The Hole in America's Psyche
Why do the hard-core Trumpies and QAnon adherents and fascists like the Proud Boys cling so desperately to their beliefs? Why do they refuse any logical reasoning that might dissuade them?
Could it be that once you take these false beliefs away, there’s nothing there? Is it possible there’s a big hole in the American psyche and it’s more comfortable to believe something crazy than to recognize the nothingness at the core of your existence?
We stared in horror via our televisions or cell phones at the attack on the Capitol. Why are these people so angry, so furious, we asked ourselves. This is not class warfare. The rioters were not the poorest Americans and they were not protesting the 1 percenters. Probably, many of them own homes, trucks and flat-screened TVs.
Some assert the answer is fascism – pure and simple. Or white racism – pure and simple. Yet I don’t believe it’s possible to “break the back of fascism” until you knows what motivates it. I think even fascism is more a symptom than the disease itself. We need to see that people in this country are isolated, alienated, lack a positive sense of self and have no viable connection to community.
Trumpism, fascism, QAnon provide a home for these rioters in the same way that gangs are a home for many disenfranchised youth. In other words, lacking a positive way to identify themselves, they choose a negative way.
Medium columnist, Jessica Wildfire, offered a very perceptive portrait of a kid in one of her classes who was lonely, unable to achieve his unreasonably high expectations, susceptible to unrewarding attachments to those he imagined were smarter, more powerful or popular than he. Unsuccessful in his efforts to connect in any positive way, Jessica contends, they young man became the “angriest Trump supporter.”
In a recent essay by Timothy Snyder in the New York Times refers to the philosopher, Hannah Arendt (best known for her controversial assessment of Nazi Adolf Eichmann as a banal executioner). Snyder wrote: “Intriguingly, Arendt thought big lies work only in lonely minds; their coherence substitutes for experience and companionship.”
Indeed, the mob who invaded the Capitol are victims of a condition observed by Robert Putnam, over 20 years ago, in his book: Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. It seems the “collapse” has occurred but there hasn’t been a “revival”. Or, perhaps, there has been a revival but it hasn’t been what anyone predicted (or would desire) – for it’s largely unhealthy and negative.
White working class men and women have sought and found a new sense of self in a tribal identity expressed in anger, hatred and resentment. Moreover, their alienation and feelings of devaluation are being manipulated by shrewd and unscrupulous politicians.
As Bowling Alone informs us – people in the US have largely lost any sense of community. They no longer gather in bowling teams on Friday nights or for softball games on Saturday afternoons or poker games on Wednesdays after work. People don’t have pubs on every corner like their English peers where they can come together and grouse. Guys no longer enjoy quaint hobbies like building model train sets or stamp collecting. They are no longer content to be Boy Scout leaders or coach Little League. These innocent pastimes which were popular when I was growing up have fallen by the wayside. Instead people sit at home in front of their computers devouring on-line conspiracy theories.
The decline has been gradual but clear. Only a few years ago we were decrying the fact that suicide stats had leapt up for working class white males. We were horrified by the huge addiction and over-dose rates for Americans – most of whom lived in red states. And though addiction remains a huge problem, it’s not near as fast-spreading as home-grown terrorism.
In recent years, a giant segment of the population has fallen prey to fervent adoration of a political figure who promises power and re-enfranchisement – who points to glory days that probably never existed but that seem glorious in retrospect and who finds enemies on every doorstep: in the media, in college classrooms, at every border crossing.
Hate, it seems, is as intoxicating or more so than love.
It may date back to Nietzsche and his “death of God” prediction 150 years ago. In recent decades, the authority of the church has been diminished. Government is no longer respected. The ordinary social norms of human conduct have lost their sway. The charm of being able to shop 24-hours-a day is no longer appealing. Even the allure of being able to choose among a vast number of cable channels fails to feed the hunger for meaning. At the same time, the environment has become frightening – with a constant barrage of fires, floods, hurricanes and tornadoes. And small towns and suburban neighborhoods that were once reliably white and Christian are riven by different ethnicities and religions.
Many people feel afraid, anxious, empty, unmoored. A vast existential malaise grips middle America. Existentialism is painful – especially when you lack the intellectual or spiritual tools to deflect the discomfort. This emptiness becomes a giant suck that demands to be filled.
So who is more than happy to fill this great suck and placate this amorphous anxiety? I doubt it’s even conscious on his part, but an all-powerful leader appears – a leader who says, don’t panic, he’s in charge; not to worry, he knows what’s going on and never fear, he’ll take care of it. A leader who resorts to the Past – as a remedy for the Present.
I wish Trump had been debunked by the fracas at the Congress – and he was -- to some members of the electorate. But that leaves a whole swathe of Americans still yearning to believe in someone or something that can alleviate their distress. It creates a vacuum that more clever and unscrupulous individuals will be eager to fill. Individuals like Josh Hawley who’s clearly untethered to either truth or morality and who’s only wed to the pursuit of personal power. He’ll try to utilize the skills he gained at Stanford and Yale to project himself into the top role. If he doesn’t succeed then someone else may because the unraveling has begun…
Fortunately I have confidence in Joe Biden – it’s a miracle that Congressman Jim Clyburn and the voters of South Carolina rescued his candidacy from defeat. And so we can look forward to four years of his sober, non-reactive leadership. If anyone can pull us out of the deep plunge, it’s Joe. And we know he’ll be trying his darndest to do just that. Let’s hope that four years from now, we will look at this country and see a very different spectacle than today. Because today the outlook is painful to observe.
To me, facing the fascist, racist mob mentality is like dealing with a teenager (on a far bigger scale) — you can’t just say NO. No drugs, no alcohol, no late parties, no violent video games, no sex, no, no, no — well, you can say it but what’s the reaction? Whatever you condemn, they will just pursue some other devious, destructive behavior.
We need to fill the current hole in societal consciousness by a more appealing pursuit or a higher vision or a more powerful story – a story that grabs heart, mind and spirit. Until we do, people in this country will cleave to the reverse -- hate, division, and violence. ###