Collective Narcissism

Or, How too many cooks spoiled the Lawless America stew

By NBTDT

We’ve been talking about narcissism in general like it’s a bad thing. But we are all narcissistic, narcissism is necessary to the development of a healthy ego. When we refer to someone as being narcissistic, we refer to a pathological condition, an unhealthy balance of narcissism. The exact causes of imbalance are unknown. Experts theorize that it is caused in a child, with a perfect combination of just the right genetic, social and psychological factors, by excessively doting care givers, by abusive and/or neglectful care givers or some other trauma. Simply put, it appears narcissism is a method of defense to protect a damaged ego. 

There are varying degrees between normal narcissism (which is neither good, nor bad) and the extreme end of the narcissism scale, like Hitler. In between normal and a person with NPD (narcissistic personality disorder), there are the ordinary narcissists. Ordinary narcissists may not suffer from NPD but may have some narcissistic tendencies due to persecution, abuse or injury. In an effort to satisfy NSS, some ordinary narcissists seek external validation in groups that mirror an individual’s purpose.

In his publication ‘Collective Narcissism”, Dr. Sam Vaknin asserts that purpose driven groups take on a life of their own. The longer they are together, the more persecuted, the more intense the physical and emotional experiences are of the individuals, the stronger the bonds and the history are between individuals, then “the more rigorous might an assertion of a common pathology be”.

These groups begin to function as a narcissistic entity and become the ideal-hungry followers for the mirror-hungry leader. Dr. Vaknin provides a list of criteria, of which, if 5 are met indicate a pathological level of function:

1. feel grandiose and self-important (e.g., they exaggerate the group's achievements and talents to the point of lying, demand to be recognized as superior - simply for belonging to the group and without commensurate achievement).
2. are obsessed with group fantasies of unlimited success, fame, fearsome power or omnipotence, unequalled brilliance, all-conquering ideals or political theories.
3. are firmly convinced that the group is unique and, being special, can only be understood by, should only be treated by, or associate with, other special or unique, or high-status groups (or institutions).
4. require excessive admiration, adulation, attention and affirmation - or, failing that, wish to be feared and to be notorious (narcissistic supply).
5. feel entitled. They expect unreasonable or special and favorable priority treatment. They demand automatic and full compliance with expectations. They rarely accept responsibility for their actions ("alloplastic defenses"). This often leads to anti-social behavior, cover-ups, and criminal activities on a mass scale.
6. are "interpersonally exploitative", i.e., use others to achieve their own ends. This often leads to anti-social behavior, cover-ups, and criminal activities on a mass scale.
7. are devoid of empathy. They are unable or unwilling to identify with or acknowledge the feelings and needs of other groups. This often leads to anti- social behavior, cover-ups, and criminal activities on a mass scale.
8. are constantly envious of others or believes that they feel the same about them. This often leads to anti-social behavior, cover-ups, and criminal activities on a mass scale.
9. are arrogant and sport haughty behaviors or attitudes coupled with rage when frustrated, contradicted, punished, limited, or confronted. This often leads to anti-social behavior, cover-ups, and criminal activities on a mass scale.

Lawless America was a collection of individuals and groups seeking external validation. Each with it’s own specific agenda, that is narcissistically more important than the others. In “promulgating his grand plan” to “take back our country” Bill failed to realize that groups trying to address issues like elder abuse, child custody, child abuse, family court, criminal court, civil court, mothers right’s, fathers right’s, discrimination, LE cover up, domestic abuse, etc. are not interested in a revolution to take over the country through letter writing. And, none of the purpose groups are interested in the other groups’ agendas. They want their own issues resolved and Bill promised to do it. As the needs of the groups were ignored, there was no longer a symbiotic leader-follower relationship. The groups began to exhibit behaviors similar to those on Dr. Kaknin’s criteria list above. It appears hostilities resulting from in-group and out-group aggression, aggravated by Bill’s neglect caused most of the groups to disassociate from Lawless America. In my humble opinion, Lawless America self-destructed. From the inside, out.

