Lasch

[Rita Winston]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
> 
> Oy vey.  Does Lasch think =everything= is narcissistic?  He's been
> on my "must read" list for years now, but this snippet is a major 
> turnoff.

I read that one book by Lasch in 1981. It was an old book even then 
(I didn't check the copyright date, but it referred to black people 
as Negroes). Perhaps he later wrote books that were less loathsome, 
because just about no one whom I have told about this book as ever 
believed me. Besides condemning friendship based on liking and/or 
common interests as narcissism, he also condemned civil rights and 
the outlawing of wife-beating as narcissism. The specific context of 
the latter was an explanation that being more concerned with one's  
own legitimate rights than with maintaining the stability of the 
social order is narcissistic. Thus, while obviously educated and 
well-behaved Negroes have a right to apply for jobs for which they 
have the qualifications, their attempts to outlaw the "Whites Only" 
notices on the Help Wanted ads is a threat to the stability of 
society, for which non-narcissistic people would be willing to 
sacrifice their own interests. The same argument about adult women's 
right not to be beaten, but seeking to enforce that right would 
destroy the nature of marriage and therefore all social order.

Remember this was 1981 when I was reading it, not 
1950-something. My reaction to the above blatant nonsense was to 
wonder whether it might be a little NARCISSISTIC for a White Male to 
explain that White Males have the unpleasant DUTY of lording over and 
exploiting all non-whites and females in order to keep society from 
ever changing.