Pseudo-existential self-struggle is staged inwardness that masks authoritarian conformity.

Evidence

The vigorous vocabulary makes one wonder about the fairness of these wrestling bouts arranged and contested by inwardness. The expressions are all taken from war, physical danger, real destruction, but they describe mere processes of reflection, which may indeed have been connected with a fatal outcome in the cases of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, whom the wrestlers are fond of quoting, but certainly not in that of their unsolicited followers, who claim to be at risk. … Their prototype is Luther, the inventor of inwardness, throwing his ink-pot at the devil, who does not exist, and already meaning it for the peasants and the Jews. Only a crippled mind needs self-hatred in order to demonstrate its intellectual essence – untruth – by the size of its biceps. — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 158

Categorization

• XREF: Resonates with Sartre’s ‘bad faith’ and with the critique of authenticity in Adorno’s Jargon of Authenticity; also echoes Lasch’s ‘culture of narcissism.’ — connects to: High authoritarians maintain inflated self-images by avoiding unpleasant truths; Authoritarian prejudice springs from ego weakness and unresolved inner conflict — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 2429; Fear of self-contradiction is the coercive engine that compels ideological conformity (+6 more)
• CANDY: The Luther ink-pot against a nonexistent devil, ‘already meaning it for the peasants and the Jews,’ is a devastating one-liner even out of context.
• SEED: The ‘rigged sword dance’ of performative intellectual seriousness is a potent lens for reviewing modern self-help-as-spiritual-struggle and curated vulnerability.

Broader Connections

• High authoritarians maintain inflated self-images by avoiding unpleasant truths #corroborates (0.80)
• High authoritarians fail to recognize authoritarian traits in themselves #corroborates (0.78)
• Authoritarian prejudice springs from ego weakness and unresolved inner conflict #qualifies (0.75) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2429
• Fear of self-contradiction is the coercive engine that compels ideological conformity #corroborates (0.72)
• Self-justification sought outside oneself collapses into perceived absurdity. #complicates (0.72)
• Alienated people may deny their own oppressive reality as self-defense #exemplifies (0.70) — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 499
• The for-itself becomes itself only by assuming its alienated being-for-others #expands (0.70) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 777