The UPS delivery driver for my area is really decent guy and likes the term "Nascar Dad" to describe him. He also watches Fox News. I have had many conversations with him about his beliefs and how he arrives at them. In a nutshell he sees basically two choices for news and information. Nightly News Dan Rather types saying that in spite of a few little things everything is basically fine in the US. The other choice is the Bill O'Reilly type saying everything is fucked up and it's the fault of NOW, Arabs, Jews, affirmative action, queers, blah, blah, blah. Mike (the UPS drivers name) knows that everything is not fine, it is in fact fucked up. He therefore listens to the talking heads that report that since he knows it to be true.
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This is an important insight which explains quite a bit.
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Several weeks ago, Doug posted an essay by Zizek discussing the furor over Gibson's "The Passion of The Christ" -
<http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20040301/004657.html
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The essay contains this passage -
"The traditional European Fascism was a misdirected act of resistance against the deadlocks of capitalist modernization. What was wrong with Fascism was NOT (as liberals keep telling us) its dream of a people's community that overcomes capitalist competition through a spirit of collective discipline and sacrifice, but how these motives were deformed by a specific political twist. Fascism, in a way, took the best and turned it into the worst."
Although this statement was dismissed by some as wrongheaded and, perhaps, even an apology (of sorts) for 1930s/40s fascism, I believe it's sound and applies to present concerns.
As John writes, millions of Americans know the super happy sunshine view of Time Magazine and the "CBS Evening News With Dan Rather", among other mainstream outlets, is false. They see problems in their own lives and the lives of those around them. They know there are structural obstacles preventing them from finding affordable housing, spending more time with their families and friends and enjoying a life free of the near constant worry of job loss -- to name a few of the major worries.
No reasonable adult expects a problem free life but many of the problems Americans face come from human orchestrated forces beyond the control (it seems) of the average person. The understanding that people (not some cosmic force) are conspiring to shaft you increases the anger.
So the frustrations are real and legitimate. But it's re and mis-directed by the quasi-fascist "populists" - the O'Reillys and so on - the only ones who appear to be daring enough to say all is not well.
This is how reasonable concerns are married to destructive goals.
The only way to counter this is by addressing people's real concerns from a progressive POV. At the risk of hyperbole, I think this is key to species survival: reasonable concerns must be married to constructive goals
DRM