Much of this blog and much of my rantings have focused on the decline of civic action and social capital. The writings have often been an exercise in self-righteous consternation. Nevertheless, this month my impish ways have felt significantly more validated after learning of the work of Eitan Hersh and his recent book, Politics is for Power.
His thesis argues that our citizenry (especially white liberals) engage with our political system as spectators by consuming or watching news and primarily focusing on news and issues that have some panash or pizzazz. They end up thinking that they are being good citizens for this spectating, but really, they are not doing anything. He describes this phenomena as Political Hobbyism. And this is bad for our democracy.
Mr. Hersh, goes onto argue that politics takes on a similar function as Sports. We root for our team, disparage the other team, and we react to theatrics, celebrity, and very titillating behavior with more attention and sometimes some dollars. And that this is really dangerous for our system.
He notes that people (often white liberals), don't tend to actually choose to engage in politics in arenas where they can make a difference for a number reasons. The state and local level where you can make a difference is kind of boring. It's not as exciting as what happens at the national level. For white college educated liberals, they will probably be ok. The myriad of problems that arise from political issues aren't directly impacting their quality of life.
I greatly appreciate the ideas and phenomena that Mr. Hersh articulates. And I greatly look forward to actually reading Politics is for Power rather then just hearing it through the amazing Shankar Vedantam. However, I do think that we don't prepare our communities to know how to leverage power in our political system. At some point, I think people knew how to do this more and now we don't (though I can't articulate this wonderfully). It comes back to the main ideas of Bowling Alone, that there is a decline in Social Capital, and with that decline comes a decline in community knowledge in how to exert power and navigate a system. The notion also haven't heard Mr. Hersh discuss how the increase in mass media and digital technology and opportunities for consumerism have contributed to political hobbyism. I.e., if there are major forces that are pushing us to treat political as a consumer activity versus something we can act in, then wouldn't that make such an outcome occur? I do also appreciate some of the initial suggestions I heard Mr. Hersh suggest for addressing this issue. But mostly, I think this is critical that we reflect on this notion when considering that are democracy is in dire straits, we have a racist, narcissistic demagogue as president and that are institutions are not functioning as they should.
Mr. Hersh, goes onto argue that politics takes on a similar function as Sports. We root for our team, disparage the other team, and we react to theatrics, celebrity, and very titillating behavior with more attention and sometimes some dollars. And that this is really dangerous for our system.
He notes that people (often white liberals), don't tend to actually choose to engage in politics in arenas where they can make a difference for a number reasons. The state and local level where you can make a difference is kind of boring. It's not as exciting as what happens at the national level. For white college educated liberals, they will probably be ok. The myriad of problems that arise from political issues aren't directly impacting their quality of life.
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| Fuck y'all. I'd rather bowl alone. |