Susan Harbison (aka Snoozan) was right and wrong when she posted that Bill Windsor is not dangerous. The failure of Lawless America was predictable. Bill does not appear to be a danger to the general public. That may be one reason why Bill is not named by the SPLC. I sleep better at night knowing we have experts watching groups like this one, that know because of the inherent dynamic it will never get any real traction. But, some of Bill’s associates are named by the SPLC, they are still active. It’s the groups with a single purpose and narcissistic pathology we need to keep an eye on. If Susan still wants to argue that Bill is not a danger, she should check in with Wynette Boushie and the University of Montana.

Collective narcissism is not always a bad thing. It was collective narcissism through which this country was founded. Religions and patriotism are also examples of collective narcissism. Without purpose driven groups there would be no balance, no change, no progress – for the good and betterment of society we need and should not oppose or censure purpose groups with healthy narcissism.

http://www.meadowhaven.org/CollectiveNarcissism.pdf

Dangerous Leaders - By NBTDT

In past posts, Bill Windsor has been compared to Adolph Hitler.     Given Hitler’s horrific history, this appears to be an exaggerated comparison.   But, it’s important to recognize classic narcissistic traits and know how the dynamic affects a group of people so that a history such as Hitler’s is not repeated.    In fact, Hitler has been studied many times by many people for just that reason.    

In 2007 a study on Hitler’s personality was published by the psychology department at the University of Colorado.    The publication is a compilation of expert opinions formulated through various other studies and a lot of technical data I don’t begin to understand.     Technical data aside, several interesting points are made.    The experts opine that while there is evidence of mental illness, Hitler’s narcissistic personality was the major contributor in his ability to control the German population.    More than Hitler’s psychopathology, it was the social condition of the German people that allowed Hitler’s rise to power.    One expert’s opinion is that “anyone like Hitler could have accomplished the same heinous acts…”.      Hitler was only the facilitator of the holocaust; he fanned the flames of nationalism that “contained the seeds of genocide from centuries of anti-Semitism”.  

The publication quotes a study by John D Mayer (1993) in which Mayer makes a proposal for recognition of a dangerous leader disorder based on three major behavior categories: indifference, intolerance and grandiosity.    Mayer noted “that dangerous leaders typically have apologists who discount their destructive methods in favor of viewing their behavior as consonant with “laudable” goals.”    While Mayer’s study was relative to extreme behavior in preventing international incidents and a future holocaust, we see some of these behaviors in the leader of Lawless America:

Indifference towards peoples suffering:  these traits were exemplified for us in the post “The eyes and lies of Bill Windsor, the narcissist” with the behaviors that are listed under “Difficulty with empathy”, “Using other people without considering the cost of doing so” and “Inability to view the world from the perspective of other people”.

Intolerance of criticism: we’ve seen many examples of Bill’s inability to reconcile criticism, attack those who criticize him, attacks on the friends of his critics, his inability to admit when he is in error, his rage when he is challenged and the most glaring evidence of this behavior is being declared a “vexatious litigant”.  

Grandiosity, manifested by seeing oneself as a “uniter” of people, identification with religion/nationalism and promulgating a grand plan:  Bill Windsor, united victims in all 50 states, designed and implemented TWO grand plans, Lawless America Association and Lawless America the Movie, to ‘take our country back’. 

Dangerous leaders typically have apologists: comments and posts on Bill’s web sites are typically written by supporters who minimize, excuse, defend and encourage behaviors that reflect indifference and intolerance as the grand plans are executed.    As the wheels have come off the Lawless America wagon one by one and stalking games have taken precedence, the supporters continue to applaud Bill’s efforts and quietly accept the change in agenda without any apparent awareness that the activity, if not illegal, is morally wrong. 

