A Response to an Obama Worshipper

Printer-friendly versionSend to friendPDF versionThe following is an email that Rabbi Philip J. Bentley wrote to Dr. Sam Vaknin. Since I became a recipient of it too, and this is the typical email I receive from Obama fans, I decided to respond to it. ____________ Shalom Mr. Vaknin [caption id="" align="alignright" width="157" caption="RABBI PHILIP J. BENTLEY"][/caption] If ever I saw narcissism it is in your posting on Obama. Such Tifla! Get over yourself! Obama works with others, even political opponents, has surrounded himself with competent advisors, and proven himself an able politician as a community activist in my home town of Chicago where you must be excellent in the arts of politics. You are simply wrong, wrong, and wrong. George W. Bush, on the other hand, is plainly a narcissist who isolated himself from everyone who disagreed with him and insisted on "following his gut" in making decisions which he did (according to him) unilaterally. Commentaries like yours make me feel that Israelis have no understanding of life in America. Your analysis tells me either you have written in ignorance of the facts or you are utterly incompetent in your field. In any case you plainly have no business commenting on our President. L'shalom, Rabbi Philip J. Bentley _______________ Esteemed Rabbi Bentley I was impressed by your unwavering conviction when you wrote to Dr. Vaknin, “You are simply wrong, wrong, and wrong.” This is a very convincing argument and just as I was about to be swept away by your certainly, I recalled Bertrand Russell who said, “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.” Do you know anything about narcissism, dear Rabbi? I assume you don’t or you would not be so certain about Obama not being a narcissist. Yours truly has authored a book on the psychology of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. In my research I studied several famous, or rather infamous narcissists to understand Muhammad. Although I am never as convinced as you are on any subject, I believe I have gained a fairly good understanding of narcissism. I suspected that Obama may be a narcissist the first time I saw him. I dismissed the guy and convinced that Americans are not so foolish to vote for an empty suit joker like this buffoon, I did not pay much attention to him. I was taken aback when I saw Obama’s rising popularity. I will never again underestimate the foolishness of the masses. I decided to write an article about him, warning Americans that this man may be a narcissist and potentially dangerous. In the course of my research I came across Dr. Vaknin’s article who had also said that Obama is either a narcissist (suffering from narcissistic personality disorder) or narcissistic, (a self serving, insensitive jerk like Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon, etc.) I have done broad studies on this subject and I believe Vaknin is probably one of the most authoritative voices on narcissism. I have quoted him extensively in my book. That was the confirmation that I was not out to lunch and my hunch was real. I wrote my first long article about Obama on September last year. That article, or rather an extract of it, went viral. It was reproduced in thousands of sites and was quoted even by Michael Savage. Savage makes a mistake attributing that article to Dr. Vaknin. Those words are mine, but they are shared mostly by Dr. Vaknin. Thanks to that article the views of Sam Vaknin about Obama became popularized. Vaknin was the first to notice Obama is a narcissist. However, since Obama took office, we have had a lot more occasions to observe this messiah of the gullibles and today there are millions who have come to the same conclusion. Joy Tiz, is also a psychologist who is about to launch her book Obamanutz on August. In this book Tiz contends that Obama suffers from severe narcissistic personality disorder to the extent that he confuses fantasy from reality. She characterizes him as nuts. The fact that a pathological narcissist, basically an affectively insane man is the president of America can spell disaster for everyone.  As a narcissist, Obama’s idea to solve the problems of the world is to charm his opponents with his personal charisma.  This is a common trait of all narcissists, from Hitler to Mussolini and from Jim Jones to Sun Miun Moon and L. Ron Hubabrd . Observe Obama and you will see that is what he does all the time.  