Over the last eight years, I’ve tried to understand why Americans are so disenchanted with their lives and with their politics. It is not a simple answer, and so I’ve tried to look at the phenomenon of change in America with unjaundiced eyes. It hasn’t been completely successful and it hasn’t been without a continuous reappraisal of my assumptions.
Throughout my life and my career as a public servant for most of it, I came to value my own set of values, ethics, and morals. Being an atheist, it was much easier to accomplish in some respects. I feel no fear of retribution or ostracization, no guilt or confusion. My ethics and moral imperatives were well defined by the time I was a youth, having come mainly from a family that seemed to have a clear-eyed understanding of the world, its elites, and the power one person can have over others.
By the time I was an adult, I saw what motivations people possessed and how they used those motivations to meet their needs, whether intrinsic or extrinsic. Today, I read a series of articles. specifically about an attempt to understand why Americans seem to be willing to vote for a man whose criminal behavior and simple outrages are so obvious and odious.
As a lifelong learner, having spent almost 25 years in post-secondary and graduate studies programs, and then lecturing at colleges on the issues of leadership, ethics, and conflict resolution, I came to see that ‘something was rotten in Denmark’. The state of affairs within the ship of state has seen it take on an ever-increasing amount of water. It has begun to list badly and there is now a fear of capsize.
One of the articles that I read was by George Monbiot of the Guardian Newspaper, as well as a couple of others cited below. In it he describes how individual and societal values seem to cluster around specific poles, those being extrinsic or intrinsic by nature. Those with intrinsic values are more inclined towards, empathy, intimacy and self-acceptance. They are more open to change, interested in universal rights and equality, and are generally more protective of others and this tiny blue orb that we inhabit.
Conversely, people who display extrinsic values are attracted to fame, power, wealth, prestige, status, and self-image. They are more likely to exploit other people, act aggressively, objectify others, and dismiss social and environmental impacts. They display specific traits which lead them to suffer from frustration, dissatisfaction, stress, anxiety, anger, and compulsive behaviors.
Donald Trump exemplifies extrinsic values. From his tower to his overstatements of achievement, his wealth, his obsession with winners and losers, his objectification of women, his rejection and anger with public service, human rights, and environmental protection. His objectification even extends to his daughter and women who hold offices requiring intelligence, sensitivity, and empathy.
Our values are something shaped by our environment, our interactions with others, our observance of norms, and the prevailing morals of society. They are also molded by the political environment that we inhabit. When people live under despots and cruelty, it tends to become normalized and internalized. This attenuates our values, translating them into extrinsic values and self-serving ends.
On the other hand, if one has lived with deprivation, where social norms exhibit kindness, empathy, community, and freedom from fear, they tend to shift towards intrinsic values and that end of the spectrum. What is known as the ‘values ratchet’ comes into play and operates both at the individual and societal levels. The more insecure and unfulfilled the individual, the more insecurity and unhappiness with unfulfilled needs one displays.
America is a prime example of the worship of extrinsic values. The American dream itself is a dream of acquiring wealth and spending it conspicuously, without constraint or the consideration of others. It embodies toxic myths related to failure and success, where only acquisition matters, not how it was acquired.
It became and still is the marketing of insecurity, an obsession with physical appearance, of unfulfilled wants, that require money, fame, and power, yet never find satisfaction. In turn, extrinsic people and societies blame the individual for their lot in life. People are even criminalized for destitution, which often is the fault of flawed government policies.
Values matter. Polarisation and division are its results. When aggregation and ‘getting mine’ becomes the dominant strategy, status, money, power, and dominance lead only to frustration. Enough is never enough. The more the elites and 1% take, the more ‘others’ lose.
This translates into a person’s politics. As extrinsics become dissatisfied, they have to find blame for their ensuing dissatisfaction. They are no longer the ‘winners.’ Blame and retribution must be allocated. It must be the fault of the ‘others’. Those who believe in distribution, equity and protection for the planet. THEY are stopping me from getting mine.
This resentment harbors itself inside media echo chambers and becomes more strident. Resentment by ageing white men has become deeply embedded. So deeply embedded that these people have forgotten who they are, where they came from and what is truly fair.
We sit at an inflection point, similar to that of our warming climate, the increasing dependency on religion, rather than intelligence, reason, and logic. Science does not fit with our belief system, so we must denigrate and ignore it or it creates ever-greater cognitive dissonance. We cannot stand to be questioned, to require validation. We fall into the abyss of belief, which requires no validation, no inquiry, no testing. We seek solace in group thinking and in assimilation to the group mindset.
If a society fails, it fails because of its inability to create values and systems that respect the rule of law, of fairness, of equity and empathy. It becomes the sum of its collective anger, hate and disillusion.
I listened today to a song that gained my attention and held it for many years. It speaks to the current situation in the United States that illustrates where it is headed and what drives it to go there.
https://youtu.be/MWW24zbHM2U?si=9ztD9OiYZzcc2-D8
I’m afraid that we are about to discover what that actually means.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/29/donald-trump-americans-us-culture-republican
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/11/19/roundup-what-trump-showed-us-about-america-435762
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