Norman O. Brown: "THE CHORUS IS THE AUTHOR."

"The chorus is really the author. Their act is to repudiate responsibility; this is part of the net of lies in which they entangle the hero, their bull, their victim. This is what Freud calls their "refined hypocrisy," as they say, "not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name. The hypocrisy of the chorus makes them too an actor (hypocrites).

"The chorus identifies with the hero: he is their vicar; in whose actions they take vicarious pleasure. The hero is 'created to perform deeds which the community would like to perform but which are forbidden to it.' Their vicar also in vicarious punishment: their victim, the scapegoat, the lamb which takes away their sins; through whom they obtain vicarious redemption.

"Vicarious satisfaction: the deed is both theirs and not theirs. On this self-contradiction, this hypocrisy, this illusion, representative institutions are based. In vicarious experience there is both identification and distance. The mediator is to keep reality at a distance, to keep the multitude in remote contact with reality.

"Hobbes saw the paradigm in Exodus XX, 18-19: “And all the people saw the thundering, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when they saw it, they removed, and stood far off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die."

______________________________________________________

KOENIGSBERG'S REFLECTIONS: I've never understood this concept of the "leader" as the source or cause of events that occur in politics. This idea grows out of the belief that human beings are fundamentally stupid, and that leaders "oppress" or "brainwash" people to accept or embrace ideas that they otherwise would not embrace and accept.

HITLER ONLY BECAME HITLER BECAUSE HIS "FANS" YELLED "HEIL HITLER." Elvis Presley only became Elvis Presley because people in 1956 liked the way he shook his hips. These "leaders" became leaders because they had millions of "likes."

Misunderstanding originates, apparently, in the "liberal" belief that people are fundamentally "good" and only become bad or do bad things because "evil" leaders take hold of their minds and compel them to do evil things. Maybe human beings are not fundamentally "good."

The leader exists to fulfill the fantasies of the populace. The populace creates the leader by embracing his ideas, however bizarre they may appear to be. The leader enables the "masses" to express their hatred.

The other faulty assumption is that people are fundamentally "rational." Freud disproved this idea one-hundred-twenty years ago. People enact unconscious phantasies and desires. The belief that human decisions are based on "rational choice" has proven to be incorrect. One might even say it's an obsolete idea. The textbooks have to be rewritten.