Political ideology can be such a crock of shit.
This thought crossed my mind enough times in the past twenty-four hours that I thought I should write it down.
Politicians often present their fundamental worldviews as though they are coherent, yet itās so notable how so little of it makes sense. I donāt particularly like the idea of the government preaching every nuance of morality or sticking their noses into peopleās lives. So, Iām on the right, you might say, perhaps ever the libertarian right, yet the big issue these two things touch upon is abortion. Yet that makes no sense since pro-choice is often considered the liberal side of the argument. So where do I then stand?
Itās often noted how the left and right have the immigration debate inverted. If the Left really do want to protect jobs, they why donāt they oppose immigration? If the Right really want to promote a free market, employ people at the cheapest rates, then why donāt they advocate for more immigration? Again: no sense.
I suppose we could pick our way through so many of these and notice that they contradict the essential ideology of the person supporting or opposing them. Why is it that the more āmoralā conservative party has, traditionally, more sex scandals than the Left? Why does the Left tend to have more financial scandals that bring politicians down? (The answer, I guess, is that politics attracts people who have conflicted psychologies on these issues ā brought up poor, you have a great attraction to wealth; brought up in a strictly religious family, the more attracted you are to having a stranger sit on your face in a dungeon).
I donāt know where Iām going with this except to note how political views seem to be more about an unthinking tribalism (“I think X because I am Y…”) before I move onto the other big news from yesterday. Iāve been reading about the “Wolverine Watchmen”, this militia group thatās been arrested for planning to kidnap Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer. The story should be bigger than it is but, really, with a President running wild on the meds (and possible COVID pneumonia) thereās no room for the story. These loons were clearly motivated by Trumpās rhetoric of the last couple of years, his absolute loathing of Whitmer, and the way heās been stoking the militias. I seem to have been writing about this for most of my adult life, long before Trump considered running for President. America has not yet come face to face with its militia problem. It still might not. It will continue to simmer until somebody has the guts to deal with it.
Why do I mention this? Itās their title. āWolverineā and āWatchmenā are clearly derived from the comic books, which hints towards how American ā and perhaps our own ā politics have become infantilised in the last few decades. This is how we end up with two TV celebrities running the US and the UK, and why any debate seems only relevant once a celebrity has piped up about it. If you consume only a diet of Marvel movies and Hollywood blockbusters, is it any wonder if you also start to view politics so narrowly? This is the superhero morality Iāve written about before; the primitive sensibility we all share, whereby we want to grasp power for ourselves and impose our will on others. Itās fun to watch it play out over the course of a movie ā even better when, like the recent Superman/Batman moves, the morality of Supermanās power was questioned ā but itās scary seeing it applied to real life.
Yet thatās what politics increasingly looks like. Democracy is a hard thing to argue because it produces moments, such as during our last parliament, where the process got in the way of the government enacting its business. āDemocracy aināt sexyā as Iām sure nobody has ever sung. Nobody was happy with that state of affairs, yet that unhappiness was perhaps a good expression of what democracy is about. Itās the ability to curtail the power of the executive.
Iām not sure that view is held too widely these days. There are more Wolverine Watchmen out there than we might expect.
Really interesting David. This is why I like ready you. You say things (eg about the infantilisation of politics) that I thought only I thought about.
It’s not just politics though. Our entire society has been ‘dumbed down’. One of the most notable examples of this is in television documentary series. Both the quantity the quality has decreased. Can you imagine The Ascent of Man being made now? The remake of Civilisation was as good as can be expected but not comparable with the 26 hour original.
The question is what can be done about it? After all it’s a lot easier to dumb down than it is to dumb up!
Thanks Max. Documentaries are one of my perennial complaints. It seems that everything I watch these days assumes that the audience know next to nothing about whatever they’re discussing. I hate this in science and particularly anything about geology, which explains plate tectonics every single time. It’s like you have to sit through 45 minutes or primer to get to anything that’s remotely interesting. Like you say, those classic series wouldn’t be made. They weren’t afraid to leave the viewer struggling to keep up but struggling to keep up is really one of the essential requirements of intelligent broadcasting. Finding that balance between too easy and difficult is a real talent. Few had it but even fewer have it these days.
I agree with you about a lot of this – there are some very contradictory and illogical stances being expressed at the moment. Not sure I agree that pro-life is the liberal side of the abortion argument, I would say pro-choice is more liberal but I’d be interested in knowing your reasoning. Similarly re people on the left getting mired in money scandals – is that because they haven’t got the support networks to hush it up rather than because people on the right are squeaky-clean in their financial transactions?
As far as Gretchen Whitmer is concerned, I agree the story should have more coverage. A lot of female friends I speak to are convinced that there’s a sexist element to this which I found chilling, like “know your place” on steroids. I also agree re the terminology of comics and superheroes – I think it distances us to some extent from the rather unpleasant reality. And isn’t the thing about debates only becoming relevant when a celebrity has said something about it part of the same thing we were discussing the other day about travel shows, etc?
Anyway, off to do the dusting
Ah yes. I forgot to put that bit in after I lost my original comment. I was also going to question “pro life” (a term I hate btw!) being on the Liberal side??
Eek. Just a mistake I didn’t pick up. I meant on the conservative side. Simple error. My argument was really about the conservative side of arguments, always hammering on about freedom, yet they’re the side that often have some religious overtones dictating life. I’ll go fix the error now.