| A couple of weeks ago I heard a story on NPR that impressed me as very insightful. It was an interview with a man named Yuval Levin, who has written a book called A Time to Build. Here’s a bit of it: “And I think a lot of them on both sides of our politics see their role as channeling the frustration of their voters, as speaking for those voters. And so where people might once have thought about running for Congress in terms of seeking a microphone in order to get power or to advance change, now, at least implicitly, a lot of people think about it in terms of seeking power in order to get a microphone to be heard in the public debate.” The idea is that politicians are talking for people, rather than doing things to make their lives better, and that they should be talking less and doing more. I think that’s absolutely true. And the fact is that Trump, and probably many other politicians, are able to survive and succeed by just talking for their people, just saying what they want said. In fact, being spoken for is the main thing, and maybe even the only thing, that much of the public wants from their leaders. Leaders like Trump who accomplish very little can still be considered successes by their followers as long as they say the things they want to hear. And that shows how much human beings want to be heard. When a leader says things that reflect what we think, we feel heard, and that makes us feel good. We need that, and not just from our politicians (who must do this to some extent, but should then get on to the business of good governance) but also from many of the people in our lives. Those we love may not be able to fix our problems, and often we don’t even want them to, but when something is wrong we want to be able to tell them about it and feel heard. Further, that’s at least part of what is going on in prayer. When we tell God our problems we feel heard and we feel better, even if nothing happens as a result . The non-religious are bewildered that people continue to pray when prayer is clearly not efficacious, but I think that this sensation of being heard and the positive feelings that it brings are a big part of religion. Overall, when we're trying to understand what's going on in the world, I think we overstate the practical side of society and relationships, and underestimate the central role that the emotional side plays. |
| Created on 28 November 2020 by Samuel Ethan Fox |
specifically about politics in California. ...