A Betrayal of Populism? The Revenge of Power

Two years ago, I presented a series of lectures on populism.  Since then, I have regularly received emails from attendees saying that the series significantly helped them understand what has been and is going on in American politics.  Many of those currently in office around the United States ran for election on a populist agenda, promising to restore American greatness and prosperity while portraying themselves as the champions of "the forgotten man" and of "traditional American values.”  Not being a populist myself, I have been wondering if genuine populists are feeling betrayed. 

Populism is Not an “-ism”

Because it ends with “-ism,” [populism] is often mistaken for an ideology, a counterpart to socialism and liberalism in competition for a coherent governing philosophy. It is no such thing.  (The Revenge of Power: How Autocrats Are Reinventing Politics for the 21st Century, Moisés Naím)

Populism has no consistent overarching, persistent political philosophy—and is more accurately conceived as distinct populist movements.  Populist movements are essentially reactive.  When political, economic, and social power are seen as favoring the left on the political spectrum, populist movements emerge that tend to the right; when political, economic, and social power are seen as tending to the right, populist movements emerge that tend to the left. 

Rather than thinking of populist movements as an ideology, populist movements are best understood as a strategy for realigning power.

The Power Pie

Regardless of where populist movements fall on the left-right political spectrum, they share the perception that power is a limited resource.  When I make my exceptionally delicious made-from-scratch banana cream pie, the bigger the piece that you take, the less pie there is for me.  In the populist worldview, the same is true of power.  You can only increase your power—whether political, economic, or social—by taking power away from me.  We are, therefore, in a competition for power. 

In the populist worldview there are three groups in society competing for power.

The People

The first group of competitors for power is the People.  The People are the true and deserving members of society.  They are seen as essentially good, moral, noble, and hardworking.  The People embody what the populists believe to be the genuine values of society, and the People are deserving of the benefits provided by society.   

But the People feel exploited, ill-used, and victimized.  Their share of political, economic, and social power is diminished as other groups in society increase their power.   Populist movements, therefore, originate in and are shaped by grievances, anger, and resentment and are focused on reclaiming power for the People.

Not-the-People 

The second group of competitors for power is Not-the-People.  Not-the-People are interlopers.  They are viewed as essentially bad, immoral, ignoble, lazy, and even criminal.  Therefore, Not-the-People are not deserving of the benefits provided by society.  Not-the-People are believed to be destructive of the genuine values of society. In the populist worldview. 

Not-the People, however, are gaining power—and can only gain power by taking it away from the People.  In the populist worldview, therefore, the People need to reclaim power from Not-the-People   and prevent them from achieving power in the future—and perhaps even physically remove Not-the-People from society. 

The Elite

The Elite is the third group competing for power.  The Elite make up the “ruling class” in the broadest sense and possess the lion’s share of political, economic, and social power.  The Elite are elected and appointed government officials as well as those whose wealth or fame gains them access to power. 

The People experience the Elite as corrupt and greedy, controlling the government and the economy, all the while enacting policies that benefit themselves and perpetuate their power.  The Elite have no interest in meeting the needs of the People and are the source of all ills that the People are suffering.  The People therefore need to “drain the swamp” and reclaim the power that the Elite have appropriated and abused by replacing them with members of the People who will act in the best interests of the People.

A Betrayal of the Movement?

Current American politics has a great deal in common with populist movements, but there is something about current political action that belies a claim to be furthering a genuine populist agenda.

The goal of populist movement is for The People to reclaim power and restore The People to greatness and prosperity.  This goal is achieved in part by taking power away from Not-the-People and eliminating the influence that Not-the-People have had on society.  Efforts are clearly being made to achieve this objective of the populist agenda.

In the populist worldview the goal of reclaiming power and prosperity for the People also requires removing from power the Elite who are responsible for all the ills that plague the People and replacing the Elite with leaders who will act in the best interests of the People.  It seems that this second objective may be where the People might feel betrayed.  Those who campaigned on a populist agenda and prevailed in the election are purging the old Elite; however, they are replacing the old Elite with a new Elite of the extremely wealthy and the famous.  This new Elite appears to be focused primarily on increasing and consolidating their own political, economic, and social power and are taking action to protect and advance their own interests rather than those of the People.  

Are the People feeling betrayed?  If not, perhaps the impact of this power grab hasn't trickled down yet.

