Scripts of leftists/liberals: utopianism, statism, and worship of big government

 Below is a Transactional Analysis (TA)  of how some liberal/left scripts can be organized around utopianism, statism, and worship of big government, and can be framed as possible cultural “scripts” rather than personal diagnoses, This is a conceptual mapping using TA’s language of ego states (Parent–Adult–Child), injunctions, drivers, games, rackets, life positions, time-structuring, script matrix/apparatus, and payoffs—focusing on patterns (not individuals)  [1]

What “script” means here

• In TA, a script is an early-formed life plan with roles, permissions, prohibitions, favorite feelings, games, payoffs, and a thesis/antithesis that plays out across time; political subcultures can transmit such scripts via family culture, schooling, peer groups, and media. [2]

Script apparatus: thesis, antithesis, synthesis

• Thesis: a perfectible society (Utopia) that promises safety, fairness, and universal care. Antithesis: the present reality is unjust/harmful. Synthesis: expanded state action as the preferred Rescuer to bridge the gap. This positions “big government” as the script’s canonical tool and moral center. [4]
• Script signals include slogans and symbols that cue hope, moral urgency, and a rescue narrative; the signals direct energy toward public policy as the primary solution space. [3]

Ego-state dynamics (P-A-C) mapped onto the ideology

• Parent: Nurturing Parent themes emphasize care, inclusion, and protection of Victims; Critical Parent themes condemn perceived Persecutors and frame the State as the proper enforcer of norms. [1]
• Adult: often tasked with supplying data and technocratic justifications for more programs; when overshadowed by Parent imperatives, Adult becomes instrumentalized to rationalize preferred conclusions. [6]
• Child: Free Child hopes and moral fervor fuel utopian aspiration; Adapted Child may carry guilt/shame narratives that are relieved by activism and redistribution, creating motivational “rackets” (reliable but restrictive feeling patterns). [5]

Permissions, prohibitions, and provocations (injunctions/counterscripts)

• Common parental precepts and permissions: “Be caring,” “Be fair,” “Be responsible for others,” “You can rescue through policy,” which authorize identification with the State-as-Rescuer. [2]
• Common injunctions/prohibitions (as critics frame them): “Don’t be selfish,” “Don’t separate,” “Don’t question the moral arc,” “Don’t trust markets,” which can constrain Adult testing and favor predetermined remedies. [3]
• Counterscripts: “If I fight for bigger programs, I’m OK,” or “If we tax/regulate more, people will be safe,” functioning as moral self-stabilizers. [4]
• Sweatshirts (front/back): Front might broadcast virtue (“I care”), while the back implies a demand or debt (“So you must pay/comply”), signaling the expected relational contract with others through government. [1]

Games, Drama Triangle, and payoffs

• Drama Triangle: State cast as Rescuer, marginalized groups as Victims, capitalists/traditionalists as Persecutors; policy debates become role-stabilizing transactions rather than Adult-to-Adult problem solving. [6]
• Common game formulas (as described by critics): “Now I’ve Got You, You SOB” toward ideological opponents; “If It Weren’t For You” toward market constraints; “Why Don’t You—Yes, But” when proposed non-state solutions surface. Each yields a payoff of moral victory, indignation, or relief from guilt. [5]
• Gallows transactions and gallows laughs can appear when failures are reframed as proofs of deeper systemic evil, justifying further expansion of state power rather than Adult course correction. [4]

Time structuring and momentum

• Activism provides rituals (marches, online mobilization), pastimes (policy talk), and goal time organized around bills, budgets, and elections; clock time frustrations can produce “afterburn” (lingering affect) and “reach-back” (historical grievances) that re-energize the script. [3]
• Imprinting and silent influences from family culture, schooling, and peer groups normalize the State-as-parent metaphor early; “odorless” cultural cues and prestige hierarchies reinforce the script without explicit instruction. [6]

