tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28127675.post268705991878116878..comments2024-03-14T15:01:57.914-04:00Comments on ROBERT BIDINOTTO: The Republican Crack-Up, RevisitedRobert Bidinottohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11777797272563802442noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28127675.post-77431963592201662262016-04-20T02:10:14.235-04:002016-04-20T02:10:14.235-04:00fosterj717: Thanks much for your kind words.
Joe ...fosterj717: Thanks much for your kind words.<br /><br />Joe David: I think it is an error to think in personal terms about fighting the entire political-cultural war -- of thinking about bulldozing the whole field of battle. Facing the enormity of an entire war will paralyze any soldier. That's why in my post, I tried to suggest things that individuals can do. We can all do a little: recommend the right books and films, try to influence our own children, support a good candidate, challenge someone's nonsense. If we all focus on doing what we can in our own lives, the cumulative impact will be huge.<br /><br />Phil: You're right that most people don't fit easily within one category. Because people compartmentalize a lot, their views in one area rarely correspond to their views in others. Categories exist more for the benefit of our own understanding than they do as useful pigeonholes for complicated individuals. <br /><br />You also make a good point that a Donald Trump (like his more intellectual precursor, Pat Buchanan) could never have had such a broad influence in the past. If we begin to focus not on discrete ideas and premises, but on the bigger picture -- on the <i>narratives</i> that people like him (and Sanders) are peddling -- then we get a clearer understanding of the nature of their appeal, and what it will take to overcome their influence. Robert Bidinottohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11777797272563802442noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28127675.post-57258197371627800872016-03-29T16:18:20.310-04:002016-03-29T16:18:20.310-04:00Thanks for revisiting some of your previous points...Thanks for revisiting some of your previous points on these issues. The richness and detail of your analysis is clear and striking. For example, your breaking down the different types of tribalist, the different types of anti individualist instead of just leaving it at that.<br /><br />The people who try to analyze the groupings in current political parties in terms of leap two or three categories, for example, as just pre-modern vs. enlightenment vs. postmodern or anti-enlightenment, don't seem to get that that is operating on too abstract a philosophical level.<br /><br />Most people are not that consistently or predominantly on one of those three levels. In fact, I encounter people and groups more and more who are even less consistent than being, say, consistently "anti-individualist". Often they are single issue people on issues such as abortion or immigration and inconsistent on other issues. They will be strongly pro-individualist on one issue and strongly anti-individualist on another issue.<br /><br />The burgeoning fragmentation and inconsistency that I see has everything to do with the decades-long steady decline of the American educational system.<br /><br />Fragmented mental representation. Fragmented politics. Fragmented worldview.<br /><br />I could have a debate and maybe be able to persuade a consistent, dedicated socialist on the basis of broad ideas more or less well integrated. It's hopeless if I'm talking to someone whose cognitive bandwidth is no greater than one narrow issue.<br /><br />I agree with you that changing a culture involves seizing control of or offering alternatives to the dominant narratives. In other words, it largely involves the arts -- literary, spoken, theatrical, poetic, etcetera. But not just telling fictional stories, I think. Organizing one's nonfiction writings, documentaries around telling stories as well.<br /><br />Even more fundamentally, one has also to offer full-scale top-to-bottom educational alternatives and courses and books outside of politics, economics, and even overarching ideologies- - history, the humanities, the study of languages and literatures, sociology, psychology. (More than just philosophy).<br /><br />Or else your "narratives", especially if they are counter to current trends, are not going to sink in very easily.<br /><br />It used to be that a shallow, angry, superficial, demagogic, blustery, defiantly anti-intellectual, con-man populist would only appeal in the less educated region of America. Which for most of American History, has been for multiple reasons the Deep South of Huey Long, George Wallace, etc. It is only the spread of the lack of a good educational system throughout America that makes Donald Trump possible outside of the Deep South. Sort of a spreading intellectual redneckism.<br /><br />Buchanan never got that kind of traction or was a threat to become President because he arose in a generation which was incrementally getting somewhat better public education. They could smell out his shallowness.Philhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01822465386357022313noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28127675.post-47952135124159500992016-03-27T17:01:47.365-04:002016-03-27T17:01:47.365-04:00Logical solution, but how can one fight back if th...Logical solution, but how can one fight back if the left controls the media, entertainment, education, etc.? The outlets are minimal at best. What options are available aren't significant enough and accessible enough to be of any real value. We need a bulldozer to level the field. Where can we find one of those?Joe Davidhttp://www.bfat.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28127675.post-76587746454753433572016-03-25T13:12:00.678-04:002016-03-25T13:12:00.678-04:00This is one of the most comprehensive and rational...This is one of the most comprehensive and rational musings on the body politik of today. The author captured what many of us have been struggling to understand and get a handle on. Thanks for the great insights!fosterj717https://www.blogger.com/profile/03594955700466590214noreply@blogger.com