What I’m Reading: "American Midnight"

Nobel Prize winning author Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) is best known for his novels Main Street (1920), Babbitt (1922), Arrowsmith (1925), Elmer Gantry (1927), Dodsworth (1929)—and It Can't Happen Here (1935). 

Sinclair Lewis with his wife,
Dorothy Thompson (1893-1961).  

Thompson was known as the

"First Lady of American Journalism"

 and in 1939 was recognized by Time 

as equal in influence to Eleanor Roosvelt.  

In 1934 following her depiction

of Adolf Hitler in her book I Saw Hitler

she became the first American journalist

expelled from Nazi Germany.  

In a Harper's Magazine article in

December 1934 she described Hitler:  

"He is formless, almost faceless, a man 

whose countenance is a caricature, a man

whose framework seems cartilaginous,

without bones.  He is inconsequent

and voluble, ill poised and insecure.  

He is the very prototype of the little man."

In It Can’t Happen Here, a crass, bombastic, and narcissistic conman named Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip defeats incumbent President Franklin Roosevelt for the Democratic presidential nomination and defeats the Republican candidate through a populist campaign, promising to restore American greatness and prosperity while portraying himself as the champion of "the forgotten man" and of "traditional American values.”  Windrip outlaws dissent, incarcerates political enemies, and encourages vigilante and militia groups to act on his behalf.  Windrip's administration curtails minority and women's rights.  He eliminates individual states by subdividing the country into administrative sectors managed by prominent, wealthy businessmen or leaders of vigilante groups.

Writing in 1935, Lewis was obviously aware of the rise of the fascist dictatorships in Europe—and of the growing popularity of fascism and the Nazi Party in the United States at the time.  An affinity for autocracy among Americans, however, did not suddenly appear out of nowhere in the 1930s.  Adam Hochschild’s American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis chronicles the darkness that descended upon American democracy during World War I and the years immediately after.

At President Woodrow Wilson’s request, the U.S, Congress declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917.  Hochschild contends that the Wilson administration and the Congress believed that the war needed to be fought not only abroad but domestically, resulting in a blatant disregard for the rule of law and democratic norms and flagrant violations of the U.S. Constitution. 

• Legislation allowed the government to censor the publication of “objectional content” in the cause of national security.  Reporting on the war and the 1918–1920 flu pandemic was strictly controlled.  Hundreds of newspapers, periodical and newsletters were driven out of business for being too pacifist, pro-German, pro-Socialist, pro-immigrant, pro-Jewish, or pro-Black.  Book banning increased dramatically.      
• An intelligence gathering network was created to spy on American citizens while vigilante and militia groups were given quasi-official status with the power to round up anyone suspected of disloyalty.  These groups conducted raids and used violence with impunity.  Attacks on those not considered American enough—Jews, Blacks, immigrants, labor unions, and others—were commonplace.   
• Thousands of U.S. citizens were arrested (and often abused and tortured in prison) for voicing “objectional opinions”—some for speaking in public, some for speaking only in their own homes; some for expressing their religious beliefs (think Quaker pacifists); some for simply speaking in their native German without their accusers actually knowing what they were saying.    
• Legislation was introduced to end birthright citizenship—along with legislation to deport ALL immigrants, even those who had become U.S. citizens.   State and local legislation prohibited speaking in any language other than “American” at any meeting, public or private, and banned teaching any modern foreign language in public schools.
• The economic gains that women had made by filling the void created by sending 2 million men to Europe were reversed as the government promoted a return “traditional gender roles” and encouraged employers to push women out of the workforce.

It can’t happen here?  It has happened here during what Hochschild calls “democracy's forgotten crisis.”  In 1930, Sinclair Lewis became the first writer from the United States to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.  In his acceptance speech, Lewis lamented that “… in America most of us—not readers alone, but even writers—are still afraid of any literature which is not a glorification of everything American …”   We erase history by not teaching it, by not writing about it, by not reading about it.  By forgetting it.

Redefining American Democracy? Machiavelli Revisited

For me, one of the pleasures of a beach vacation is spending the day under an umbrella catching up on my reading.  On a recent (and all too short) trip to Hawaii, I caught up on a disparate set of historical figures:  

• Henry V (1386 – 1422), King of England
• James Cook (1728 – 1779), British explorer, cartographer, and naval officer
• Niccolò Machiavelli (1469 – 1527), Florentine diplomat, author, philosopher, and historian

Yes, I know.  Not exactly what most people would consider beach reading.  To each his own!

