Waiting, patient waiting to hear one’s name called.  One waits until one “hears….”  When one hears his/her name called by the great leader, one bows in submission, in servile obedience to whatever the great man directs one to do, to become.  One feels defined, given solidity, substantive being in response to the sound of the call.  In service to one who represents the Big Other one achieves being, an identity in a great cause.  Insecurities, troubles fade, for a while.

The technical, bookish name for this act of turning is: interpellation.*

Imagine yourself crossing a crowded city street, and you pass a police officer.  Suddenly you hear, “hey, buddy!”  I guarantee you’ll turn around as would I.  Instantly, by the response of turning, you and I become subject to the authority figure in uniform.

What did the officer detect in my bearing, my demeanor that prompts this inquiry…  Feeling of guilt before the law, — you bet!

One is defined, given a role, a place, a ideological identity is conferred upon us, one is inducted into the form-of-life represented by the great leader.  The turning is a ritual of recognition that one is a foot soldier serving one who knows what must be done.  We are transformed into subjects.

(Don’t we know that the extremely poor always do the fighting for the extremely rich?)

We act as if we are free, all the while demanding that someone tell us what to think and what to do.

I wonder if this is a apt description of the dynamic of a mass Trump rally?  Do not participants anticipate hearing their ‘name’ called, feeling affirmed by the great man, to find their place in his great movement?

Is that what we want, — what you want?

A 21st century of hubris, brutality, and mayhem on a scale never seen before…..

---

*This is what Louis Althusser called “ideological interpellation”: the ruling ideology confers a symbolic identity upon us.