🎧 The Weaponization of Nostalgia
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Trump's presidency, Brexit, and the mishandling of a global pandemic have made Douglas Alexander deeply concerned about the "powerful weaponization of nostalgia." As a former leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Alexander fears that a dissolution of old class identities will open the way to an even bigger attachment to tribal identities.
In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Douglas Alexander discuss the power of identity politics around the world, whether voters still believe in political competence, and how to bridge the "empathy gap" threatening democratic societies around the world.
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Yascha Mounk, a thoughtful and important discussion with Douglas Alexander.
The distinction between economic and identity needs is valid, but the two can't be separated. The grasping of 'who we are' and 'does anyone care' is perhaps a result of failure on the economic side. And, if you get that straightened out, then the other combative stuff will die down. Base instincts, as you well describe, take over when folks feel they are in a state of siege. They also hold to the past and even invent stuff when the view forward is not assuring.
Douglas Alexander aptly points out that the U.S. is not yoked at the neck by the enduring nature of Brexit. None the less, America needs to put right some very basic ills that have sickened the country for years -- and have worsened since Corona. I'm talking about the huge disparity of income that is not going to magically fix itself. Unless this is corrected, and it can be without going Marist, we are guaranteed sequels and variations of Trump and Brexit ordeals and their consequences.
An economic platform for ALL in the country makes more and more sense. And, with some creativity we can pay for it.
Nostalgia for imaginary past utopias is a problem all across the political spectrum. Many of the very people who call themselves "progressives" want to turn the clock back as much as anyone, to pasts ranging from the New Deal (presumably without the acceptance of Jim Crow) to hunter-gathering (presumably without the child mortality rate.)