There was an unexpected common thread running these three books:  the authors all countered popular notions about their characters.  In Henry V: The Astonishing Triumph of England's Greatest Warrior King Dan Jones frequently comments on the difference between the real-life Henry and Shakespeare’s ruthless and somewhat amoral “amiable monster” (a term used to describe Shakespear’s Henry by William Hazlitt in Characters of Shakespear's Plays in 1817).   In The Wide, Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook Hampton Sides claims that Cook’s behavior on his third voyage—his fits of rage, harsh punishments of his crew, and murderous destruction of native Hawaiian communities—was not at all characteristic of his behavior of his two earlier voyages and may have indicated some form of mental decline, impairment, or illness.  Most thought-provoking for me, however, was Machiavelli: The Art of Teaching People What to Fear by French historian Patrick Boucheron.

Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince, published in 1532 (five years after Machiavelli’s death) and written in the form of a how-to manual for would be rulers, shocked readers by arguing that immoral acts were completely justifiable.  The book’s dedication to the despotic Lorenzo il Magnifico de' Medici (in the form of a letter to Lorenzo’s grandson) has reinforced the idea that the work’s intended audience was would-be despots.  Boucheron, however, opines that Machiavelli was not really all that Machiavellian, that the dedication is actually an example of Machiavelli’s well-known sarcasm.  Machiavelli was certainly no fan of the Medicis.  In 1512 the Medicis overthrew the Florentine republic (much beloved by Machiavelli), established themselves as dictators, imprisoned and tortured Machiavelli, and then exiled him.  Machiavelli began writing The Prince in 1513.

Boucheron contends that reading The Prince as a tutorial for would-be dictators does not square with Machiavelli’s experience or his other political writings.  Instead, Machiavelli’s intended reader was not the governing but the governed—with the purpose of teaching the governed what they had to fear from despotic rulers.  We shouldn’t be surprised that at the heart of what Machiavelli thought the governed had most to fear from Machiavellian leaders was their drive to attain and maintain power.

Machiavelli warns that Machiavellian leaders define justice in terms of attaining and maintaining power:  decisions, judgements, appointments, rulings, legislation are all considered good and just as long as they are directed at preserving and defending the leader’s power.  Machiavellian leaders, therefore, ca use immoral and unscrupulous means—act “against charity, against humanity, and against religion”, even against their own promises—in order to prop up their power and still be considered just.  In the words of contemporary philosopher Christopher Philips, justice becomes a “virtueless virtue” (Six Questions of Socrates: A Modern-Day Journey of Discovery through World Philosophy, 2011)

Back in early January of 2017 as the United States prepared for the inauguration of its 45th president and when I still left a news channel play on the TV as background while I went about my business—I no longer do that; it’s bad for my blood pressure—I heard Senator Lindsey Graham say to a reporter, “Don’t you agree that the foundation of American democracy is the political party?”   I don’t suppose it was the reporter’s place to say, “No, I don’t agree” but neither did any of the commentators or analysts say so.  

Graham should know better. 

The foundations of American democracy are: (1) Jeffersonian principles of social and economic equality, freedom, and human rights; and (2) Madisonian principles of the separation of powers, checks and balances, and limited government aimed at preventing tyranny by any single faction or branch of government.  A commitment to these principles keeps American democracy on a journey to more perfectly embody those principles, shapes the most basic understanding of the common good, and clarifies what is at the heart of becoming a more just society.  

The essence of every political party, on the other hand, is attaining and maintaining power.  With his rhetorical question, Graham redefined the essence of American democracy as a ongoing power struggle—as perpetual conflict and competition between power-seeking individuals and among power-seeking factions as they vie for control, influence, and dominance at the expense of the common good—and justice degenerates into a “virtueless virtue" that serves only the interest of those in power.

Fairy Tale Damsels in Distress

[Registration for Enchantments is now available at California State University - East Bay's Osher Lifelong Learning website.  Click HERE.]

In my last post (Enchantments and Villains) about my upcoming online lecture series on fairy tales (Planning Ahead: "Now for Something Completely Different"), I wrote that one of the concerns that people have about reading fairy tales to children is that the stories are often too scary and gruesome for young children.  

