Vershire Study Group: The Fascist State of Mind

Subject: [Events-UV] Vershire Study Group

Second Monday Study Group
Church Orr House, 6946 VT Route 113, Vershire, VT 05079
6:30 p.m. Monday, August 10.
This month, we will explore how a psychologically healthy inner world can gradually become narrowed into a single-focus, aggressive way of living and relating.
In Christopher Bollas’s book Being a Character, we find the essay “The Fascist State of Mind.” Bollas examines this transformation by focusing on the inner, subjective world. He argues that before a fascist state can govern a society, a significant portion of the population must first develop an internal fascist state of mind.
For me, this is a slow read—one that requires a dictionary and often calls for stopping, asking, “What does that mean?” and retracing the steps. I have returned to the essay several times over the years. Yet, if we are willing to slow down and work through it, Bollas gives us a valuable tool for interpreting the world and discovering insights we might otherwise miss.
For example, his perspective can help us examine state legislation and voting records by asking:
Does this legislation foreclose or open the imagination?

Does it concentrate power from above?

Does it bring communities together or divide them?

Does it encourage reflection and dialogue, or demand rigid conformity?

Regardless of what public officials say, their voting records can reveal whether their decisions support the psychological and relational health of individuals and communities—or undermine it.
Our first goal will be to understand what Bollas is saying. We will then consider whether his perspective can help guide us through these difficult times, when angry and divisive groups are gathering—even here locally.
How can we understand what is happening without falling prey to the national mechanisms of fear and division? How can we protect the relational life of Vershire?
Sponsored by the Sustainability/Wellness committee of VerShare
Reading:
Breakout IV: “The Fascist State of Mind”
from Christopher Bollas’s Being a Character