21st century decline of Western democracies #2 - Divergence
One of the reasons of the loss of faith in the liberal democratic utopia I think is divergence. I specifically want to avoid the use of the word decadence, because I do not think this has anything to do with the decay of morality and probably it never had anything to do with the downfall of any society.
Divergence in this sense is the opposite of social unity.
I think most humans are simply incapable of having a truly pluralistic mindset. Countless years of history backs up this statement and it is unlikely to be proven otherwise in the foreseeable future. Why? I think there are two reasons:
1. Most humans are incapable of truly fence-sitting. Whatever the issue, people tend to “pick a side” and go with it. Objectively being neutral is something we are really bad at. Taking sides build up our social identity. In fact people are willing to take sides they might not necessarily agree with just to have a sense of identity and belonging. This leads to two conjectures: people really stick to the sides they have chosen going into the extremes if necessary and they refuse to assimilate even if (or especially if) belonging to a minority.
2. Humans’ inherited pattern recognition and cause-and-effect association system. Simply put: blame. Humans, due to our intelligence are just as good at finding patterns as well as recognizing them. We are not infallible though and we sometimes find patterns that are not there. This is the very basis of racism among other things, but it has also helped our ancestors to survive ie. the “once bitten twice shy”-effect. Since we do not really need it anymore to survive it became more or less only a catalyst to conflict as it makes groups to become and remain hostile towards each other.
Now, put the above two together and you will find that it is very unlikely that someone will think in a truly pluralistic manner, people tend to think “us and them” pretty much all the time. Hence, true liberalism is a utopia much like communism or completely free market capitalism. It is not fully compatible with the human mindset.
Since liberal democracies allow for divergent thought (free speech, freedom of association etc.), nothing stops various ideologies to pop up. Ideologies are almost synonymous with “us and them” thinking. In the end ultra-feminists, neo-nazis, black power, communists etc. all preach an ideology whose bottom line is: “we stick together to hate everyone else in the name of <insert utopia/God/grand idea>”. Environmentalists hate industrialists, capitalists hate communists, keynesian economists hate classical economists, meat lovers hate vegans and the list goes on endlessly. The main effect of these radical ideologies or “-ism”-s is to hammer a wedge in society.
The “-ism”-s are part of people’s identities so they are not likely to let go and compromise with an opposing “-ism” and try to sway the more moderate people to their camp. How do these ideologies go mainstream? They typically attach themselves to larger political groups either because they otherwise would be excluded (eg. LGBT groups would not be very much welcome within conservatives in the US) or because their ideologies are a more extreme and/or focused version of the values of the main group. These radical “attachments” then influence the main group. This is called radicalization.
Radicalization is further sped up when one large political group adopts radical ideologies as its values. It doesn’t matter who shoots first, all groups get more desperate and more entrenched in their thoughts and values. For instance, Trump will likely evoke a more desperate, radical response from democrats which in turn will make republicans more radical and who knows what the end will be, but what is sure, is that radicalization will entrench the divide in society.
Such level of divergence of thought and radicalization, I think, is the leading cause for the transformation of liberal democracies into more autocracy-leaning societies.
