Riding in a motorcade in Lima, Peru, shortly after the 2016 election, President Barack Obama was struggling to understand Donald J. Trump’s victory. “What if we were wrong?” he asked aides riding with him in the armored presidential limousine. He had read a column asserting that liberals had forgotten how important identity was to people and had promoted an empty cosmopolitan globalism that made many feel left behind. “Maybe we pushed too far,” Mr. Obama said. “Maybe people just want to fall back into their tribe.The defining characteristics displayed in that article were:
Hubris. These people's worlds are defined by their blind allegiance to progressivism and of their own moral certainty. They are so convinced of their righteousness that anyone working against them must be inherently evil. That is sort of the the character basis for all supervillains. (The other be narcissistic injury, but the two can go in hand.) The relevant quote I've heard is that liberals have such profound love for man in general that they are able to justify great tyranny and violence against man in particular.
Impotence. Obama throws his hands in the air and laments, "There was nothing I could do, I just too far ahead of my time."
Naivete. Most entertaining is how sideswiped they all were at Trump's victory. They were all as certain in Hillary's inevitable victory as they are in their belief that diversity = strength. There apparently is an HBO documentary of Obama's last year that captured Ben Rhodes as completely speechless after the election outcome was announced. That is one of Obama's key advisors - who crafted the Iran deal - so jolted by reality that he couldn't talk.
Delusion. Of course there is the delusion that Obama left a strong foreign policy legacy, which was discussed in the last post. But there is also delusion in this opening paragraph. He had read a column asserting that liberals had forgotten how important identity was to people [...]. Liberals, who are completely obsessed with identity, who think about identity night and day more than anything else, forgot it was important to people? These people can't see their own hand in front their face for the fog of their own delusions - it's no wonder they're constantly surprised at reality as it unfolds.
Self-reflection. Much of the focus is on how Obama's team could have done things differently. A little self-reflection isn't a bad thing. Is it a virtue? They say patience is a virtue, but what if you found out I was patiently waiting for the best time to kill you? Maybe it's not so simple after all. These people seem to be chronically self-reflecting. (Which is also something that narcissists do.) This is another facet where Obama and Trump could not be more different. Obama likes to engage in cerebral self-reflection, where he measures his own actions against his values (of which he is certain are divine). Do you think Trump sits around self-reflecting? I'd reckon he does very little of that. Instead, he acts on the world and carefully scrutinizes for feedback. He doesn't steer himself by personal self-reflection, but by seeing himself reflected by the world.
Rationale. Another one that seems like it shouldn't be that bad. What's wrong with rationale? And isn't rationale just exactly what this blog is always pining for - and complaining about when it's in short supply? Yes, it is, but you have to be careful with rationale. When using logic you must always work from facts & observations towards conclusions. We use the term rationalization when someone uses sounds logic but pares away the context until the conclusion matches the desired outcome.
These characteristics culminated in the electoral loss of Obama anointed successor, which has led to the erosion of most of Obama's legacy in less than 18 months. He dismisses it as "people just want to fall back in to their tribe." Or in other words, people want something out of life besides what the author aptly terms as empty cosmopolitan globalism. Well, he must be correct here. Tribe means culture, family, tradition, language, race, nation...all the things that give people meaning. Cosmopolitan globalism gives people meaning too, but at the cost of all the other things. She is a jealous lover. She won't tolerate national pride or traditional values. Obama most clearly demarked his loyalties when he quipped, "you didn't build that." There is no such thing as national heritage with him; just a sea of interchangeable individuals. Any half-wit thug in a faraway cesspool has just as much claim to Western civilization as you do.
Tribe beats cult in the long-run. Tribe has staying power, cult peters out. In tribe you are encouraged to raise healthy & strong children. In cult its okay to be a back-alley crack whore and die of AIDS in your 30s. (West Hollywood just awarded a ceremonial key to the city to a prostitute.) Darwinian forces favor tribe, and scorn cult. Liberals, so embubbled by their own virtual supremacy, can't even bring themselves to ask the most obvious Darwinian questions - especially for a group that like to use Darwin to rub in in Christians noses. Questions like Why do successful societies normally implement religious systems, matrimony, scorn for homosexuality, self-reliance, delayed sexuality, etc. Best as I can tell, it's not possible to be both a Darwinist and a liberal, at least not the type obsessed with notions of equality...which I think may be all of them. The contradictions are brutal. Rake them over the coals for it every chance you get. If we do our jobs they'll be renouncing Darwin by the end of the year!
If tribe beats cult, then why is there ever cult at all? It should just be tribe all the time. Well, tribe isn't infallible, it is flawed for all the ways that jump to mind with we think of tribalism. Mostly it's the instability and distraction caused by constant sectarian power struggles. So what beats tribe? Democracy does, to use the term loosely. In democracy there is the contract that (1) political struggles will be resolved through formal, non-violent processes, and (2) people will abide by the results of the process. Democracy is like taking a head count to see who would have won the war, and accepting the outcome and sparing the tremendous internal damage that civil wars bring. Evolutionarily speaking, it's sound. A nation that weakens itself through internecine warfare may end up dominated by an outside power. It's the same reason why, in the animal kingdom, contests over territory don't normally lead to serious injury.
So tribe beats cult, but democracy beats tribe. So it's democracy then, right? The rub is that cult beats democracy. In democracy, you lie, cheat, and steal to get the majority vote. Democracy only really works as long as the people mostly work in good faith, but eventually they won't do that. Liberals have found the best way to get the vote is to constantly expand the electorate and promise the newcomers wealth taken from the old guard, just so long as they can get power. Now the left wants completely open borders, so that any destitute soul can show up and vote D and get social welfare. The cult must also brainwash a large portion of the electorate to believe that what they are doing is virtuous. For instance, rich white liberals, or working class blacks, don't benefit at all from liberal policies, but they must be convinced that they do, or that it is the morally acceptable choice.
The result is a perversion of the democratic underpinning. In late democracy, the winners of elections are not who the winners of battle would be. The fittest 40% could easily subdue the inept 60% on the battlefield, but not at the ballot box. Once the cult pits the haves against the have nots, the democratic contract decays.
What the cult does to a nation is sort of what happens in a hostile corporate takeover. The successful brand name is taken, and profits can be made by marketing with that name, but ruthlessly cutting quality. Eventually the brand loses its reputation and dies. Similarly, the cult does kill the host, eventually. But that's fine...that's how diseases work after all.
People want to fall back to their tribe, says Obama. If only he spent as much time reflecting on the plights of others as he does reflecting on himself. Eventually the democracy dies, and all that's left is tribe.
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