Rackets, trading stamps, and favorite feelings

• Favorite feelings often include righteous anger, moral elevation, empathic sorrow, and relief through collective action; rackets consolidate these feelings into predictable patterns. [2]
• Trading stamps accumulate slights/injustices until a cathartic “cash-in” moment (e.g., a legislative win or public shaming), delivering the payoff of vindication or moral cleansing. [1]

OK positions, illusions, and outcomes

• A common OK-Corral stance attributed by critics is “I’m OK, You’re Not OK (unless you align),” underwriting punitive regulation of out-groups; alternately, “I’m Not OK, You’re Not OK” can drive catastrophism and perpetual emergency. [5]
• Primal and conditional illusions: the belief that perfect justice is achievable primarily through centralized policy can take primacy over messy empirical tradeoffs; disconfirming data may be discounted as Persecutor noise. [4]
• Script payoffs: moral purity, a sense of safety-through-structure, belonging in a caring community, and identity consolidation as a Good Rescuer; final payoffs may include epitaphs like “We cared, we tried, we fought,” regardless of measured outcomes. [3]

Overscripts, episcripts, and hamartic drift

• Overscripts from broader institutions (academia, NGOs, international bodies) can reinforce the local script; episcripts (powerful external mandates) can escalate the Rescuer imperative; hamartic scripts drift toward overreach when the drive to rescue eclipses feedback. [6]

In addition:

1. Utopianism as a counterscript and primal illusion

• In TA, a “counterscript” is a socially approved overlay that promises redemption if one follows certain rules (e.g., “Be Perfect,” “Be Strong,” “Try Hard,” “Please [the ideal]”), often masking earlier prohibitions like “Don’t be Important,” “Don’t Be Separate,” “Don’t Be Selfish,” or “Don’t Make Money.” A utopian social vision can serve as a counterscript that grants moral permission to pursue an ideal future while disowning ambivalence or limits, functioning as a “primal/conditional illusion” that is granted primacy over present constraints. [1]
• The Child ego state can infuse utopian narratives with “favorite feelings” (euphoria, righteous hope) that structure time (pastimes/activities/activism) and provide strokes and belonging; the Adult is then recruited in service of the ideal rather than evidence, a classic “Parental program + Child fascination, Adult compliance” configuration. [2]
• Utopian scripts often feature heroes/heroines (saviors), villains (oppressors), and role-switches across a moralized Drama Triangle (Rescuer–Victim–Persecutor). This provides predictable “game payoffs” such as moral vindication, group inclusion, and existential certainty (“The world is unjust; salvation lies in total reform”). [3]
• Slogan-level “sweatshirts” (Front/Back messages) serve as script signals: the Front announces virtue (“Justice Now”), the Back conceals the transactional hook (e.g., “Comply or be cast as Persecutor”), enabling games such as “Now I’ve Got You, You SOB” or “Uproar,” with after-burn (resentment or exhaustion) fueling further commitment. [4]

2. Statism as Parental program and external locus of control

• In TA, “statism” maps onto a reliance on the State as an external Parent—source of prescriptions, permissions, punishments, and strokes—placing collective agency primarily in a Big Parent rather than distributed Adult problem-solving among citizens. This can create a Child-to-Parent transference in which citizens seek protection, resources, or rescue from a moralized authority. [5]
• The “Parent” in the script matrix supplies precepts (“People can’t be trusted without control”), prohibitions (“Don’t be independent; it’s selfish”), and provocations (“Only force can stop injustice”), shaping a life position such as “I’m OK, You’re Not OK (unless supervised),” or “We’re OK; They (markets/traditions) are Not OK.” [6]
• Game analysis: Government is cast as the Rescuer, target populations as Victims, and market actors/dissenters as Persecutors. The gimmick is moral superiority; the come-on is safety/compassion; the switch is compliance/centralization; the payoff is strokes (virtue), relief from personal responsibility, and an existential thesis (“Only control secures good outcomes”). [1]
• Stroke economy and currency: status and strokes are mediated by signaling alignment with authoritative solutions (credentialing, compliance, policy literacy). Trading stamps accrue via indignation or guilt (rackets), redeemable in confrontations that confirm the thesis. [2]

