Ideas spread when they articulate a public’s preexisting unease, not by their novelty.
Evidence
The explanation was not late-blooming genius, but the simple fact that I had unwittingly articulated an unease that had already begun to form in the minds of many ordinary Americans. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 2640
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to Gladwell’s tipping-point theory of social epidemics and to the general sociology-of-knowledge question of why some ideas catch fire. — connects to: Ideologies achieve effects by inflecting existing attitudes, not by domination or false consciousness.; Ideas that violate folk intuitions spread only with heavy institutional support — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 361; Ideological change operates by articulating and disarticulating ideas, not by substitution. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 131 (+1 more)
- DEEPTHINKING: A compact, genuine insight about the mechanism of intellectual influence: resonance with tacit public sentiment, not merit or genius, propels an argument.
Broader Connections
- Ideologies achieve effects by inflecting existing attitudes, not by domination or false consciousness.
#corroborates(0.85) - Ideological change operates by articulating and disarticulating ideas, not by substitution.
#expands(0.80) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 131 - Popular masses accept new ideas only as heterogeneous combinations, not pure forms
#corroborates(0.75) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1215 - Ideas that violate folk intuitions spread only with heavy institutional support
#qualifies(0.72) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 361