Who is to blame for America’s polarized politics? Tom Nichols says “All of us”

[ad_1]

International affairs expert Tom Nichols says democracy is under attack. What causes it? Neither the media, nor special interests, nor political parties. He says the enemy is all of us, happily marinating in a culture of narcissism.

You you you. Nichols says that kind of a sales pitch hasn’t always worked in America.

“When washing machines were first developed, they were marketed the way you deserve. It actually backfired because a lot of women thought it wasn’t appropriate,” he says. . “Now everything revolves around you. You’re worth it. You deserve it. And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. “

Today, On Point: Does America Have a Culture of Narcissism? If so, how does this poison politics and threaten democracy?

Guests

Tom Nichols, National Security Specialist at the US Naval War College. Author of “Our Worst Enemy: Internal Assault on Modern Democracy.” (@RadioFreeTom)

Jack Beatty, On Point News Analyst. (@JackBeattyNPR)

Interview highlights

On what causes a sense of fragility around our democracy right now

Tom Nichols: “I don’t think it’s just a feeling of fragility. I think it’s a real fragility, and it’s not just happening in the United States, but around the world. I didn’t think it was just a flash in the pan because of an election or the past two or three years. When you look around them like Italy, India, Poland, the United Kingdom, are in the grip, or have been in the grip recently, of populist movements that are based on simply fuzzy rage , voting as revenge, voting as punishment for others.

“One of the things you hear a lot is a quote I used in the book… being hurt. All of these attitudes are completely uncivil. You can’t maintain a democracy on militarized voting on…” our president against your president. ”And basically, electing people for their entertainment value.

“And so I think the fragility is real because I think people don’t think seriously about politics anymore and don’t take politics seriously. They don’t participate. That’s another problem. Speak, my God, the country is in such a mess and what are we going to do? In 2020, we congratulated ourselves on bringing out about 65% of the public. And only about half of the young people voted. And we thought I did a good job. “

On American Wealth

Tom Nichols: “People are bristling because they say, well, we’re not really a society of plenty. Well, yes we are. There is income inequality, which is a political problem and a different problem. But it is different from increasing the standard of living. – We are a country at peace, even though people still laugh at it and say, but we were in Afghanistan, we were in Iraq. But we, especially since the Vietnam War, have hardly asked for anything from society, since we entrust this to courageous volunteers who do it as a tiny minority in the country, and they carry this burden for us.

“And we’ve gotten used to a remarkably high standard of living. I mean, we’re the country that loses our heads if the Wi-Fi goes out. We’re the people who get mad when we line up at the DMV for a car that our parents would have thought was a technological miracle and a luxury. And the way it happens is that there is one thing, a term that I did not invent, but it is an adaptation hedonic. These are the people who get used to a very high standard. It’s nice like you’ve been sleeping in a king bed all your life, queen beds suddenly seem like a real imposition.

“And they’re terribly uncomfortable. It’s that people got used to these things in part because they came so easily. And on top of that, of course, there’s a culture of narcissism. , which we will come back to. But in a way, we live in a situation where … you lived with a lot of comfort and a long life and health. My father had a heart attack in 1974, and there was practically a vigil held at my house which Because they were sure you were having a heart attack, it’s the end for you My father lived another 35 years.

“So this combines with the problem of narcissism. And for 40, 50 years now – and it’s empirical – social psychologists have been following this all over the world. We’re becoming a more narcissistic society. We are becoming more and more. a society of loners. We are the people who do things alone. We don’t care about others. We think about ourselves. We believe that our opinions are the most important thing in the world. We are performative. “

“It’s a word that even Christopher Lasch spoke of when he wrote a landmark book on narcissism over 40 years ago. That we’ve become a performative culture where we think nothing that doesn’t happen. in the public eye matters. And when you put it all together, democracy just becomes that kind of boredom. Where you expect everything to work. And you don’t think you really have to be a big part of it if it doesn’t. you don’t like it. “

On how lack of civility among Americans creates new divisions

Tom Nichols: “I wrote the book because of the shopping cart issues. That was all. The last shopping cart I moved, I said someone should write a book, and that’s it. I laugh about it. But there’s something to it, the kind of basic daily lack of cooperation and rudeness is really an indicator of how much we don’t care about each other anymore. I mean, it really is. I mean, in your day to day life, and when people say, what can we do about it? I say: Be the example you want to set. Hold a door for someone. It’s amazing how little civic life rituals can improve that.