The struggle between the hero/heroine and the villain—between good and evil—is often at the center of the fairy tale. The hero/heroine and the villain are at odds with each other. They each want a different outcome, producing conflict and competition which drives the action in the story.  What would fairy tales be without their villains? 

According to some psychological theories, the telling and hearing of stories can support emotional health and have therapeutic benefits - and perhaps engaging the dark side of fairy tales is actually good for children—and for adults.

Another issue of concern is the recurring theme of the damsel in distress within fairy tales. The term 'damsel' refers to a young woman of high social standing who is often depicted as beautiful and popular. These damsels find themselves in various forms of danger, such as being kidnapped, imprisoned, cursed, or otherwise oppressed, and require the aid of one or more male heroes to save them. The portrayal of these women as weak, helpless, and passive victims awaiting a male rescuer has been a staple in Western storytelling, with the nature of their adversaries evolving over time to reflect societal fears and tastes, ranging from witches to aliens. Iconic characters like the unconscious Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, who depend on a prince's love to free them from a witch's curse, continue to promote outdated and condescending views of women. Similarly, even the diligent Cinderella is depicted as needing a prince to liberate her from her abusive household.

Food for Thought

Princess Belle-Etoile rescuing Prince Cheri
by English artist and book illustrator
Walter Crane (1845-1915) 

There are fairy tales that tell a different story.  In "Hansel and Gretel," Gretel slays the witch and rescues Hansel. In "Beauty and the Beast," Belle frees the prince from his curse. In the lesser-known "Princess Belle-Etoile," the princess dons her armor and saves the prince. Rapunzel herself concocts the escape plan from the tower, actively participating in her liberation. Although her role involves the stereotypical woman's activity of knitting, she proactively avoids waiting for the prince to devise a plan. Moreover, in the often-overlooked conclusion of the tale, Rapunzel, as a single mother fending for herself and her child in the wilderness, rescues the prince.

More Food for Thought

There are other ways of relating to fairy tales than a literal reading.  Both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung considered fairy tales to be symbolic communications from - and to - the unconscious mind akin to dreams.  They held that the telling and hearing of fairy tales is an active experience, involving a powerful dynamic.  The narration of and reflection on the stories promote the resolution of internal, unconscious, and often self-defeating conflicts.

Freud and Jung had contrasting views on the symbolic significance of characters in dreams and fairy tales. Freud posited that while a character in our dreams or fairy tales does represent the self, other characters symbolize other people—typically mothers, fathers, siblings—who are the source of our internal and unconscious conflicts. Jung, conversely, believed that every character embodies different facets of the self. Both the feeble, defenseless victim and the potent, ingenious savior are representations of "me," irrespective of the character's gender.  Of course, then so is the villain.

[My related post:  Enchantments and Villains]

Enchantments and Villains

[Registration for Enchantments is now available at California State University - East Bay's Osher Lifelong Learning website.  Click HERE.]

With my lecture series on fairy tales and psychology coming up soon, I had a bit of a chuckle yesterday when an article popped up in my newsfeed about Disney’s plans for massive renovations and expansions to its theme park.  The Magic Kingdom is about to get a bit darker as villains will soon have their own home in the Magic Kingdom!   The expansion of Walt Disney World in Florida includes creating Villain Land.  Watch out, Sleeping Beauty and other fairy tale damsels in distress! 

Fairy tales do have their dark side. In fact, there has long been concern that fairy tales are generally too scary and gruesome for young children.  [Of course, they didn’t originate as children’s stories; they were stories told by adults to other adults.  But that changed by the mid-1800s after the Brothers Grimm realized that promoting their academic work on folktales as stories for children could ease their financial worries.]  In 1900, L. Frank Baum wrote in the introduction to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz:

          … the old time fairy tale, having served for generation, may now be classed as “historical” in the children’s library; for the time has come for a series of newer “wonder tales” in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale.

          … Having this thought in mind, the story of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” was written solely to please children of today.  It aspires to being a modern fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.

The villains eliminated together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents?  Nightmares left out?  Baum appears not to have thought that it might be a bit nightmarish to tell a story about a young girl being hunted down by a wicked witch who sends an army of flying monkeys after the girl and her friends—that is, after attacking them three previous times with an army of wolves, an army of crows and an army of killer bees—and then enslaves her. 

The struggle between the hero/heroine and the villain—between good and evil—is often at the center of the fairy tale. The hero/heroine and the villain are at odds with each other. They each want a different outcome, producing conflict and competition which drives the action in the story.  What would fairy tales be without their villains? 

