Lipton’s Journal/January 31, 1955/360

From Project Mailer

Which gives an insight into the power-mad man. He is generally all S or some warping or new mutation of S with the most intense H beneath. All through his being he feels his difference, but he thinks conventionally, believes conventionally. So he can express his H only by being superior to everyone else, by dominating everyone else, by being right about everything. His drive to power is the homeostasis of his soul (homeostasis being understood again as the most effective compromise of H vs. S). Which would explain why power-mad men court disaster. They have to. They can never retreat.

Which is why [Sen. Joseph] McCarthy went down although he was given every opportunity to compromise—indeed they finally had to squash him legislatively because they had become terrified of him—unlike other legislators he was not a social being—also true of all power-mad men. He was an animal. (Which is what man becomes when his H—which is his greatness is expressed completely in S). But that also accounts for why he had his strength, may have it again, and why so many people including myself had a sneaking attraction toward him, not because of his ideas, but because of his person. The same is true for Hitler and the Germans, and the plan of the Junker generals to assassinate Hitler. How horrible is H when it appears on the surface as total S.