I’ve often wondered if Freudian theories could be applied to the Left in the same way they have been applied to the Right in the past. Is there an equivalent, for example, of The Authoritarian Personality but perhaps labelled The Moralising Personality, which would explain the mind-set of so many people?
(I agree with this writer that a lot of people who rail against patriarchy seem to have a direct problem with their own fathers. It’s also curious how some strident feminists convert to Islam, which could possibly be something to do with their dads. But maybe that’s at the root of my own political insanity, too.)
Moral righteousness is not confined to the Left, but it appears to be more common there, and becomes more so the further Left you go. I thought of this when the subject of Jeremy Corbyn’s marriage came up again. Although I would agree that politicians’ private lives are best skirted over – for fear that it will only attract dullards as a result, and because journalists shouldn’t be taking the moral high ground on anything – the cause of their divorce is instructive: his wife’s decision to send their son to a grammar school. It’s
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