Neglect Leaves People Stranded on the Beach Waiting for the Tide to Change

They feel betrayed. Perhaps because they are.

Photo by Tim van der Kuip on Unsplash

Why are some voters angry, feel betrayed, look to new leadership, reject their traditional party, lose faith in their government?  It’s part of electoral democracy in a dynamic society. 

In such a society, a normal childhood teaches that one at least of the political parties will have your back and the backs of people like you and your family. 

Over time parties and people develop a working relationship.  My party supports my life, by income, my job and the values that have given my life meaning.  That is, I’ve made many personal choices in the past, accepted sacrifice, because I stood by what I was taught makes me a good person. 

Then all hell breaks loose, or seems to.  Actually, it is called change and in a dynamic society (new technologies, new ideas, more diversity, greater mobility), change hits hard and often seems out of control, or just “out to get people like me.”    

Children are brought up to value certain actions and behaviors.  To excel in these behaviors makes you appear to be a good person.  As adults we strive for such admiration.  We make sacrifices.  We take risks, sometimes physical.  The work is hard.  Not everyone achieves the same level of success. 

And we expect these actions to be valued.  At least they were.   They were viewed by most as having objective value to society.  They were “productive,” because they were good at making life better, a lot better for those who were hard working and maybe a little lucky.    

And, of the greatest importance to this argument, they were “old fashioned,” the skills, the habits that stood the test of time. 

If you build houses of wood and use wood for fuel, then the better you are at felling trees and chopping logs the more valued you are to others and the more respect you attain and the more self-worth you feel. 

These skills become the basis of a society’s moral judgements.  They are prized abilities, models of success, in the eyes of the last generation.

But what if they no longer are valued as much by the wider society?  What if technology and the environment undergo changes such that many of the same actions are no longer as productive?  And, thus, are no longer the standards of human excellence?  And this involves all the life choices, the moral commitments, the beliefs, that one has honored.

Is it not reasonable to assume that they will be defended in spite of their lessoned relevance?  That people who have sacrificed to live this traditional way, will continue to believe that such a life is virtuous? And should be seen as such.

This resistance to change is more than a defense of certain skills, abilities and the norms of action that produced them.  It is a resistance to having one’s own worth devalued.  I was a good man or a good woman in all eyes because I was good at doing these things.  John Henry driving piles by hand. Defying power-driven pile drivers. 

Consider, working harder at the old jobs doesn’t make you more productive. It seems then that hard work is no longer rewarded, hence valued.

The loss of status, seeing others move ahead, leads to various psychological states: anger, despair, valuelessness.  It is this feeling that can be captured and exploited by political forces.  Such people are the ground troops for fascist like movements. 

And if alternative economic opportunities are closing at the same time, they are even more susceptible to demagogues that tell them that they are still valuable, and that their values are still what makes one a “great” American. 

They could accept change and find new opportunities, if they are actually available and they have the new skills required.  But if not, or if significantly limited, they will likely join an oppositional political movement that praises their virtue, identifies their enemies, and promises “to make American great again.” 

What they are not, is “deplorables.” They are Americans and believe that political parties, and yes, even governments (with the right people elected) will support them in times of trouble. Will make things right!

(And there must be something wrong with elections if that doesn’t happen.)