The Crisis Prone Society
Lurching from One Mega-Crisis to the Next
I’m publishing this series of articles to share and discuss my ruminations on coping with a troubled and messy world. Please “follow” me to never miss an article.
The August 12th broadcast of The PBS NewsHour featured the regular political commentary of David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart. While their insights are always thought-provoking, the particular episode was especially disturbing. David Brooks laid out a terrifying scenario that should have all of literally quaking in our boots.
In direct response to the FBI’s legally authorized search (be it noted legal search!) of Trump’s Florida estate, the more extreme of his supporters threatened Civil War and outright violence in response to what they perceived as a “politically motivated raid.” It was made worse by the fact that a number of Republicans called for Defunding the FBI, if not abolishing it altogether.
The frightening scenario that David Brooks laid out is terrifying indeed. Suppose that because of backlash to the FBI’s “raid” on Trump’s Florida estate, he gets elected President again in 2024. At the same time, suppose that he also gets indicted because of his failure to safeguard highly sensitive national security documents. The ever-present fear is that it would lead to a major crisis between the Legal and Political branches of Government. It could well provoke armed acts of rebellion, read “Domestic Terrorism.”
As one of the founders of the modern field of Crisis Management (CM), I can say unequivocally that in addition to Thinking the Unthinkable via Worst Case Scenarios, CM is doing everything one can to prevent them. And, if they’re not fully preventable, what can be done to limit, ideally contain, the damage?
Here’s precisely where things get dicey. The actions intended to prevent Political violence may in a convoluted heightened it. Thus, having the Police and National Guard conduct systematic drills to respond to violence may actually provoke it. People who feel that they and Trump are already persecuted can be moved to feel it more. Nonetheless, as I say more later, this doesn’t mean that the Police and the National Guard shouldn’t work together.
The real root of the problem is dealing with feelings of persecution. And for this there are no easy solutions.
Those who are overwhelmed by intense feelings of persecution are suffering from what the late, eminent Psychoanalyst Melanie Klein identified as the Paranoid-Schizoid Position. “Schizoid” because the world is Split sharply between “Good and Bad Guys, Forces, etc.” “Paranoid” because the Bad Guys greatly outnumber the Good Guys and are constantly seeking to destroy them via the most dastardly means imaginable.
The difficulty is that treatment for the Paranoid-Schizoid Position requires prolonged work with a Psychotherapist. The problem is compounded by the fact that those most in need of treatment are often the most resistant to it. A case in point is the fact that Trump suffers from Pathological Narcissism is the primary reason why he would never seek treatment for it.
No wonder why those suffering from the Paranoid-Schizoid Position — more accurately, “are trapped in it” — are prone to Conspiracy Theories. It’s their only Reality as it were.
Given that we can’t compel a sizable portion of the population to seek treatment, among the few recourses we have is to have Psychotherapists work closely with the Police and National Guard to prepare for the Worst.
As I’ve written before, the problems we face do not fit neatly into one or more isolated disciplines, professions, or branches of Government. As a result, they call for the most intense cooperation just to define the problems, let alone suggest way of Coping with them. “Coping” because Final Solutions are completely out of the question.
In the end, we are dependent on the Collective Health of our Citizenry and Institutions to protect us from the Worst. Lacking that, we are increasingly Crisis Prone, lurching from one Mega-Crisis to the next.
Ian I. Mitroff is credited as being one of the principal founders of the modern field of Crisis Management. He has a BS, MS, and a PhD in Engineering and the Philosophy of Social Systems Science from UC Berkeley. He Is Professor Emeritus from the Marshall School of Business and the Annenberg School of Communication at USC. Currently, he is a Senior Research Affiliate in the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management, UC Berkeley. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Management. He has published 41 books. His latest is: The Socially Responsible Organization: Lessons from Covid, Springer, New York, 2022.
Photo by Jack Young on Unsplash
