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You Bet I'm Mad
Jun. 24th, 2016 09:13 amJust reeling after Brexit (though recent polls and rhetoric make the result less of a shock that it might have been a year ago). Of course, I'm speaking as a not-Brit who has only read about the debate/vote from afar, so on many levels, I don't really know what I'm talking about. (But when does that ever stop people from talking? /g/)
Still, when answering the inevitable "qui bono?" I think it's safe to say that the "ordinary people" are not going to be the ones who benefit from this change. If anyone does benefit, it will be the very "elites" who were partly the target of LEAVE anger -- the rich, the corporations, the top-level politicians (probably mostly on the right, but some on the left, too). The Law of Unintended Consequences is going be passed big-time, and I can only hope that the average UK resident is not left significantly worse off than they are now (though I'm skeptical. "Ordinary" folks are rarely the winners, or even just not the big losers, in this sort of fraught, complicated change).
I can't help but relate this process to the current situation in the US (and a lot of so-called "developed" countries) -- all over, we're seeing this "populist," often racist/nativist surge of fury and fear that is threatening economic and social stability everywhere.
I find these movements terrifying and people like Trump and many other leaders beyond reprehensible, but it's a huge mistake (as we just saw in the UK and as is also true in the US) to just dismiss Trump supporters and LEAVE voters as "racist idiots" or "morons" who are too stupid to see their own interests or as "haters" who are somehow constitutionally and unavoidably "gonna hate" no matter what. When millions of people are saying, "we're mad as hell, and we're not going to take it anymore," we all need at least to listen.
No matter what the issue, politics or whatever, and no matter what side we're on, it's easy to demonize and/or ridicule our opposition, to cast them as obviously evil or stupid or both. But the reality is always much more complicated and human.
In the case of the US (and I'm sure the UK, too, though I don't know enough to say definitively), the "populist" anger is often legitimate. I'm angry, too. What's false are the targets of that anger.
We've allowed the rich and the corporations to define what it is we should be angry about, and surprise! it isn't them. To listen to the power elite, none of our current problems is due to income inequality or to the power structures that encourage and sustain and drive that inequality.
No, you didn't lose your job and your house because the system is gamed so that the rich and powerful get richer and more powerful and so that people like you get less and less. You lost it because of the Chinese people or the Mexican people or the Polish people or the Indian people or the Syrian people or the Muslims or the narrow-minded Christians or the liberals or the right-wingers or the people on food stamps or the femi-nazis or the gays or the atheists or the angry black folk or the "stupid" white working class. The outsized influence of special business interests? The rampant corporate expansion and corporate "welfare"? The dangerous corporatization of every important social institution? The constant, unchecked redistribution of wealth into the hands of a miniscule privileged few? The number of your elected officials who continue to support and increase these unjust systems? Nah, don't be silly! These had nothing to do with it! All that is done with your best interests in mind. Trust us! After all, we're clearly winners, right?
This pattern is exactly why I supported Bernie Sanders -- no, I wasn't naive enough to think that he would be able to accomplish all he promised. No, I didn't agree with his every proposal. But he was the first person in a long time to challenge the structures and the systems and the uncritical assumptions that have allowed things to get to the sorry state they are in now. Nothing will change overnight, but maybe now some improvement is possible. (If the US can only keep the Donald out of the White House and make a dent in the gridlock that is Congress.)
So -- angry much? You bet.
ETA: I'm not saying that I don't think Trump supporters are dangerously wrong, because I do. Nor am I saying that racism, xenophobia, religious intolerance, nativism, sexism, etc. are not serious problems in the US, because they are. But the serious economic injustices are getting lost in the fray, and they are arguably the most dangerous at the moment.
Still, when answering the inevitable "qui bono?" I think it's safe to say that the "ordinary people" are not going to be the ones who benefit from this change. If anyone does benefit, it will be the very "elites" who were partly the target of LEAVE anger -- the rich, the corporations, the top-level politicians (probably mostly on the right, but some on the left, too). The Law of Unintended Consequences is going be passed big-time, and I can only hope that the average UK resident is not left significantly worse off than they are now (though I'm skeptical. "Ordinary" folks are rarely the winners, or even just not the big losers, in this sort of fraught, complicated change).
I can't help but relate this process to the current situation in the US (and a lot of so-called "developed" countries) -- all over, we're seeing this "populist," often racist/nativist surge of fury and fear that is threatening economic and social stability everywhere.
I find these movements terrifying and people like Trump and many other leaders beyond reprehensible, but it's a huge mistake (as we just saw in the UK and as is also true in the US) to just dismiss Trump supporters and LEAVE voters as "racist idiots" or "morons" who are too stupid to see their own interests or as "haters" who are somehow constitutionally and unavoidably "gonna hate" no matter what. When millions of people are saying, "we're mad as hell, and we're not going to take it anymore," we all need at least to listen.
No matter what the issue, politics or whatever, and no matter what side we're on, it's easy to demonize and/or ridicule our opposition, to cast them as obviously evil or stupid or both. But the reality is always much more complicated and human.
In the case of the US (and I'm sure the UK, too, though I don't know enough to say definitively), the "populist" anger is often legitimate. I'm angry, too. What's false are the targets of that anger.
We've allowed the rich and the corporations to define what it is we should be angry about, and surprise! it isn't them. To listen to the power elite, none of our current problems is due to income inequality or to the power structures that encourage and sustain and drive that inequality.
No, you didn't lose your job and your house because the system is gamed so that the rich and powerful get richer and more powerful and so that people like you get less and less. You lost it because of the Chinese people or the Mexican people or the Polish people or the Indian people or the Syrian people or the Muslims or the narrow-minded Christians or the liberals or the right-wingers or the people on food stamps or the femi-nazis or the gays or the atheists or the angry black folk or the "stupid" white working class. The outsized influence of special business interests? The rampant corporate expansion and corporate "welfare"? The dangerous corporatization of every important social institution? The constant, unchecked redistribution of wealth into the hands of a miniscule privileged few? The number of your elected officials who continue to support and increase these unjust systems? Nah, don't be silly! These had nothing to do with it! All that is done with your best interests in mind. Trust us! After all, we're clearly winners, right?
This pattern is exactly why I supported Bernie Sanders -- no, I wasn't naive enough to think that he would be able to accomplish all he promised. No, I didn't agree with his every proposal. But he was the first person in a long time to challenge the structures and the systems and the uncritical assumptions that have allowed things to get to the sorry state they are in now. Nothing will change overnight, but maybe now some improvement is possible. (If the US can only keep the Donald out of the White House and make a dent in the gridlock that is Congress.)
So -- angry much? You bet.
ETA: I'm not saying that I don't think Trump supporters are dangerously wrong, because I do. Nor am I saying that racism, xenophobia, religious intolerance, nativism, sexism, etc. are not serious problems in the US, because they are. But the serious economic injustices are getting lost in the fray, and they are arguably the most dangerous at the moment.