“But, you know, when I talk about things like medical care, I mean, I accept all education, housing, medical care. You know, these costs are out of control and these are policies that we can. Really correct. These are all within our grasp. What I disputed with, and part of the reason I wrote the book, was that the people, the voters, you know, the ordinary citizens of democracies, jumped up from, “These are bad policies that need a better solution. To,” this whole constitutional experiment is completely screwed up. And we should just throw it away. And someone strong should come in and hurt people I don’t like and reward me. ”And that’s not the answer.

“I point out in fact in the book, part of [this] … was actually brought up by a guy named Philip Converse and then the Fenno Paradox. Richard Fenno’s first observation that people don’t really understand political ideologies and that they use parties as a kind of markers for the location of their general wants and desires. But also that people don’t want to throw out the bums. They want you to throw your butt out.

“Everyone says how much they hate Congress, and yet they love their own congressman. They re-elect them. You know, the United States re-elect their congressmen at a rate of 95%. About 85%, which makes it. You know, one of the reasons I wrote this is because after Trump was elected, there was this constant talk of a populist revolt, a populist uprising. And I didn’t. kept looking around and saying, if you were a Martian … you wouldn’t see any proof of that.

“And actually I think it tells you something that the people who ostensibly elected Trump on policies like the deficit, health care, and education, he didn’t do anything about any of those things, the has exacerbated, handed tons of money to the rich, worsened income inequality. And they loved it for that. Because it is a war of cultures between people who want to be themselves- same, as with politics, it is self-actualization and appeasement of their internal resentments about their own problems with their lives. And when that is what democracy is, it is no longer a democracy. , it just becomes an all-on-all war, because you can never satisfy that kind of resentment and anger, arming politics. “

On how to fix our culture of narcissism

Tom Nichols: “I’m not sure I have a good solution. But a few of you interviewed said: Well the answer is in our institutions, like education. And I have to be Debbie Downer here and you to say the most liberal people in the United States, that is, the people who really drive this in the United States and Western Europe, are middle aged people. Again, people closer to my age. When I went to school, it was the golden age of public education. I had civics classes. I didn’t go to private school. I was coming from a working class family from a working class city, and I had to memorize Supreme Court cases in eighth grade.

“You know, most of us at that age got that education. And yet, this generation of confident people, aged 55 to 75, it is they who pass memes on Facebook about the birth of Barack Obama in Africa. So education can teach you facts. It can’t teach you virtue. It must come from within families, it must come from communities. It must come from participating in one way or another in the life of your community. Again, if it’s just put a shopping cart back.

“… We have never been a more educated audience. We have a universal high school diploma. We have remarkably high attendance and graduation rates. And that doesn’t help at all at the moment. Education is therefore excellent, but virtue is the answer. And I think we have to, once again, look within ourselves. We should, as a last resort, undertake small projects that people from both parties can do and succeed. Stop trying to solve the Constitution in one fell swoop and in one election. , and take it piece by piece and get used to working with each other again. “

Book’s extract

From Our Own Worst Enemy: The Assault from Within on Modern Democracy by Tom Nichols. Copyright (c) 2021 by Tom Nichols. Used with permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.

From the playlist

USA Today: “Trump isn’t ruining democracy, we are. And it was scary to face: Tom Nichols. national security affairs, a gloomy field of study. “

[ad_2]