The RAPO Game in Arbeiderpartiet (AP) has elevated to internal cleansing in the central leadership. Therefore, this 3rd blog is not the final in this series, but will be followed up with more scrutinizing of the Games. This blog set focus on the term ‘organisational dysfunctionality’ in order to diagnose the internal crisis and suggest some solutions. Still, in general, any Game is based on secret motives and denials of realities. Therefore, any solution for the workers’ party is to end this phase of mass-psychotic denials and move on by re-realizing its true nature and needs. In brief, this RAPO Game is merely another periodic round of the 100 years old power-struggles to do a coup (CdE) for the workers’ oligarchs. Since it is in any Games’ nature to hide the real Motives and Moves, the Metoo campaign was merely a convenient mean to ignite another internal coup in AP. (UU 2018.jan.19)
The party’s existentially dilemma is that it cannot and will not heal itself properly from its own mass-psychoses. AP has a 100 year of history that proves the collective mental obsession. The traditional method, when a syndrome of crisis climaxes, is to do a Jante Game and sacrifice one individual by excessive Kompromat to let all the other members go free from suspicions. The mass-psychosis were initiated and maintained by collective control of the press, as described in the 21 conditions to the 3rd International. However, those coldwar autocratic powers are now democratized - and those 100 years of mass-psychosis collides with the public perceptions of this century. The accumulated traumas are too massive to suppress and is about to climax in yet another CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder). This is a classic symptom for dysfunctional organisations, which is about to be analyzed in this blog series about Arbeiderpartiet (AP). First, some theory, then some observations and finally some conclusions.
The theory of ‘dysfunctionality’ was talked through in UU 2017.sept.22. In order to escalated the term ’dysfunctional’, from family organizations to larger organizations, - the term ’child’ or ’family member’ are replaced with (organisational) ‘member’, and the terms ’adults’ and ’parents’ are replaced with ‘leader’. Thereby, the following descriptions apply for dysfunctional organisation of any size.
- ”A dysfunctional organisation is an organisation in which conflict, misbehavior, and often member-neglect or -abuse on the part of individual leaders occur continually and regularly, leading other members to accommodate such actions. Members sometimes grow up in such organisations with the understanding that such an arrangement is normal. Dysfunctional organisations are primarily a result of co-dependent leaders, and may also be affected by addictions, such as substance abuse (e.g., alcohol or drugs), or sometimes an untreated mass-psychosis and mass-neurosis (mental illness). Dysfunctional leaders may emulate or over-correct from their own dysfunctional leader. In some cases, ‘immature’ leaders will allow the dominant leadership to abuse their members.”
- ”Some features are common to most dysfunctional organisations: 1) Lack of empathy, understanding, and sensitivity towards certain members, while expressing extreme empathy or appeasement towards one or more members who have real or perceived ’special needs’. 2) Denial (refusal to acknowledge abusive behavior, possibly believing that the situation is normal or even beneficial; also, known as the "elephant in the room."). 3) Inadequate or missing boundaries for its Self (Ego-state) (e.g. tolerating inappropriate treatment from others, failing to express what is acceptable and unacceptable treatment, tolerance of physical, emotional or sexual abuse.) 4) Disrespect of others' boundaries (e.g. physical contact that other member dislikes; breaking important promises without just cause; purposefully violating a boundary another authority has expressed). 5) Extremes in conflict (either too much fighting or insufficient peaceful arguing between members). 6) Unequal or unfair treatment of one or more member due to their birth order, gender, age, organisational role, abilities, race, caste, etc. (may include frequent appeasement of member at the expense of others, or an uneven/inconsistent enforcement of rules).”
- ”Though not universal, the following features are typical of dysfunctional organisations; Abnormally high levels of jealousy or other controlling behaviors: 1) Conflict influenced by organizational status: Between separated leaders, usually related to, or arising from the breakup. 2) Conflict between leaders who remain dependent, often for the perceived ’sake’ of the members, but whose division would in fact remove a detrimental influence on those members. 3) Leader who wish to leave, but cannot due to financial, societal (including religious), or legal reasons. 4) Members afraid to talk (within or outside the organisation) about what is happening at offices, or are otherwise fearful of their organisation. 5) Abnormal sexual behavior such as adultery, promiscuity, or incest. 6) Lack of time spent together, especially in recreational activities and social events ("We never do anything as an organisation"). 7) Organisational members who disown each other, or refuse to be seen together in public.”