As Ninja points out in her post, narcissists need a supply.    Just as Hitler did, Windsor found a supply within a group that has an inflated view of itself and goals.   It operates as a narcissistic entity.    According to a 2009 study “Collective Narcissism and it’s Social Consequences”, collective is an alternate form of narcissism where most individual traits apply but the word ‘group’ can be substituted for ‘self’.     A sub concept, The charismatic leader-follower relationship, theorized by Jerrold post appears to define Hitler and Windsor.   Post theorizes that there are two types of narcissists within this group, the mirror-hungry narcissist leader and the ideal-hungry narcissist followers.    Post suggests that the relationship is symbiotic as supply needs are met for both narcissistic types.   The mirror-hungry leader receives the admiration he needs and his charisma provides the followers with the purpose needed by their ideal-hungry narcissism.    

This is where the comparison to Hitler ends.   Hitler’s collective narcissism had single purpose, national and Arian superiority.    In my opinion, if there had been as many different ideals in the followers of Hitler as there were in Lawless America, Hitler’s army may not have made it across the border into Poland.  

http://www.uccs.edu/~faculty/fcoolidg/Hitler%20PDF%20unproof.pdf

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-personality-analyst/200910/libel-in-fact-all-its-flaws-was-the-poll-psychiatrists-good-idea

https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/4252/1/Golec_collectivenarcissism.pdf

The Sting

I have really enjoyed our guest writers and their contributions so far and I can't wait for the others. And thanks to OReader for setting this all up.

Obviously I need to jump in real quick so we can recap the infamous "sting" that Bill performed yesterday on the campus of the University of Montana.  Out of all the crazy claims he makes against his "haters", there is one particular area of vulnerability that Sean Boushie had, and that is in his employment through the government at the U of M.  What he does on government time is open to the public just like any other government official.  Up until this point, Boushie has been able to slide by based solely on the utter and complete incompetence of Bill.  But yesterday, Bill may have finally barked up the right tree (even though he is a skunk).

Windsor went to the extraordinary length of fabricating, yes he Bill fabricated something, a made up announcement of something "big" involving Sean.  He then goes to the parking lot of the building that he says Sean works at, turns on his camera and starts filming the truck, he says, belongs to Sean.  Bill thinks that this is proof that Sean is in the building and at work.  So he films for almost an hour of dead air time as he films lots of people whom he doesn't have consent from, and then he says he got his big hit....an email response from Sean.  Bill then calls the UM PD....they take his report and give him the "don't call us, we will call you" treatment.  As time goes by and it becomes clear to bill that they are not coming, he then calls the Missoula PD who quickly patch him back to the UM PD once he tells them where he is.  The UM PD sends an car out there to try and shut him up and as they roll up they see a crazy old man out filming the building.

Now we finally have an interesting moment...and guess what....Bill doesn't film and we can barely hear what happens.  But from what you can hear, its clear that the officer asked Bill what he was doing.  Windsor whined about all the things he says Sean did to him.  Bill goes on and on about how he fears for his life and how he must wear the bullet proof vest.  The officer then asks the logical question of why would anyone who fears someone that much actually go to that person's place of employment and start filming their vehicle? Windsor then lies directly to the officer's face and says that Boushie cost him his 42 year marriage and he is dead set on seeing him arrested.  Bill then has to bring up his new favorite topic of glory holes and the officer quickly shuts the creepy sexual deviant with a camera down.

The UM PD tells Bill that they may not have jurisdiction (possibly assuming that Sean might have emailed it from his personal phone device) but Bill....knowing their job better than they, points out that they are wrong. In the end, they tell him they wont be making any arrests today and that they will take his information and look in to it.  This, of course, equals a huge victory for Bill and he celebrated with his "full strength" pepsi when he got back to the hotel.  He shouted out from the rooftops to his 15 remaining followers that they had finally taken their country back.  This was it, the culmination of all those miles, hours, pie, rv's, lemmings, talkshoe shows, congressional testimonies, his entire family and home.....it all ends with this.  He called the police, and they responded and took his report.  What a victory.

