Managing Our Expectations

[poliphilo]

We expect too much of our politicians. But then again they seem to expect us to expect too much of them.

Here, for example, is Theresa May sermonizing about how much good she means to do. It sounds very much like the sermons David Cameron delivered when he was newly hatched. Did he achieve any of the good he intended? Will she?

And here's Barack Obama leaving office. Remember the rhetoric of his ascension? All that trumpeting of Hope? His supporters and well-wishers have largely concealed from themselves how very unimpressive the record of his time in office has been. Banks unchallenged, Wall St let off the hook, criminal justice system unreformed, Gitmo retained, the economy unstimulated, the poor still as poor as they ever were, the rich as rich- if not richer, wars aggressively pursued, dissidents persecuted with a vengeance.  In most respects Obama's presidency has been a continuation of Bush's.  All that changed was the tone...

...And by the same token Trump's presidency will be a continuation of Obama's- only with a different tone.  Here's a single example: Trump makes a big deal of deporting illegal immigrants. You'd think from this that he's proposing a new and harsher regime. But that's simply not the case. Obama deported 2.5 million illegals during his time in office- but didn't shout about it. The policy exists; one man enforced it quietly, his successor will enforce it noisily. If you're a Mexican being bussed back to the border the effect is much the same. Nothing has changed except the rhetoric. Liberal, conservative- it's really just a matter of the noises you make...

And here's the upside- because there is an upside: if politicians have less power to effect change for the good than we all choose to believe so they have less power to effect change for the worse. What looks like change is mainly window dressing. Real change comes from below- from a changing of hearts and minds. It can't be imposed by fiat from above.

A nation is a collection of millions of individuals- with varying amounts of power (but very few entirely without it)- most of them bonded into collectives of one kind and another- and all pretty much set in their ways. Changing the person at the top is much less of a big deal than we'd like to think.

Comments

[dadi.livejournal.com]

I don't wholly agree with this. When the person at the top who comes to power is somebody very intent on giving a "bad example" in every sense, he somehow seems to give license to all those who were kept in reigns until now by conventions, political correctness, call it how you want, to break out the worst in them.
I have seen it happen in Italy.. when Berlusconi came to power, the "dark side" in every Italian - the cheating, macho, primitive part - finally saw a possibility to express itself, and express itself it did. The general social climate has gotten so much worse in those years, the country has not been the same and probably will never be again. Something is broken, obviously it is not "only" Berlusconi's fault, but he caught the collective subconscious' worst parts and made them into a physical form. Just like Hitler did with the Germans, and and and....

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's a chicken and egg thing. Did the zeitgeist produce Berlusconi or did Berlusconi produce the zeitgeist? Same with Hitler.

I'm inclined to think forces build and build within a nation and then there's an eruption- and the eruption takes the form of a leader who embodies the national id. I think such eruptions are all but inevitable.

[dadi.livejournal.com]

I do have these doubts too from time to time.. but I always have hope into the possibility that these forces can be somehow "dispersed" into other passions.. football, other sports, song contests, whatever.. there was a research here some time ago, stating that people who got really worked up about some team sport or other contests (watching, not necessarily participating) were much less inclined to engage into extremist political views, be they right or left. Obviously there are exceptions, as a lot of hooligans are also often inclined towards the far right, but in general I have found it to be true, as long as these contests are not about a NATIONAL thing but a team one or even a single star or feature.
Bread and Games, always the old thing....

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's interesting.

Yes, the old Romans knew a thing or two. Channel the people's aggression into sports and entertainments and they'll not bother themselves about politics.