- ”The list of unhealthy leadership signs which could lead to a organisations becoming dysfunctional is: Unrealistic expectations, ridicule, Conditional love, Disrespect, Emotional intolerance, isolation, stifled speech, denial of an ’inner life’, being under- or over-protective, apathy, belittling, shame, bitterness, hypocrisy, unforgiving, demonization, unbalance criticism, double standards, the absentee authority, unfulfilled projects, unrightfully redistribution, gender prejudice, sexual imbalance, emocratic policies, scapegoating, ’tunnel visioning’, unbalance delegations, hinder mature participations, an ’know-it-all’ attitude, forced participation against abilities, scrooge authority, heredity blaming, etc.” (ref. Wikipedia)
- The loss of collective mass-psychosis can be shocking. When in shock, there are several stages to go through in order to heal. “Based on theories found in Wikipedia, the merged stages are here defined as: denial; acceptance and hope; grief and anger; diagnosis and conclusion; bargaining and settlements; treatment, healing and post-traumatic care. There are different kinds of denials too, like; denials of responsibility; denials of impact; denials of cycle; denials of awareness; and denial of denial.” (UU 2017.sept.22)
The AP party shows all the listed symptoms and uses all the 5 kinds of denials. The systems of denying have become necessary for survival with 100 years of self-righteous ethics towards own misdeeds. That is like mafia ethics, where any involvement in own criminal misdeeds are denied to protect the organisation of ‘untouchables’. The foundation to such cultures are certainly the bondage to the 3rd International’s 21 condition, - that was implemented and supervised by the former godfather Stalin. (UU 2017.sept.01)
The press writes that there are 6 reasons for the present crisis in Arbeiderpartiet:
- The failed parliamentary election in 2017 when AP failed to regain Governmental power.
- The distorted evaluation of the real reasons why the election failed.
- Rivalries between the party Headquarters and Parliamentary group when HQ replaced some PMs.
- The Metoo campaign that uncovered sexual cold cases in the party and its youth organisation (AUF).
- The power of the dismissed deputy leader’s faction where AP, LO, AUF unites for traditional goals.
- The loss of popularity that reduced AP to the second largest party and their loss of political dominance.
Still, the press has proven itself as a subjective part in this RAPO Game. Also, these 6 reasons are merely symptoms of a trend, when the denials of the dysfunctionalities became open for all to see.
Besides, there are other aspects to this RAPO Game that should not be covered up and denied.
- The Game overshadowed the real extraordinary regime shift in AP - after the governmental building was blown up and the massacre of the youth organisation (AUF) in 2011.July.22.
- The reported ‘unwanted sexual behavior’ were old cold-cases that were re-activated, coordinated and exposed as means in the power-struggle in the central leadership.
- The sexual abusive culture in the party is as old as the bondage cultures of peasants and worker – 100 years before. Collectively, they all know, they all cover it up and they all will rather play RAPO Games than do morally, ethical and legally right.
- The culture’s main icon is an angry fist, which symbolized aggressive use of physical violence to get power. However, that includes the psychosocial violence as in the JANTE Games. According to books like ‘Basketak’ and ‘Maktkamp’, there is ‘no mercy’ for the sacrificed ‘loser’, - which the responses to the fallen deputy’s sick leave clearly shows.
- All the prior general secretaries in AP categorically deny that there have been any reports of sexual abuses in the party in their time at office, - despite the high number of serious accusations. This indicates that the culture of denials dominates, - also for any kinds of criminal activities – not merely sex crimes.
The RAPO Game is not about Metoo support to any victim, but about 3rd degree organizational rivalries. There are many cover-ups in these revenges of factions. Here are some reflections.
- The present party leader is a shipping oligarch without relation to the workers’ collective culture. It is unclear why the culture accepted such an outsider to shortcut the traditional internal recruitment in order to replace the former PM Stoltenberg.
- The remaining central leadership had no legal or legitimate ground to remove all the roles from the deputy. He was forced to resign, probably by far more serious accusations than the RAPO charges implies. The whole regional faction, as well as the extraordinary GA, seems to be overruled and silenced.