I think, in the end, this will not result in any kind of criminal charges.  But Sean could be in trouble with his employer.  At some point this becomes an annoyance to them and they may feel its best to extricate the University from this school yard pissing match.

Is it all just Grandiose Delusions of a Narcissist Man Named William M Windsor?

Today's lesson comes to you from the letter N. 

Thanks, Ninja!

A true Narcissist needs to feed their narcissistic tendencies. It's been called, “Narcissistic Supply Sources” or “NSS's.” They look for people to give them compliments, or accolades by whatever means necessary. They crave the attention, it feeds them, propels them, and their constant need for this attention is relentless.

Charlotte X “Our prayers are with you.”

Janet X “We love you Bill...”

William X “GOD BLESS YOU BILL.

Milia X “Bill you are great, sending my love to you.”

But what happens when this supply is cut off? They are propelled into a narcissistic crisis. The need to feed becomes much like an addict looking for a fix, resulting in a the Grandiosity Gap between the fantasies of the Narcissist and reality. This triggers defensive actions, so they can stabilize themselves, with the least amount of emotional liability. He must protect his ego.

”Bill Windsor has now lost almost everything.”

”According to one report, there may have been a plot to have me killed.”

”My family gave me an ultimatum, Stop your efforts with Lawless America or lose your family. I told them I would not allow my family to tell me what I can and can not choose to do.”

One action is to flee the scene of his failures, and thus create an alibi for potential future failures to reduce his egotistic pain. He must transform his life into some magnificent work of art. The narcissist is much like an actor, who's creation is his life. He will adapt to any scene, as long as he has an audience, and he can change and adapt to any audience as necessary to maintain NSS's. The world is a stage to the Narcissist.

”I am mentally making plans to relocate away from Georgia...”

”When I left Georgia two weeks ago, I ceased to be a resident. I am relocating to Texas. Central North Texan to be precise.”

”I am now officially a resident of South Dakota.”

They don't like to work with others because it sets the stage for failure, pain, abandonment and self destruction. To a Narcissist it's really all about self-preservation tactics. They believe they are so unique, and their uniqueness is enough to establish their position. They believe they are entitled to special treatment, in every area of life, without actually creating or achieving anything.

”I am doing this essentially all by myself. No one is traveling with me.”

A partial list of roles or characteristics would include

• Crook, dangerous, unpredictable, verbally violent, deterring;
• Businessman, rich, well connected, powerful;
• Genius, innovator, encyclopaedic;
• Revolutionary, reformer, non-conformist, rebellious;
• Asexual, monkish, pervert;
• Author, intellectual, bohemian, artist;
• Family man, father, sage, experienced, stable, and authoritative;
• Charming, childish, honest, open, innocent, vulnerable, requires assistance and support.
  
  

Bill Windsor makes plans in case he is killed or disappears while in Montana.

William M Windsor targeted for assassination by U.S. Government

William M Windsor is a reasonably normal 63-year-old husband, father and grandfather.

William Michael Windsor is an American with a business and publishing background. He is chairman and chief executive officer of “The Windsor Companies”.

Lawless America Revolution show with William M Windsor.”

Narcissists deceive everyone around them in more ways than one. It's because they know how to adapt, and use the people around them for their 'NSS feedings.' If they don't get what they need, they create a new stage.

”I Bill Windsor, write this online publication, and I am producing a documentary film and pilot for a proposted weekely t.v. series...I am a card carrying member of the press. I have been a magazine publisher for most of my career. I began my media work in high school. I have been a radio and TV announcer. I have been a radio news reporter. I formerly hosted a weekly TV news show. For the last several years, I have published online and I have produced online radio and TV shows..."

”William M Windsor candidate for Chief Magistrate Judge of Cobb County Georgia, filed criminal charges against 25 Judges who are members of the Judicial Counsel of Georgia.”

