. 


“It reminded me of how easily reality can be blurred by misinformation. That July, Jeff Ruch, the director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, had issued a relevant assessment of a much larger and even more dysfunctional organization. ‘The federal government,’ he concluded, ‘is suffering from a severe disinformation syndrome.’ 


“Could this be what afflicted Pacifica? Spurious theories presented as facts, information massaged to promote a specific spin, cherry-picked evidence. Whether intentional or not, Pacifica’s convoluted politics and history seemed to have created, as Bob Woodward put it in his book that summer about Watergate source Deep Throat, “an entire world of doubt."


“Who could unravel such a mess, no less get the larger community to look beyond its debilitating bitterness and distrust? Probably not a middle-aged activist editor from one of the smallest, whitest states in the country….” 


“…. The chance to work at Pacifica radio came my way by accident. More than a decade earlier I’d met an activist librarian on a plane by striking up a conversation about Z, a left-wing magazine she was reading. Even before 9/11, you rarely saw people on airplanes engrossed in “alternative” publications. 


“At the time I was editing Toward Freedom, a small but respected magazine that had covered international affairs from a “progressive perspective” since the early 1950s. We hit it off, and the librarian provided an invaluable stream of news, ideas and leads for articles over the next decade. She was also a loyal yet disgruntled listener to a Pacifica station, and when the top job became available, she let me know. 


“I had some of the qualifications, starting with management and development experience. In my twenties, I worked with schools and anti-poverty groups developing paraprofessional training programs. In my thirties, I edited Vermont’s groundbreaking alternative weekly, the Vanguard Press, and helped usher in a progressive political era. I led the revival of Toward Freedom and, for more than a decade, edited and wrote on global politics. I also launched and ran bookstores in Burlington and Santa Monica, CA, and coordinated progressive organizations that worked on peace, justice, and immigration issues in Vermont and New Mexico. Just the year before, I had co-founded a new statewide weekly, Vermont Guardian, with local investors. So, there was all of that. 


“Still, it didn’t feel right to me at first…” 


Buy Managing Chaos: Adventures in Alternative Media 

Interested in writing a review? Request copy at Mavmediavt@gmail.com


Other Excerpts

Bringing War Back Home

The Road to Change