Hi John,
Yes. You said, "When people percieve that they are under threat, being cheated, ignored, or even not-taken-care-of, it raises that part of the human pyche we call 'self interest.’” If the strategies of xenophobia are used, without the essential dynamic being that the populists hate people wanting to immigrate, or that they are essentially racist, then I agree with that as well, but I also think there is more going on. The friction is between globalism and nationalism (or at least that is one binary involved).  And the privileged perspective, it seems, among progressives is globalism.  Which means that nationalism, and all its features, gets demonized, reduced to a simplistic and phobic response among people who “just don’t get it.”  National identity remains important. Economic advantage seems important.  The power to work in one’s self interest, to have the means to raise a family and make personal choices in keeping with one’s beliefs and values seems important, and these kinds of things get “shipped overseas” when globalism runs at full speed.  This is the kind of thing that Trump tapped into when he said, “Make America Great Again.”  So, when Biden and the democrats pour crap on those people by villainizing MAGA in an attempt to gain political advantage, it infuriates and only makes Trump stronger.

Phil



> On May 19, 2023, at 8:41 AM, john wymore <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> Dear Phil, 
> 
> I was wondering if you found anything else of interest in my post.
> 
> And I was deeply touched by your closing wishes. BTW “”trailer trash” is your characterization not mine. 
> 
>> On May 18, 2023, at 4:09 PM, Philip Brownell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> 
>> John,
>> Glad for your thoughts, but you didn’t agree with me. You took the opportunity to express your own thoughts and “take” on populism and, for me, to do the same old thing. I just love how the opposing people are typically characterized as virtual trailer trash (low income, poor, and poorly educated).  So, what can you expect from people who just don’t know any better (not like us, we the better off and better educated). This is the same old song I’ve heard for decades from people who put Christians down as needing a crutch (of religion) in order to make it in life.  
>> 
>> But John. I am always glad to see you posting here, and I wish you good health and interesting things to do.  
>> 
>> Phil
>> 
>>> On May 18, 2023, at 3:56 PM, john wymore <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Phil said: “ . . . the situation is  more complex than simply calling populists racists or xenophobes.  It’s not that they hate other  people.  They care more for themselves at this point than they do for others’  And that is self regulation.”  (which doesn’t mean we have to admire it. But it is survival.)
>>> 
>>> 	Yes. This is  an opportunity to agree with Phil. Almost, anyhow. I would say that the “self regulation” is motivated by what is contained in Phil’s 3rd sentence, the words, 
>>> “themselves” and “others”.  When people percieve that they are under threat, being cheated, ignored, or even not-taken-care-of, it raises that part of the human pyche we call 
>>> “self interest”. It then mobilizes the strategies of xenophobia and paranoia. Why those?  Because they assure safety. Both cause an immediate withdrawal or a call to arms. There is no doubt that they were installed by natural selection —probably around the Stone Age (pleistocene) — thus it still remain part of every humans character. In modern societies where we encounter strangers everyday some with splendidly different features— such negative responses need to be repressed and the ironically oppossite feature of humanity — a great need for one another -- brought forth.  The  emphasis on the latter was one of the principles of The Enlightenment that allowed the emegence of liberal democracy. 
>>> 	But democracy required a participatory citizenship including a literate prolatariate. And beyond that an educated society. The  European version of liberal democracy let emerge as a mixed society of capitalism and socialism.The American version emphasized freee enterprise and capitalism.  Not a bad decision.  It creaed a lot of wealth —fast. 
>>> And it created social stratification vastly aided by slavery.  Why? Because capitalism feeds on cheep labor and the history of America is full of episodes —some bloody and wide spread —of hostility between labor and management. Ah but a liberal democracy allowed for , even encouraged, the freedom to organize and for collective bargaining to rise up against it. That worked to even things out a bit.  But not for everyhone.  There were those at the bottom of a strartified society.  Irony: A society that likes to brag about its middle class fails to notice that to have a middle class you have to have a higher class and a lower class. Nothing wrong with that. It’a  just part of diversity.  That is, if it’s regulated.  
>>> If it is not regulated — well, you know what happens:  The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.  And when the poor get poorer their education level drops further, access to institutions close tighter, and their skill and intuition to organize evaporates. Unitl the Big Man comes on the scene and mobilizes them around his ambitions and goals. This is called populism and it is often the failure to mobilize on their own that allows the previously un-mobilized to become a mob —seemingly full of promise for the prolierate. The use of that word makes it sound like communist propaganda so they don’t use it. 
>>> 	And look who embraced them:  the Republican Party and Evangelical Christians. What would have saved them? An energetic and well funded public school system and a set 
>>> of other institutions still committed to the  principles of a liberal democracy. 
>>> 	Yes.  And I think it would help to know the origins of xenophobia and paranoia.
>>> 
>>> Those are just some of my thoughts for today
>>> 
>>> 
>>> JW 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 	
>>> ______________ Gstalt-L is an independent eCommunity of people interested in gestalt therapy theory and its various applications. Its public archives can be found at http://listserv.icors.org/scripts/wa-ICORS.exe?A0=GSTALT-L, and subscriptions can be managed by clicking on "Subscriber's Corner," which is found at the archives.
>> 
>> ______________ Gstalt-L is an independent eCommunity of people interested in gestalt therapy theory and its various applications. Its public archives can be found at http://listserv.icors.org/scripts/wa-ICORS.exe?A0=GSTALT-L, and subscriptions can be managed by clicking on "Subscriber's Corner," which is found at the archives.
> 
> ______________ Gstalt-L is an independent eCommunity of people interested in gestalt therapy theory and its various applications. Its public archives can be found at http://listserv.icors.org/scripts/wa-ICORS.exe?A0=GSTALT-L, and subscriptions can be managed by clicking on "Subscriber's Corner," which is found at the archives.

______________
Gstalt-L is an independent eCommunity of people interested in gestalt therapy theory and its various applications. Its public archives can be found at http://listserv.icors.org/scripts/wa-ICORS.exe?A0=GSTALT-L, and subscriptions can be managed by clicking on "Subscriber's Corner," which is found at the archives.