Forget the Money, Follow the Sacredness
In the film version of All the Presidents Men, when Robert Redford, playing the journalist Bob Woodward, is struggling to unravel the Watergate conspiracy, an anonymous source advises him to follow the money. Its a good rule of thumb for understanding the behavior of politicians. But following the money leads you astray if youre trying to understand voters.
Self-interest, political scientists have found, is a surprisingly weak predictor of peoples views on specific issues. Parents of children in public school are not more supportive of government aid to schools than other citizens. People without health insurance are not more likely to favor government-provided health insurance than are people who are fully insured.
Despite what you might have learned in Economics 101, people arent always selfish. In politics, theyre more often groupish. When people feel that a group they value be it racial, religious, regional or ideological is under attack, they rally to its defense, even at some cost to themselves. We evolved to be tribal, and politics is a competition among coalitions of tribes.
The key to understanding tribal behavior is not money, its sacredness. The great trick that humans developed at some point in the last few hundred thousand years is the ability to circle around a tree, rock, ancestor, flag, book or god, and then treat that thing as sacred. People who worship the same idol can trust one another, work as a team and prevail over less cohesive groups. So if you want to understand politics, and especially our divisive culture wars, you must follow the sacredness.
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/17/forget-the-money-follow-the-sacredness/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120318
LiberalLoner
(9,762 posts)see the history of the U.S. and where we should go next! Thanks! K&R
yurbud
(39,405 posts)their bitch.
groovedaddy
(6,229 posts)yurbud
(39,405 posts)given the unpleasant results here and in Muslim countries.