[My related post:  Fairy Tale Damsels in Distress]

Planning Ahead: "Now for Something Completely Different"

Yes, Iceland was just as cold as it looks!

I am just back home this week from a wonderful 10-day adventure in Iceland - and am ready to give some attention to a new lecture series.  

If you have been attending any of my classes over the years, then you are accustomed to my focusing on history with contemporary social, political and even religious implications.  Those series can get to be a bit heavy–like my recent Rise and Fall of the Not-So-Invisible Empire on America’s history of White supremacy, racism and the Ku Klux Klan. That series was a great event.  Lots of information.  But it certainly was intense.  So, I am taking a break from "heavy" and planning to do something a little more fun.

I have proposed an online lecture series in the SCU-East Bay OLLI program for the fall that takes me back to my academic roots in psychology and my interest in literature and culture. 

Enchantments:  The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales

Little Red Riding Hood by Jessie Willcox Smith
(1911) from the book A Child's Book of Stories

Contemporary Americans have simultaneously watered down fairy tales with Disney cuteness and eschewed them as stories too frightening for young children. But fairy tales did not originate as stories for children. They were stories told by adults for adults, the chief form of wintertime entertainment in pre-literate agricultural communities.

Those who study myths, dreams and the symbolic nature of human psychology believe that the telling—and hearing— of stories like fairy tales is not a passive experience, that there is a powerful dynamic that takes place in the telling and listening to stories. Some cultures even trained their physicians in the art of storytelling so that they could use stories as tools for psychic and emotional healing and to help a patient become a more integrated person. (Scheherazade's storytelling in One Thousand and One Nights is not simply a ploy to save her life; her storytelling is therapeutic.)

My Plans for the Series

I presented this series several years ago and am now updating it.  My plan is to look at the nature and history of fairy tales and the theories of psychological interpretation—with a presentation on the basics of Freudian and Jungian. psychology.  We will explore both some well-known and lesser-known fairy tales to see what they can tell us about ourselves and our journey towards integration, wholeness, and healthy human development.  

Hope to see you in the fall!  I'll keep you posted on scheduling.  In the meanwhile, check out the great selection of OLLI lectures available during the Spring/Summer 2024 Term!

[My related posts:  Fairy Tale Damsels in Distress and Enchantments and Villains]

Counting Down to The Rise and Fall of the Not-So-Invisible Empire

My lecture series on slavery, White supremacy and the Ku Klux Klan - The Rise and Fall of the Not-So-Invisible Empire - starts in just about a month.  Looking forward to seeing you there!  [If you haven't signed up yet, you can register on the California State University - East Bay OLLI website by clicking here.]  

In the meanwhile - 

This past Saturday, I attended a performance by one of my favorite jazz singers, Tierney Sutton.  She opened her show with a music video of the song "Good People" - confronting racism with a musical and visual survey of events in American history (as well as some present-day realities). 

 

Tierney then began her live performance without an introduction or comment by singing "The Way We Were".

Mem'ries may be beautiful and yet

What's too painful to remember

We simply choose to forget

So it's the laughter we will remember

Whenever we remember the way we were

Having spent a great deal of time over the past few months reading, researching and thinking about racism in America in preparation for The Rise and Fall of the Not-So-Invisible Empire, this was a surprise coincidence - and a surprisingly moving moment.   

On another note -

One of the topics that I will touch on briefly in the series is modern-day slavery and human trafficking.  Statistics vary quite a bit, but there are somewhere around 50 million people in the world today living in slavery.  Most coverage of human trafficking focuses on people being forced into sex work, but there are other areas of forced labor - one of the fastest growing being cyber slavery.  Hundreds of thousands are forced to work in industrial scale online scamming compounds. in southeast Asia.   You might find CNN's Ivan Watson's report on the intersection between human trafficking and the proliferation of online scamming:  Myanmar-based gangs force trafficking victims to scam Americans online. 

Some more food for thought - 

CNN's Fareed Zachariah closed out 2023 with a special report on immigration:  A Fareed Zakaria GPS Special: Immigration Breakdown.   Fareed provides a wide-ranging look at immigration, exploring not only the situation at the US southern border but immigration's history of racism.  You might also find the PBS American Experience page Reconstruction: The Second Civil War worth checking out.

Everything's Related!