Reflections on Entryism

[ecosophia]

One of the things I've been thinking about of late has been entryism -- the habit, very common in certain extremist political groups, of having people join some other, larger group with an unrelated focus in the hope of taking it over, or at least using it as a venue for recruitment and propaganda. I noted on this week's post over at the main blog that American secret societies, all through the years when they were large and culturally significant, had to fend off attempts at entryism, and noted with a certain wry amusement that the two groups most famous for entryism back in the day were socialists, on the one hand, and the Ku Klux Klan on the other. 

I wasn't exaggerating. On the one hand, it took the Masons a long bitter fight in the 1920s and 1930s to identify and throw out Klansmen who had joined Masonry with the goal of turning the Craft (that's what Masons call Masonry) into a wholly owned subsidiary of the Klan. On the other, quite a few other lodge organizations had to engage in similar struggles to keep socialists from taking them over -- that's when a lot of lodges started making the Pledge of Allegiance part of the opening ritual; socialists hated that and usually wouldn't say it, which made it easy for them to be identified and rendered harmless in various polite but effective ways. 

The irony?  There are two groups of people who quite frequently pop up on my blog, either trying to post links to articles on their websites unrelated to the topic of the weekly essay, or trying to give my feet a tongue bath because they think they can then talk me into agreeing with their positions. You guessed it: it's either socialists on the one hand, or people from the racist right on the other.

It's interesting that this should still be the case a century after the examples I'd studied. Now of course socialism and racial politics both have ghastly track records -- between them, they're responsible for most of the major genocides of the last century and a half -- and that's got to be a problem for recruitment. Still, given the abysmal historical ignorance of most Americans, it shouldn't be that insuperable. Some sort of subcultural heredity?  Or some other factor? 

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

As one of the men "who experience it while rolling around in the dirt and the mud and the blood, fighting outside a bar." I don't know that I find it "more erotic than sex." But will certainly acknowledge the pleasures to be had therein.

One thing that people seem to miss is that pain releases endorphins. It just does. It doesn't matter what kind of pain, but those endorphins are powerful and addictive. Similar to an adrenaline junky, there are endorphin junkies. As both I can testify to that.

Having experienced that pain pleasure line in the above situations of sex and violence I can tell you that is part of the line for me. A little pain sharpens the intensity.

If you'd like to get into the most taboo part of this I would say it is the strange joy of losing a fight. That would seem to be the ultimate taboo to me, analogous to the receptive partner in a homosexual encounter. The joy of being dominated isn't just for women.

There is also male bonding that results from a fight. I've made several deep friends from fighting. Of the sort that seem closer, more "intimate" than typical male friendships.

There is the build up to the fight-
Foreplay-chest thumping
Crashing into each other
The struggle for domination
The release
The "post coital" shame or bliss. The shame sometimes from revealing too much to someone, the bliss from the "You hit hard, let me buy you a beer!"

Another aspect is a fight partner so to speak. The same guys who fight each other over and over again. Eyebrows raised "why do you hate him so much?"

There's a joy of fighting that many people mistake as hate. They've tied violence to hate, but hate interferes with your ability to think, clouds judgement. Hate and violence aren't necessary bedfellows. Indeed the most dangerous people I know enjoy a fight. They view it more as a predator prey relationship. Cats don't hate mice. They are excited by them. The joy of a predator taking down a larger prey is very real too. I caution people that it isn't necessarily hate to look out for. Flat affect during an adrenaline dump is a worrying sign. Those are people who can think in the midst of the most potent drugs the human body can dump into the system. "I didn't come here to talk I came to fight."

I don't often get to share that aspect of myself.

[robertmathiesen]

Thank you, Anonymous!

From what my grandmother told me, and from what I have been able to learn from old newspapers, her father was much the same kind of man. He deeply loved violence (as well as women and strong drink), and he probably lacked the capacity to feel fear. He was a very tall, strong and resourceful man, who had been a soldier in the Livgarde (King's Guard) back in Denmark before his taste for violence and women put him in a situation where he had to flee his homeland in very great haste.

A friend of mine had a neighbor who was always trying to pick a fight with him, to no avail. My friend said that his neighbor's favorite Friday night recreation was to go down to the Newport Navy Yard when the sailors were let out for their Friday-night leave, and to pick fights with them then and there.

In short, such men are not all that rare.

[deborah_bender]

I greatly appreciate your sharing.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, thank you for doing so. It was enlightening! As well as enfightening...

—Lady Cutekitten