What we witnessed was a powerful regression. Everyone in the arena became more “primitive” in their emotions and actions. There was even aggression in the beating of someone who would not stand up. The words spoken by all of the rally presenters focused on sources of frustration for those in attendance:
“Food prices were high because of Jewish price-gouging. The American military was crippled by the insidious infiltration of “Socialists” and “Communists.” Russia was winning the Cold War because of this crippling impact. The God-given Gospel of Jesus Christ was being perverted by left-leaning preachers affiliated with liberal churches. These false prophets were no longer accepting the liberal truth of the Bible. Police officers were failing to enforce the law of the land because they were being monitored for “bad behavior” by soft-minded city officials.”
Most importantly, California and other endangered states were being run by corrupt politicians who were kowtowing to the moneyed liberal establishment. And you can throw in the biased liberal newspapers and the Commie movie industry. We are witnessing the destruction of a God-given American way of life!
This voice offered no thoughtful consideration of the facts. There was little understanding or empathy for people holding different beliefs or being born with a darker skin pigment. Childish fear of the dark (ambiguity, complexity, and uncertainty) was on full display that evening at the LA Sports Arena. I witnessed frustration leading to regression up close and personal. Contagion was in full, ugly bloom.
Madison Square Garden and Nuremberg
Something similar has occurred much more recently in the rallies staged at Madison Square Garden in 2024 by the MAGA folks. We also find a similar strategy operating in the 1930s. It this case the strategy was addressing frustration that led to aggression against Jews, Gypsies, and left-wing intellectuals. This strategy was manifested in the regressive power of Hitler’s rallies. These rallies made extensive use of primitive processes—such as symbols (flags, banners, and the prominent Nazi swastika) and repeated pronouncement of elementary themes.
Attention was directed to ancient Aryan history and myth (much as was done by Richard Wagner in his 19th-century operas). And the aroused emotions were old and ugly, aligned in many cases with primitive urges regarding destruction and death. Captured in the documentaries prepared by Leni Riefenstahl, the Nuremberg rallies and other events orchestrated by Hitler and his Nazi cohort exemplified powerfully and disturbingly the way in which collective frustration can lead to collective regression. Is this also a disturbing way in which Ligato is formed among people in a crowd. Is the binding of relationships sometimes created at the expense of creating, despising and acting against the best interests of the “Other” (Oshry, 2018).
Frustration and Aggression
It should be noted that Clayton Alderfer (1972) offers a much less dramatic (and nonpolitical) version of the interplay between frustration and regression. Building on the theory of motivation offered by Abraham Maslow, Alderfer proposes that the frustration of specific Maslow-based needs leads to a regression back to the gratification of lower-level needs on Maslow’s hierarchy. Applying an ERC (Existence, Relatedness, and Growth) principle to his understanding of human motivation,
Alderfer conveys a behavior pattern that is found in daily life—far away from the insanity of Nazi rallies—and (hopefully) far away from the rallies of Madison Square Garden and the LA Sports Arena. However, we should not discount what Alderfer is suggesting. The inability to meet higher-order needs (such as a sense of meaning in life and a sense of personal achievement) can certainly create conditions that lead to a primitive search for authority. These conditions can also encourage an accompanying search for something (or better yet, someone: the “Other”) to blame for the frustrating inability to meet these higher-order needs.
