Games Overgrown Political Children - by Daniel Greenfield

[Sanguine]

We don't have an adult political system. What we do have is a political system in which childish tactics are used to play childish games with adult consequences. As described by Dr. Berne in Games People Play, "games" are dysfunctional strategies that can be used by adults to elicit childish or parental responses. Childish strategies shift responsibility to the "parent" while still claiming power. An adult who acts like a child gets to control what happens without being responsible for it.

(This article uses a very loose adaptation of Berne's Games People Play as a model.)

When the left shifted from a worker's movement to a youth movement because dissatisfaction was more likely to be found in the children of the middle and upper classes than among workers, protest strategies often became childish. The classic protesters were self-consciously juvenile outraging sensibilities so to force their establishment opponents to play the role of the sanctimonious parent while they reveled in being the liberated children. "Outrage" is a game that children learn to play at an early age. Some adults never stop playing it, at parties or at family reunions.

The modern campus crybully movement doesn't seek to outrage sensibilities by being provocative. Instead it's playing an even more immature childish game. The Yale protest over "offensive" Halloween costumes was the perfect example as a student screamed, "It is your job to create a place of comfort and home for the students who live in Silliman." This is the "Bad Parent" game.

Protesters, whether on campus or at #BlackLivesMatter events scream about their pain and how neglected they are. They claim to be traumatized, exhausted, in fear of their lives and unable to go about their daily business because the adults aren't taking good care of them. They're bad parents...

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2016/06/games-overgrown-political-children-play_24.html

He nails it, as always.

[Chieftain]

"Loosely adapted" equates to a laser focus in my view.  He's exactly right, and that's what's scary about this.  It means that there are plenty of people out there to whom anything goes, and I do mean anything.  YouTube, LiveLeak and other websites are full of recent videos of adults having raging temper tantrums in public, sometimes en mass.  There are people who will go absolutely bug-shit if confronted over their unreasonable behavior and will not hesitate to fight the police, sometimes several police at once.

When anything goes because the adult child is in charge means times are getting even more dangerous.