For quite some time now, some 8 years ago to be precise, I started thinking that the motivating factor for right-wing reaction is fear of change. Now old beliefs, attitudes, etc. have been discarded over time since probably the beginning of time, but I believe the case can be made that never have so many changes happened so quickly, over such a wide area of human experience, as in the past 20 years. Yes, we can talk about technology, computers, AI, laundry detergent pods, and assorted other wonders, but I think it's the day-to-day fundamental human experience stuff that rattles lots of folks--primarily those with a conservative bent.
In this country, we went from constitutional bans on same-sex marriage to nationwide legality virtually overnight. Transgender people seem to hit the national awareness like a bolt out of the blue. All in a country where a lot of people are fundamentally shaken by, and inimical to, evolution. The very foundations are shaken. And there is the feeling of loss of control: too much is happening, too many things are changing, prices are going up, buying power is going down, bloodshed is scattered throughout the world and no one is able to make it stop, America is no longer invincible--always a dangerous idea that got a gut punch on 9/11. Insecurity. We don't control our own lives... because the government has too much power. (Huh?) Let's get back to the good old days, before all this happened (and when America was great). A black woman is a scary novelty; let's go with the tough-talking white guy--he'll make us feel better (remember Ronald Reagan)--heck he's even been president before. Nothing like a known quantity. When bedrock beliefs, ideas that constitute basic reality, are challenged, like male/female, the reaction is knee-jerk and ugly. Ban the teaching of evolution, burn the books, let the federal government declare that it recognizes only 2 genders. Are we destroying the planet? Easy, just declare we're not.
Fear, fear that the world is falling apart. We're not alone in this; Hungary, Poland, Italy, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and bunches of others outside "the West" (that cradle of progressive democracy) have caught the bug.
Back in 1965, E.R. Dodds, Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Oxford, published a brilliant little book, Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety: Some Aspects of Religious Experience from Marcus Aurelius to Constantine. It made quite a splash, but some critics said it was ridiculous to think that an entire civilization as vast as the Roman Empire could suffer from empire-wide anxiety. Everybody feeling fearful and uneasy, wondering what was happening to their world? Preposterous! In 2025, we know better than to say that.
In this country, we went from constitutional bans on same-sex marriage to nationwide legality virtually overnight. Transgender people seem to hit the national awareness like a bolt out of the blue. All in a country where a lot of people are fundamentally shaken by, and inimical to, evolution. The very foundations are shaken. And there is the feeling of loss of control: too much is happening, too many things are changing, prices are going up, buying power is going down, bloodshed is scattered throughout the world and no one is able to make it stop, America is no longer invincible--always a dangerous idea that got a gut punch on 9/11. Insecurity. We don't control our own lives... because the government has too much power. (Huh?) Let's get back to the good old days, before all this happened (and when America was great). A black woman is a scary novelty; let's go with the tough-talking white guy--he'll make us feel better (remember Ronald Reagan)--heck he's even been president before. Nothing like a known quantity. When bedrock beliefs, ideas that constitute basic reality, are challenged, like male/female, the reaction is knee-jerk and ugly. Ban the teaching of evolution, burn the books, let the federal government declare that it recognizes only 2 genders. Are we destroying the planet? Easy, just declare we're not.
Fear, fear that the world is falling apart. We're not alone in this; Hungary, Poland, Italy, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and bunches of others outside "the West" (that cradle of progressive democracy) have caught the bug.
Back in 1965, E.R. Dodds, Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Oxford, published a brilliant little book, Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety: Some Aspects of Religious Experience from Marcus Aurelius to Constantine. It made quite a splash, but some critics said it was ridiculous to think that an entire civilization as vast as the Roman Empire could suffer from empire-wide anxiety. Everybody feeling fearful and uneasy, wondering what was happening to their world? Preposterous! In 2025, we know better than to say that.
It's never good when primitive emotions like fear control actions.
ReplyDeleteThe people who want to go back to the way things were in 1960, were not alive in 1960. When Polio destroyed the mobility of my classmates, when a 30 mile per hour car crash was almost always fatal, when a clogged artery in the heart was a death sentence, when a person of color was told where they could live, and denied a real education, when 10% of the population was forced to sit in the back of the bus.
ReplyDeleteMany of the things they fear don't affect them at all. Politicians are exploiting them and stoking fake fears for no other reasons than power and money. I think every civilization has done this and it never turns out good.
ReplyDelete