The loss of control of their Grandiosity gap turns everything they used to attract the NSS's, against them. What once was projected as benign power, is transformed into rage and humiliation directed at others or groups. What once was wealth, is transformed into overspending, frivolous ventures, or just carelessness. Publicity is sought through lies and fantasies. The Narcissist reacts in numerous ways to the NSS's which no longer feed the need. They are no longer functional to him. To help change this downward spiral he has to use his “Grandiosity Compensation.” It is a vicious cycle in trying to adjust the two. The need is for a more Grandiose Fantasy to lure in new NSS's.

”Bill Windsor files criminal charges against 37 cyberstalkers”.

”William M Windsor of Lawless America has requested correction and retractions to defamation, libel and slander.”

”Justice of the Peace Jim Bailey is corrupt and a criminal”

"Judge Duffy is the most responsible for my failed marriage"

To achieve the superiority fill of the narcissist, he must degrade the NSS and belittle them. They are the polar opposite as he see's himself. This is the way he gains and maintains superiority. Once the NSS's turn against him and rebel against their prescribed role, the narcissist sees this as the ultimate resistance to his superiority. The narcissist will then move on to find other NSS's to feed his need, to maintain his false reality of superiority, greatness, and uniqueness. Any resistors, will be deemed useless, in order to pacify the narcissist's failure for these “objects” and his once necessary use for them. All people are deemed “Objects” to the narcissist, and expendable when rendered combative to his ego. Grandiosity Compensation ensues.

”I thrive on project such as the one right here.”

”And to all the slimeballs out there...I advise them to remember that you should never get in a fight with someone who has nothing to lose. I now longer have anything to lose. So I will go after each and every one of the crooks and sickos with everything I've got. I would hate to lose my family and have little to show for it in the end.”

Standard Cease, Desist (and sometimes) Abate orders are issued here, to anyone and everyone who has ever crossed the path of this seemingly narcissistic man, and refused to placate him or feed his sickness.

The eyes and lies of Bill Windsor, the narcissist

Last week, while researching something I was going to write about Bill, I found a series of essays regarding narcissism that completely floored me. There was article after article that described nearly every aspect of Bill's personality. I shared the website with several people, and we all agreed that there were soo many interesting facets. Some of the articles were very dry and academic in tone, so as a group we set out to highlight some of the best points in our reading. The plan is to give Gingersnap the week off and let us delve into these topics from several different perspectives. 

This first post is from a writer who prefers to remain anonymous rather than face possible retaliation from Windsor. 

-OReader

The eyes of a narcissist who boasts about being part of a special 2% class of people
(poorly photoshopped by the narcissist himself)

Narcissists typically display most, and sometimes all, of the following traits and signs:

• An obvious self-focus in interpersonal exchanges

During interpersonal communication there is message sending and message receiving. This can be conducted using both direct and indirect methods. Successful interpersonal communication is when the message senders and the message receivers understand the message. Bill Windsor’s communication is generally one-sided, and in his world, cannot be disputed. He spouts out whatever message he decides upon, no matter how outrageous. He does NOT want anyone to return a comment unless they 100% agree with him. If he gets any “Atta boys”, he gets as giddy as a child, but if anyone voices even mild disagreement with him, Bill Windsor generally attacks them, adds them to his growing list of people he falsely accuses of stalking him, files suit against them, then sets out to stalk them online and in person--often driving thousands of miles and spending thousands of dollars to do so. 

• Problems in sustaining satisfying relationships

Bill Windsor appears to have (perhaps zero) real-life friends. When he refers to “friends”, he is generally referring to someone he met online, yet has barely communicated with—or, occasionally, he refers to some friend he hasn’t seen in years, or decades, who he claims to have worked with during one of his many other failed business ventures. Additionally, his wife of 42-years has divorced him, he is prohibited from any and all contact with his grandchildren, and he is even prohibited from speaking about his now-ex family members in ANY medium--but he does it anyway, and often.

