This article uses aspects of psychoanalytic theory to explain how the convergence of unconscious mechanisms and ideology in the post-9111 political culture enabled the US government to secure consensual support for domestic and foreign policies that attack democracy and make the world more dangerous rather than safer. The author argues that the Kleinian and Lacanian traditions, along with critical social theory, shed light on the psychopolitical dynamics of a bystander population and help to explain the psychic and social factors that permit the emergence of critical social conscience.