3. “Worship of big government” as totem/idealized Parent

• Veneration of central authority functions like a totemic “Santa Claus” Parent—limitless provider and arbiter—reducing anxiety in the Child by promising predictable nurturance and punishment of bad actors. This is a psychological shortcut that sacrifices Adult ambiguity for Parent-certainty, often enforced by the group’s moral “o.k. words” and prescriptions. [3]
• Fascinations, fetishes, and counter-fetishes: symbols of the State (programs, agencies, legal power) become objects of fascination; while markets/traditions become counter-fetishes (to be controlled or negated), reinforcing the Parental program that “safety = centralization.” [4]
• Script apparatus: family culture, peer groups, schools, and media can imprint “Don’t Be Different (from the collective),” “Don’t Be Selfish,” “Don’t Be Rich,” with counterscripts like “Be Caring,” “Be Perfect (politically),” “Try Hard (activism),” and “Please (the movement),” producing a goal-structured script: “A good life = aligning with the benevolent State to perfect society.” [5]

4. Typical injunctions, drivers, and roles often seen in this script family

• Injunctions (prohibitions): Don’t be separate; Don’t be greedy; Don’t trust spontaneous order; Don’t challenge the moral consensus. Drivers (counterscripts): Be Perfect (purity politics); Try Hard (constant mobilization); Be Strong (never concede ground); Please Me (conform to in-group orthodoxy); Hurry Up (crisis framing). [6]
• Roles and switches: Activist as Rescuer; marginalized as Victim; dissenters/markets as Persecutor. Role switches occur when the Rescuer turns Persecutor (punitive shaming), or the Victim becomes Rescuer (calling for stronger control). Games include “Why Don’t You—Yes, But” (policy debates) and “Let’s You and Him Fight” (coalition politics). [1]

5. Life positions, world view, and payoffs

• Life positions: A common stance is “We’re OK, They’re Not OK” (ingroup moral superiority), or “I’m Not OK, You’re Not OK” (systemic pessimism demanding total redesign). A minority adopt “I’m OK, You’re OK, but structures are Not OK,” channeling change through Adult analysis while resisting games. [2]
• Payoffs: Psychological (moral elevation, righteous anger as racket feeling, relief of guilt via activism), social (belonging, strokes), and existential (confirmation that the world requires centralized correction), with final payoffs such as “We were right about people needing supervision” if programs expand, or “You see, unregulated systems always fail” if crises occur. [3]
• After-burn and reach-back: Policy disappointments trigger after-burn (disillusion, blame) and reach-back (reviving early imprints about authority and safety), often recommitting the script rather than updating with Adult evidence. [4]

6. Time-structuring, games, and the drama triangle in public discourse

• Time is structured by rituals (slogans), pastimes (online discourse), activities (protests/organizing), games (call-outs, purity tests), and occasional intimacy (rare cross-ideological dialogues). The drama triangle stabilizes group identity but suppresses Adult-to-Adult problem solving. [5]
• Common game formulas: C (Con) + G (Gimmick) = R (Response) → S (Switch) → P (Payoff), e.g., “If you care, you must support stronger control” → dissent labeled harmful → moral victory and boundary-policing as payoff. [6]

Sources

1 Transactional Analysis Counseling in Action (Counseling in Action series) Fourth Edition by Ian Stewart (Author)

2 Genogram with Transactional Analysis in Coaching: A Road Map for Counseling & Coaching - An intuitive visual approach to unlock your clients' self-awareness to achieve personal & professional growth Paperback – December 16, 2023 by Claudia Musicco (Author

3 The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do, Revised and Updated Paperback – February 24, 2009 by Judith Rich Harris (Author)

4 Born To Win: Transactional Analysis With Gestalt Experiments Paperback – Illustrated, August 30, 1996 by Muriel James (Author), Dorothy Jongeward (Author)

5 Scripts People Live: Transactional Analysis of Life Scripts Paperback – January 26, 1994 by Claude Steiner (Author)

6 Games People Play: The Basic Handbook of Transactional Analysis. Paperback – August 27, 1996 by Eric Berne (Author)