'If people throw away money, opportunities, and their very lives chasing destructive delusions, then we might as well revert to divine right of kings or the selection of leaders by lottery.'
, with over 40 million people, something is out of whack. But what if the analysis is incomplete? Suppose there is more collusion with the rich and the powerful, and not just from their public relations people, lawyers, and financial advisers, but from tens of millions of people who derive no benefit?
Josh Marshall, the editor of Talking Points Memo, wrote about a conservative acquaintance. Years ago this person, an immigrant from Britain,and didn't want them near his children. But he agreed with the NRA position on guns as a matter of ideological solidarity. Lately, he bought a firearm and sees himself protecting home and family from the crazed criminal hordes a la Night of the Living Dead..
Although the conservative guy and the police see the issue from different existential situations, they both took positions that were against their rational self-interest. The conservative is far less likely to save his family in a fantasized shoot-out than to see his kids endangered by a shooter at their school or other public place.
These are examples of irrational thinking, an aberration whereby one's picture of the world does not align with one's own enlightened self-interest. The people affected are reducing the odds of their own biological survival in favor of some hazy, un-thought-through"ideal." Progressive have puzzled over why this occurs in economic matters. At one time in our history this was rarely the case. Farmers in the late 19th century knew exactly how the railroads, grain wholesalers, and banks were screwing them. Likewise, organized labor from the Homestead Strike to the Battle of the Overpass fought and died in shocking numbers for the simple dignity to work like free men rather than as wage slaves.
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