Crisis paralysis reflects ordinary voters’ own disavowed desires, not merely elite ideology
Evidence
The political “reality” that Bush and the others will no doubt blame their failure to act upon is not just an ideological smokescreen. It is the reality constituted by the desires of that selfsame Live 8 crowd who, when push comes to shove, will not pay extra taxes, will not give up cheap flights or car use, will not make a stand against inequity and stupidity at work if it means compromising their interests and those of their famileeeee and yet who expect global crises to be magically solved by eight stooges in a room. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1422
Categorization
- XREF: Fisher’s broader argument that neoliberal subjectivity is self-imposed connects to the passage in his analysis of the ‘privatisation of stress’ and voluntary austerity elsewhere in K-Punk. — connects to: Financialized populist voting mirrors nationalist sacrifice by feeling emotionally plausible despite self-interest — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living With…, 99; Group-interest voters lack the contextual grasp to respond ideologically without elite guidance; Many voters would elect extremely authoritarian candidates given a crisis. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 3852 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Financialized populist voting mirrors nationalist sacrifice by feeling emotionally plausible despite self-interest
#expands(0.82) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 99 - Group-interest voters lack the contextual grasp to respond ideologically without elite guidance
#contradicts(0.78) - Crises, real or imagined, drive popular support for nationalist and populist leaders
#exemplifies(0.75) — Erin K. Jenne and Promise Frank Ejiofor, Ethnopopulism and genocidal…, 82 - Many voters would elect extremely authoritarian candidates given a crisis.
#contradicts(0.72) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 3852 - Explaining election swings assumes elite-level ideology mirrors in the mass public
#qualifies(0.70) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1883