Why do people vote against their own interests?
Because they've been inculturated to value self reliance and believe that they may one day join the independently wealthy, making solidarity with anyone below them feel like a limitation. Consumerism makes imaginary solidarity with those who own the most stuff a necessity.
People are formed from the 1st grade to think that patriotism, expressed mainly as militarism, is a high and noble sacrifice and a source of security. Thus the belief that a bloated military industrial complex is a necessity, not to mention a source of pride. Leaders who can tap into that pride have access to something much deeper than self interest.
And, of course, there are a myriad of fears natural to the human condition, which are intensified by the demands of empire, predatory capitalism, and globalism, making the safety of homogenous tribes and powerful authoritarians feel necessary.
All this and more make up the mythic story that defines and creates ones experience of reality. It takes education and communal support to discover, comprehend, and accept a new story.
But the thing about story, it's a kind of short hand, a necessary simplification that orders the overwhelming complexity of reality. Story is like the operating system, the user interface for limited, vulnerable human beings facing a dangerous, unpredictable universe. It can not be surgically extracted by reasoned arguments. Even though story is a simplification it grows tendrils that reach the deepest parts of ones identity. The world view one's story supports feels necessary to survival.
The stories that order our reality are always in flux, but the process is glacial. Children receive their story from their elders, and then their peers and a new story emerges over generations. Though the process may be accelerating as technology increases connectivity.
Part of what we are in the process of learning is that the promise of the Enlightenment, unending progress through reason, is an illusion that has made us impatient with the deeply human need to make sense of life through stories. Those who were "enlightened" imagined that they had been liberated by reason, blind to the myths that motivated them, limited their vision, and led to assumptions of superiority, and unconscious racism.
A new story is beginning to emerge: One that actually values diversity (not just the idea of it); Understands that survival is dependent upon a regenerative relationship to the earth and social justice; It includes a broader sense of tribe and an appreciation of inefficiency, the small the slow, and the queer.
Reason is invaluable, but impatience with the human condition which is trans-rational, is counter productive. Story is invisible, but immensely powerful nevertheless. Ignore it at great peril. Never forget the buffoon with a bad but resonant story can win an election over an arrogant wonk, especially if her story is essentially the same, but merely polite and poorly told.
Because they've been inculturated to value self reliance and believe that they may one day join the independently wealthy, making solidarity with anyone below them feel like a limitation. Consumerism makes imaginary solidarity with those who own the most stuff a necessity.
People are formed from the 1st grade to think that patriotism, expressed mainly as militarism, is a high and noble sacrifice and a source of security. Thus the belief that a bloated military industrial complex is a necessity, not to mention a source of pride. Leaders who can tap into that pride have access to something much deeper than self interest.
And, of course, there are a myriad of fears natural to the human condition, which are intensified by the demands of empire, predatory capitalism, and globalism, making the safety of homogenous tribes and powerful authoritarians feel necessary.
All this and more make up the mythic story that defines and creates ones experience of reality. It takes education and communal support to discover, comprehend, and accept a new story.
But the thing about story, it's a kind of short hand, a necessary simplification that orders the overwhelming complexity of reality. Story is like the operating system, the user interface for limited, vulnerable human beings facing a dangerous, unpredictable universe. It can not be surgically extracted by reasoned arguments. Even though story is a simplification it grows tendrils that reach the deepest parts of ones identity. The world view one's story supports feels necessary to survival.
The stories that order our reality are always in flux, but the process is glacial. Children receive their story from their elders, and then their peers and a new story emerges over generations. Though the process may be accelerating as technology increases connectivity.
Part of what we are in the process of learning is that the promise of the Enlightenment, unending progress through reason, is an illusion that has made us impatient with the deeply human need to make sense of life through stories. Those who were "enlightened" imagined that they had been liberated by reason, blind to the myths that motivated them, limited their vision, and led to assumptions of superiority, and unconscious racism.
A new story is beginning to emerge: One that actually values diversity (not just the idea of it); Understands that survival is dependent upon a regenerative relationship to the earth and social justice; It includes a broader sense of tribe and an appreciation of inefficiency, the small the slow, and the queer.
Reason is invaluable, but impatience with the human condition which is trans-rational, is counter productive. Story is invisible, but immensely powerful nevertheless. Ignore it at great peril. Never forget the buffoon with a bad but resonant story can win an election over an arrogant wonk, especially if her story is essentially the same, but merely polite and poorly told.
