Faux populism -- the crux of US politics, and Obama's great danger in going up against McCain

[cloudythescribbler]

After all, to the extent that the 'bell curve' of intelligence, a bell curve that may be skewed sociologically but basically comes out that way WITHIN a broad range of different contexts (eg among Russians taking the test, or all testees from before 1930, etc) means anything, for every Albert Einstein there's hordes of Bernie Davises, and for every Obama there are similar sized hordes of W Bushes. And at some deep level, people have a sense of having more in common with someone who gives them "straight talk" bullshit.

This tendency seems to be very pronounced in the US, where faux populism has it all over authentic progressive populism, within the media, within a left where authentic progressives have to kowtow to UndergroundPrivileged creeps who wield the real power, and in a society that denigrates the intellect in every way (not only money, but status, power, and especially politics). Justifying the lying is done best when not too elegantly reasoned -- it makes bullshit more palatable. And justifying the lying, "we all shine on" is the essence of our "global" culture is all about.

Other countries with stronger labor movements and more populistic challenges to religion (eg in France and Mexico) also have more authentic populism per capita than in the US. It is one of the factors upholding the Tory Horseshit that is 'programmed to dominate' while everything else is 'programmed to fail' in the "family culture".

[thunder rising]

1. disenfranchisement and powerlessness have kept Democrats on the sidelines.

This tool right here, the blogs, is the equalizer. I might be alone, but I wield a mighty keyboard to a very large community; hence I don't feel alone.

[Leopolds Ghost]

2. I agree, except for the religion part.

There are many countries where religion is not a pernicious influence. Orthodoxy and Calvinism are religion of the elites, however, and like other cultural archetypes, they pervert what is good to serve the interests of the elite. Just as you have elite populism to keep people down, you have elite religion. This is more of a problem in places like Europe where folk religion and folk liberation myths was suppressed and destroyed so there is no cultural alternative to the nationalist mythology and state religion & state philosophy (Calvinism and Capitalist Postmodernism here in the US are basically internally sound philosophy of how to live, not a religion at all but a doctrine of complete selfishness, self-reliance, and entitlement. If you don't succeed you are not part of "the elect" you are a lazy bum; hence, "elite" is replaced with "elect" and liberals and even ambitious poor people who are part of an "undeserving" group are tarred with the "elitist" epithet. It becomes "elitist" to try and help people who do not "deserve" help and hence the term is twisted not to refer to the people who "have made it" because supposedly there are no elites in American society, only "the elect". Calvinism is the enemy. To the extent that the Baptist church is Calvinist, its doctrines have become repulsive; eg. the notion that all governments are ordained by God to punish the wicked through the arm of the law, and hence always to be obeyed. This is an infective "heretical" belief that will eventually be seen as Christian "orthodoxy" even among supposedly non-authoritarian churches and bitter, machismo-oriented underclass seeking to blame someone specific for the inevitable results of a system based on ruthless competition that is designed to leave half the population behind.

[cloudythescribbler]

3. Yes, religion's NOT necessarily anti-populist, & religions like Buddhism have VERY different ...

implications from Christianity or other religions. In the US, however, there is a strong affinity between the DOMINANT brands of Christian culture, and their symbiotic relationship with faux populism, in particular copperhead/creep faux populism, and that symbiosis seems to me to reach to the VERY TOP and to the depths as well.