Trust
a Canadian to unearth the reason why both conservatives and liberals
feel angry and under siege in America. Pollster Michael Adams, whose
last book Fire & Ice
explained the growing divergence of values between Americans and
Canadians, now dissects the American 'culture wars' in a new book American Backlash and concludes that:
It's not the values of the politically ascendant conservatives or
the values of politically challenged progressives that are growing most
rapidly -- but the values of the 50% of America that is politically
disengaged -- risk-taking, thrill-seeking, fatalism,
survival-of-the-fittest false Darwinism, exclusion, ostentatious
consumption, and status-seeking... The values of the politically
disengaged lack any sign of idealism: These Americans seem to reject
both the Republican (traditional religion and values, father-led home,
obedience to authority) and Democratic (gender equality, inclusion,
tolerance, and personal spirituality) visions of the good life and the
ideal community.
On the chart above, the 110 values surveyed
(defined in the book) are plotted according to where they fall on the
2-by-2 grid. The values that have become significantly more important
to Americans since 1992 are shown in bold. An acceptance of violence as
inevitable, persuasive and cathartic
(multiple questions were asked to get at the different aspects of this
value, and the different aspects of all the values surveyed) showed the
greatest increase of any of the 110 values. There has been a
commensurate drop in the proportion of respondents holding many of the values that both conservatives and progressives hold dear (those in the upper left quadrant).
The
book contains an interesting perspective on the Lakoffian 'frames' of
progressives and conservatives. The conservative frame sees the values
in the single vertical dimension depicted in the above chart -- those
at the top are highly valued, while those at the bottom are despised
and often ascribed (incorrectly) to liberals. Likewise, the progressive
frame sees the values in the single horizontal dimension depicted in
the above chart -- those at the left are highly valued, while those at
the right are abhorred and often ascribed (incorrectly) to
conservatives. Since the prevailing trend of values is towards the
lower right, both conservatives and progressives, through their
different, one-dimensional frames, see 'America going to Hell' --
moving away from their cherished values. They're both right, and both
wrong.
Adams has accumulated an exhaustive set of data from
detailed interviews with thousands of Americans over twelve years. The
book explains how he digs for the underlying values, not the surface
manifestations of them, and looks for significant trends and
demographic differences. His findings will be controversial: Not only
does he find a growing proportion of Americans disengaged,
disenchanted, and fatalistic, but this small plurality is especially
pronounced in young Americans of all stripes, races, regions and
economic backgrounds, and is growing
among older Americans. Here's where the average American, by the most
significant demographics, now places his/her values on this grid
(arrows show the directional trend, where known):
As
reported in his earlier book, US values are not only very different
(fire and ice) from those of Canadians and Europeans (excepting the
British) but diverging. The recent trend of voting Americans (towards
the upper right quadrant) has favoured the conservatives, but it is
dwarfed by the contrary, and more marked, fuck-it-all nihilism of the
larger group of non-voting Americans, who, despite being repeatedly
told the 2004 election was the most important in a generation, mostly
remained indifferent to both parties' pleas and warnings. The age and
gender breakdown, shown in red dots above, suggests the trend is
accelerating and is especially prevalent among young Americans -- good
reason for both conservatives and progressives to be very worried. The
regional breakdown is interesting -- the East and West coasts are far
apart, with New Englanders' values closely aligned to Canadians', and
Pacific coasters (as always) trend-setting the growing alienation and
disenchantment of the nation.
Adams' counter-intuitive
assessment -- that liberals and conservatives are closer in values to
each other than either group is to non-voting Americans, is backed up
by a lot of intriguing data in the book -- such as the fact that church
attendance of Americans has remained essentially unchanged for a
half-century, and that independent polls consistently show that
Americans have grown much more suspicious of, and indifferent to the
plight of, their fellow citizens, a trend that started long before
9/11.
In the latter part of the book, Adams surprisingly seems
to write off this angry and disengaged plurality and instead focuses on
how progressives and conservatives can broaden their appeal among the
voters who are still paying attention. Maybe my idealism is getting the
better of me, but it seems to me it would be worthwhile for Adams, and
for those who would rescue the disengaged from their political
indifference, to delve further into what lies behind the fatalism,
ostentatious consumption, thrill-seeking, and anomie
(and, considering the threats of global warming, the end of oil, and
overpopulation, especially what Adams calls 'ecological fatalism' --
the widely-held view among the disengaged that the environment is
beyond saving) -- and fix it before it starts to tear the country's
social fabric apart. I am a little too young to remember the last wave
of disengaged youth (in the 1950s, rebel without a cause years), but
that might be a place to start. Youth disengagement has, on many
occasions in human history, been a precursor to especially brutal
exhibitions of civil and international violence. America may well be,
as Adams says, "perpetually exceptional", but when what makes it
exceptional is intellectual, psychological, and emotional withdrawal on
a massive scale, that sounds to me like cause for alarm. There's a
generation gap larger and more perplexing than anything we've seen in a
half-century, and book or two in this line of investigation for someone.
Note
on the graphics: I have reversed the left and right-hand labels, and
positions of all segments and values on these graphics accordingly,
from those shown in the book, to bring them into conformity with the
accepted liberal-libertarian/ conservative-authoritarian minus/plus
2-by-2 orientation, which for some reason Adams chooses to flip. I've
done this solely to make the graphics more intuitive. |
MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