He puts his foot in his mouth and ignorantly insults a police officer, revealing his racist and bigoted face behind the mask, and when he is caught with his pants down, he tries to charm his way out of this sticky situation by inviting the officer to have a beer in the White House. The sycophant media hails this as “thoughtfulness,” but those who know narcissism know exactly why Obama does what he does. For those of us who are somewhat familiar with this disorder, the narcissist is an open book. Obama thinks that if he ingratiates the rogue leaders of the world they will all set aside their hostility against America and become friends. Then he can shine and triumphantly prove to the world that he is a messiah, with wisdom far surpassing other leaders and thus be hailed as the ONE who ended the wars and established the Kingdom on Earth. Of course any sane person knows that these are juvenile thinkings. Since the masses of people are simply naïve, they were swayed by such demagogy and thought he really can perform miracles. Narcissists are very confident of themselves. That is the source of their charisma. The problem is that their confidence stems from their inability to separate facts from fantasy. Reality is far more complex than what this simpleton and his deluded votaries think. The enemies of America laugh at him and take advantage of his naiveté to strengthen their footholds and become more dangerous. Let me give you one example. Obama extended his olive branch to the Iranian dictators, ignoring completely the fact that these tyrants have kept the people of Iran as prisoners. He did not give a damn about thousands of Iranians who rot in jails and are systematically tortured. All he cared was to charm the enemies of America and prove to the world that he can do what no one has been able to do. Of course the enemies of America scoffed at him. The fact of the matter is that this naïve president does not realize that Iranian mullahs NEED enemies for their own survival. Since you are so sure, sure, sure that Obama is not a narcissist I believe you don’t know much about psychology. However, I am sure you must have heard of Sigmund Freud. He waas a Jew. He wrote, "It is always possible to bind together a considerable number of people in love, so long as there are other people left over to receive the manifestations of their aggressiveness" (Civilization and Its Discontents). The mullahs need enemies. It is by making the ignorant mob shout “Marg bar Amrika. Marg bar Israel” that they galvanize them. They need enemies. They need scapegoats. The rulers in Iran rejected Ahmadinejad’s choice for vice president because this guy, Mashai, had said that “Iranians want to be friends with everyone, including the Israelis”. That statement, which most likely was not really said in good faith, but maybe to impress an audience, undermined the legitimacy of the regime that is founded on the hatred of Israel and America. Only a fool thinks everyone wants peace. This is what we teach in kindergartens. But for a grown up man to believe in such fairy tale, is laughable. Obama is a fool, but he is also a narcissist. While Obama was trying to charm the hardliners in Iran, the Iranians rose to overthrow their tyrannical regime. This was an excellent opportunity for America to step in, support the opposition and overthrow the nefarious regime. But that was not part of Obama’s dream. He had set his mind to charm the mullhas and emerge and the peacemaker and the hero. If Iranians succeeded to overthrow the regime, Obama’s dreams would have been dashed. So instead of supporting the uprising he remained silent. This is just a token of the danger of having a narcissist as president. Contrary to the popular misconception, narcissists do not love themselves too much. They are extremely sick and when in the position of authority they can be dangerous. They are not there to serve anyone but to satisfy their own insatiable craving for praise. They will not move a finger if a decision does not bring them glory and recognition. That is why Obama as the Senator voted “present” 130 times. He did not want to take side in topics that did not affect him in one way or another. If something is not about him it is beneath him. A man whose only concern is fishing praise is a dangerous man in such a high position. Next time, when you get the urge to be sure, sure, and surer, please add a little doubt to your thinking. Doubts to thought, is like leaven to dough. It makes it rise. Without it your thoughts will sink. They become tough and hard to chew on. I understand why Muslim terrorists from Hamas to Hezbollah up to Ahmadinejad cheered when Obama became the president. I also understand why Chavez, Castro, Kim Jong Ill and other enemies of America rejoiced seeing Obama won the election. But one thing I do not understand is how a Jew can cheer for the enemy of Israel. This proves that a person blinded by ideology is truly a blind person. Then again, as I reflect I recall that Jews have had many traitors who have worked against the intrest of their own people.  Perhaps you need to read the story of Qinana, the young Jewish leader of Khaybar who suffered torture and death because a fellow Jew went to Muhammad and told him Qinana had hidden the twon's treasury in a ruin.  Today there are people like Noam Chomsky and your good self who love the enemy and work towards the destruction of Isreal.  By the way dear Rabbi, do you check Obama's approval index? This shows you cannot fool all the people all the time.  People are waking up, unless they are really fool.   Cheers and Shalom Ali Sina