What the contemporary politics says about us
A.A. Gill has a fascinating, if snarky, column on Tony Blair in the New York Times, today, that has some insightful observations on the current, perpetually, and unappeasingly angry political mood in liberal democracies.
Great Britain and America look to me as part of a larger trend that I've observed, including the rejection of the European Constitution in France and the Netherlands, of an often anti-statist, anti-government mood among liberal democratic citizens (as well as pro-statist, pro-government moods, as it tickles their various fancies), as well as the angry pressure group mentality that has taken over so many of our political questions, this period and for much of humanity's history, really.
Tony Blair, Three-Time Loser
"Hatred of authority figures and rule-makers might all be an amusing part of the national character, the collective DNA — a Falstaffian, trenchant, robust skepticism to be admired, if it hadn’t grown so destructive and so intimidating.
This national knee-jerk abhorrence debilitates. Hate numbs the judgment, paralyzes the vitals of democracy. Revulsion leads to cynicism, which salts the field of open government. Nothing grows out of cynicism. This isn’t the same as the apathy that afflicts all rich, fat world democracies. Apathy can be turned; cynicism is implacable."
We clamor for our politicians to do our bidding. And then we hate them for doing so. We reject more reasonable, deliberative, intelligent engagement for a pressure-based politics that seeks our ends by any means necessary. And then we hate the politicians who accomodate our demands for curbing our freedom or failing to curb our violent or criminal ways or not delivering public services how we want them when we want them because we said so.
He's right. We've kind gone over the bend a little bit, this period. We're grown increasingly aggressive, angry, and cynical, feeding an attack-dog style of politics and journalism that substitutes take-down for engaged and thoughtful debate and discussion. We've given into our basest impulses around power. And then we've pretended that those impulses are more noble than they really are.
We are perpetually and literally fucking public servants and other folks, this period, using them up and then throwing them to the curb when we're done with them.
It's a fairly awful display, is what it is.
And the sad, crazy part is that it hasn't made things better. It's cynicism, which is another word for saying, "We have no vision for the future."
And then we've pretended, to ourselves, that it's all much more noble or more meaningful or more concerned for others than it really is.
It's one long load of bullshit, is what it is.
And we are responsible for it. All of us. Not Tony Blair. Or President Bush. Or any number of representatives in parliament or Congress. We are responsible for it. Whether we want to acknowledge that or not.
The world is a mess, right now. And it is our responsibility.
And the only way out is to genuinely take responsibility for that mess and cleaning it up, not to keep pretending like it's better than it really is.
But the hopeful note is that, in many places I encounter people, today, they are often taking more responsibility for life on their own. There are many places where people are still playing children, persistently whining for Papa Government to fix their problems for them and then railing against the very government that they've invited to be their paternal guardian. Or railing for more aggressive measures in the press or in the government, and then lamenting how dysfunctional the whole ordeal is.
People are kind of stupid and juvenile, much of the time, is the truth.
But they'll grow up. If we give them the space to do so. And maybe if we act as better reality checks for each others' foolishness rather than persistently pandering to peoples' basest and most aggressive, punitive, destructive impulses.
Those impulses are clearly not our most thoughtful or most noble.
But offer people freedom, and I think a fair comparison of liberal societies and illiberal societies will bear out, that, on balance, people will generally be better and more responsible for their choices, and their messes and their lives, I think.
It's not quite as bad as Mr. Gill thinks it is, here, I don't think. People aren't always the most noble creatures. But they'll get more noble the more free and responsible for their choices that they are. I'm fairly confident of that. Abraham Maslow convinced me of that in The Farther Reaches of Human Nature. And I think he's right. And, as it turns out, there may not be really any other choice in the matter, in the end. People generally and often take freedom that they are not given. Repression generally produces rebellion, of one kind or another.
But, for most people, rebellion generally gives way to a more mature responsibility. It's not generally so hateful as it is lacking trust and confidence in authority. And those are much more reasonable issues to take with government and authority, these days and all days, we must admit. Though taking government officials down has almost exactly zero to make that situation better.
Tony Blair and George Bush are dealing with the consequences of choices made that engender mistrust. They are not choices which are dramatically different than similar choices made by past political leaders, revered and reviled. And there is a lot of serious overreaction to those choices in the electorate and in the media, I think. But they're big boys. And all of us citizens are big kids. They and we will be ok. We'll pick ourselves up and fumble forward finding a better path to trust and build confidence in ourselves and one another again.
For all of our alternating role-playing as bullies and victims, we're really quite a resilient little culture, liberal democracies. And it is our liberal values, our love for liberty, that makes us most resilient in the face our ugly political displays like the one we've created this period.
We're children, often. Whining, complaining, temper-tantrum-throwing children.
But, like most children - and all children, at some level - we grow up.
And like most children, we grow up the more our freedom and our consciences are respected. Most sociopaths are raised in less loving, more aggressive households, likely. And most decent people are raised in more loving, more decent homes, generally.
And it is creating a loving home of our life here in liberal democratic cultures and societies and communities that we need to be focussed on if we want things in our lives to get better.
More aggression and manipulation is clearly not the direction of a better life for any of us. More decency, compassion, and liberal values clearly are.
We'll be alright. Because there really is only one direction that leads us to work better, relate better, and live more productively and decently with one another. And that is the direction of more decent, liberal values, which have made us as strong as we are today.
The whole world romaticizes illiberal values, because we want to believe that we are better than we are and that we can make all that bad stuff in the world go away with the simple force of our command.
But life doesn't work that way. Because liberal values are what make us more sociable and decent with one another so that we can accomplish goals together more readily and sustainably.
Decent, liberal values don't happen out of thin air or overnight. They are learned, over long periods of time, in schools and with teachers and with the more decent practioners of those values throughout the culture for much of our youth, our young adulthood, and then, hopefully, for the rest of our lives. And the more such values are learned consistent with our most liberal and open-minded thoughtfulness, the more likely they will be internalized by individuals within a culture.
We can't accomplish everything by being nice. But we accomplish more, together, by being more thoughtful and decent with one another while we tackle our common problems.
And repeated failure with more aggressive, illiberal impulses will probably be the only way that we will learn the big lessons on this the hard way. And that's ok. Sometimes the hard way is the better way. Though finding ways to make our hard lessons learned easier are probably better for everyone involved.
So, I think the better way of looking at the contemporary political mood is not necessarily the angry and unappeasable mob that would substitute cynicism and anti-social behavior for decency and thoughtfulness.
I think the better way of looking at the current period is a period of people fucking up for a good long time until they finally get a better path worked out. God knows I've done my share of fucking up. I imagine we all have, if we're honest with ourselves (which is what makes me nervous about Ms. Clinton, I must say; that she has such a hard time acknowledging, to herself, even, her fucking up).
The better path is in the direction of liberally educated and liberal democratic values. Which has almost zero to do with being a Democrat or a Republican and has everything to do with being a decent, thoughtful, compassionate, wiser, and independent-minded human being. Those people come in all shapes and sizes and ideological backgrounds. And the real work we have to do is encouraging everyone to want to be that kind of person. And for all of us to find more real safety, peace, prosperity, and life-affirming qualities of life as a result of a culture that takes such commitments more seriously.
Love,
Ben