• A lack of psychological awareness

Bill Windsor appears to lack even the pretense of an aim beyond conscious desire. He lives in the grip of symbolic physical urges, and is absent of the capacity for self-examination, self-observation and introspection. Absent too is his ability to recognize the links between current problems within himself and with others.

• Difficulty with empathy

Bill Windsor has demonstrated this hundreds if not thousands of times. Many people have begged him for help in emails, on his facebook walls, during his online “radio shows”, and he either completely ignores them, or, when he can’t get away with ignoring them, he tells them that ‘now is not the time to talk about their personal stories’. In other words, if it isn’t about HIM, whether it be attention or empathy for his self-manufactured problems, he could not care a less.

• Problems distinguishing the self from others

Bill Windor often refers to himself in first-person and third-person in the same short post—as well as sometimes adding “Lawless America” as if it something other than a name for a now miserably failing “movement” he created. Here is a recent example from a post on one of his hate.com sites:

“This sick bastard, Xxxx Xxxxxxx, continues to cyberstalk and harass Bill Windsor.  Here’s his latest email.  I think this is about five from him in the last 24 hours.  he is impersonating me in his email name.” 

• Hypersensitivity to any insults, real or imagined

The most simple question or comment made in response to Bill Windsor, or about him, is met with righteous self defense, and when that doesn’t satisfy him, he does things like search the internet for photos of those who he falsely claims to be stalking him, and, for example, when finding a photo of one of them on a hunting trip, Bill Windsor then shouts from virtual rooftops that his stalker is a “killer”, and is loaded with “killing tools”, and intends to use them to kill Bill Windsor.

• Haughty body language

One example of many of Bill Windsor exhibiting this behavior can be found here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ68Za_LEGo. Bill Windsor is pompous and self-absorbed, and it shows in everything he does. 

• Flattery towards people who admire and affirm them (narcissistic supply)

The few people who still “follow” Bill Windsor, and who offer praise and kudos to him, are met with flattering responses from him, where he attempts to reel them in even further into his charade. He needs people to praise him, to worship him, as much as he needs oxygen.

• Detesting those who do not admire them (narcissistic abuse)

He not only detests people who don’t admire him, but he so detests them that he’ll go to great lengths to try to exact revenge on them by falsely accusing them of wanting to (and trying to) kill him, stalk him, ruin him, take away his family, etc.

• Using other people without considering the cost of doing so

How many people has Bill Windsor gathered as “followers”, only to discard them when he deems them non-valuable to his self-serving mission? How many has he recruited as volunteers? He cares not about them, or the problems they have faced which ultimately led them to him--and he certainly doesn’t care what happens to them after he discards them.

• Pretending to be more important than they really are/bragging and exaggerating their achievements

Much of Bill Windsor’s auto-biography has been debunked as fiction on this blog and elsewhere. He is NOT the “Grandfather” of the apparel-printing industry. He did NOT publish a book. He has NOT managed large companies. He appears to have lost every lawsuit he filed or had filed against him which made it to the courts (dozens of them). He failed at two runs for elected office. His self-proclaimed “founding” of “The Revolutionary Party” was a complete failure. His ‘founding’ of the cult-like group he calls Lawless America has bombed. And as of recent, Bill Windsor has become obsessed with his own green eyes, touting that it makes him special, as he’s a member of a 2% class. Yet Bill Windsor demands to be recognized as superior and special.

• Claiming to be an "expert" at many things

Bill Windsor professes to be an expert at Judicial Corruption, Grand Juries, Journalism, Movie Production, and so much more. He is not, by any stretch of the imagination an expert at anything—except, unfortunately, avoiding being punished for the harm he intentionally causes others.

• Inability to view the world from the perspective of other people

It is estimated that 1-6% of the general population suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Thankfully that leaves 94-99% of the general population living in somewhat harmony, with joy, hope, love and promise in their lives, and Bill? Well, he has a jeep, some electronics, a hidden bank-roll, and a growing list of people he wants to destroy.