- The winning deputy publicly announced that the sexual accusations deeply moved her as a lawyer, which implied that there were criminal acts involved. Yet, the police are not engaged despite the stated suspicions. If there is knowledge of criminal acts, there are criminal passitivities not to report to the police. If there are no criminal acts, the public announcement was certainly a planned Move in the RAPO Game, in order to illegitimately Gain power on others behalf.
- The cleansing in the leadership leaves a duo of a male oligarch and a young Muslim woman in power after the 2 rivaling men were forced to resign. This new regime deviates so much with the workers’ culture and tradition that it cannot last. However, it is unclear what this temporary regime is intended to pave the way for.
There is no final conclusion or anti-thesis to this RAPO Game, - yet. However, Arbeiderpartiet, its members and the rest of the LEJD (Legal, Executive, Juridical and Democratic powers) should take diagnoses of AP’s dysfunctionalities very seriously, - even if this analysis might be rejected. In any case, the first step is to stop the immature denials and start realizing the true condition. Any denial of that will proof of the actual dysfunctional denial. If so, there might not be any remedy at all, since that phase of denial has lasted a hundred years – from the party’s very beginning. The recent crises show how experienced the organisation is in covering their murky realities by denials of denials and by picking one single scapegoat to cover for all the others involved. (Nevertheless, no wonder that such an individual self-sacrifice became the collective contra-response to the collective punishment.)
The remaining leadership is definitely not willing to move Arbeiderpartiet from denial to realization. That would require that they admit their RAPO and LYAHF Games for personal power ambitions. Therefore, the higher authority, the Annual General Assembly need to react accordingly to preserve its true self – its real Ego over some alter Ego.
Links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysfunctional_family
http://www.ericberne.com/games-people-play/rapo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_Too_(hashtag)#Criticism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-one_Conditions
https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janteloven
https://www.aftenposten.no/norge/politikk/i/P3yKy0/Seks-grunner-til-at-krisen-i-Arbeiderpartiet-vil-vare-en-stund
https://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/giske-brenner-broer-til-store-og-resten-av-ap-ledelsen/69379560
https://www.an.no/debatt/politikk/giske/giske-saken-er-nok-et-tegn-pa-aps-store-problemer-med-a-lese-egen-samtid/o/5-4-663066
Music
The band Saga was previously presented in UU 2013.juni.14 and is presented closer in this weeks Extra UU. In brief, Saga are a Canadian rock band that have been awarded gold and platinum albums worldwide and have sold more than 8 million albums. A 5th album was released in late 1983 and became another success. The single entitled ‘Scratching the Surface’ from the album Heads or Tales became particularly popular in Canada, peaking at No. 45.
The association to this blog is that the RAPO Game merely scratched the surface of the ice berg of the culture of the workers’ party. The iceberg seems to face the same faith as the rest of the polar icebergs though.
Saga - Scratching the surface 1984 (live studio)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzUNJYbvrq8
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/saga/scratchingthesurface.html
“Over the course of a career that's spanned five decades, Saga have established themselves as one of Canada's most successful progressive rock bands, and have found a loyal, international audience for their ambitious music.“ “Jim Crichton and Welsh-born vocalist Michael Sadler have been the principal songwriters for Saga. Ian Crichton is the band's guitarist; apart from his work with Saga, he has recorded several solo albums as well as sessions with Asia. Saga has had numerous line-up changes throughout their career. Currently, Crichton, as well as his brother Jim, the band's bassist, are the only two original members who have appeared on every album. Lead singer Michael Sadler has appeared on every release by the band apart from their 2008 album The Human Condition, in which he was replaced by Rob Moratti. Though not present on the group's first two albums, current keyboardist Jim Gilmour has been with the band since 1979, making his debut on the album Silent Knight. He departed from the band in 1986, returned later in 1992, and has remained in the group since then. Saga have been awarded gold and platinum albums worldwide and have sold more than 8 million albums.” (Allmusic and Wikipedia)
Saga - Full Concert - Live in Bonn 2002 (HQ)
https://youtu.be/CWqTS_qcM4Y?t=1m