Monday, October 18, 2010

Either/Or #6

Sixes have the most obvious form of polarization: they polarize against themselves. That's why we have phobic and counterphobic style Sixes.
This often shows up in an inability to make decisions. They will second-guess themselves and picture what can go wrong; then either paralyze themselves or take precipitous action if they are unhealthy.

H. W. Bush is a public example we all know. A Six, he was so loyal and unswerving in his devotion to the Reagan doctrine that for years he did nothing. Writers commonly referred to "The Reagan-Bush" administration. Gov't is the problem, went the mantra, so he was fairly inactive. Then his popularity fell to 19% so he HAD to do something. So he did what unhealthy sixes do - he projected. He projected all the evil of the world onto Saddam Hussein. Then he did what healthy Sixes do: he got the community together - in this case other nations. He bribed, threatened and cajoled them to attack Hussein with the US. He went from phobic paralysis to counterphobic violence.

No comments:

Post a Comment