2) Working class context also correlates w/ high rates of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) due to poverty & socioeconomic instability. You learn young that the world is harsh & you have to fight to survive.
3) Where I think this analysis goes wrong, however, is that the folks I know work hard to raise kids who respect others. They don't like braggarts & they certainly don't like people who don't work hard.
4) So yeah, I think there's a kind of fighting ethic in working class. There's a toughness. But it's not directed toward the weak. It's employed in service of others. You know the world is awful so you fight to protect others, not yourself.
5) Here, bullies get beat up. They don't get send to counseling.
6) At the same time, this instinct to protect the weak by physical means or aggressiveness can be manipulated. If you convince us that we're under attack or "our people" will be harmed, you better believe we'll come out swinging.
7) Note for ecclesiology nerds: Have you ever noticed the correlations btwn church polity & socioeconomics? Have you notices how certain kinds of pastoral leadership "work" in certain spaces & not others?
8) All that to say, working class voters probably recognize Trump's pathos & it undoubtedly appeals b/c it's familiar. But I'd suggest that it's an entirely different logos than what's been operative in working class context to this point.
9) Whether Trump's influence changes that is something for social historians. I think it's possible that it does, that it enables selfish instincts that had been previously held in check.
10) This is simply anectdotal observation & not moral judgment. Insofar as families & churches continue to struggle in working class contexts, leaders like Trump will have disproportionate cultural influence.
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Bedford (pop. 3200) was home to a National Guard unit serving in Company A in 1st Battalion in 116th Infantry Regiment of 29th Infantry Division. Of the 35 soldiers from Bedford, 19 were killed on Omaha Beach. Another 4 “Bedford Boys” would die before the end of the campaign
Bedford suffered the greatest proportion of losses of any town in the US that day. Everyone knew someone. Everyone lost someone. A little, quiet town in rural VA decimated by the events on a faraway continent & the actions of evil men.
This is beautiful & reminds me that I've had an essay brewing for a couple years about link btwn male loneliness/depression & cultures that prioritize male comfort & privilege.
TL;DR: Excusing men of their responsibilities to women & children robs them of purpose & the very ties that bind them to community.
The shape of modern Western life is already deeply individualistic so loneliness is a constant threat. But there's a sense in which men are *more* at risk of falling thru gaps b/c male embodiment does not naturally force a man to be bound to others in way female embodiment does.
On this fine Saturday morning, a few thoughts re: Alistair Begg...
*cracks knuckles*
(For unaware, Begg is a conservative evangelical pastor who holds traditional views of gender & sexuality but who recently advised a congregant to attend her grandson's marriage his trans fiancé. Despite conservative backlash, Begg is standing his ground.)
In the ensuing debates, marriage traditionalists are divided on Begg's advice. Some have cancelled Begg while others have agreed to disagree. Begg himself names it as an example of the difference btwn US evangelicalism & UK evangelicalism (Begg's Scottish) & yes... but also...
In response to this article, someone asked me why mid-tier leaders prop up abusive rulers. Are they being blackmailed? Do these leaders have dirt on them?
I cannot reiterate this enough: The mediocrity is the point.
So much political & ecclesiastical corruption can be explained by simple fact that people are lazy & consumptive. They want to live like little kings over little kingdoms & have no higher ambition for life than indulgence. Sloth, greed, gluttony are deadly sins for a reason.
It's the nature of authoritarian leaders to remain happily ensconced in failing societies as long as they get to be at the top & indulge their base appetites. They create worlds of fiction & surround themselves w/ folks who are also content w/ a just small piece of that pie
Don't underestimate how much of authoritarian parenting is a survival mechanism against personal internal chaos. Folks who experience internal disorder will often try to order their environments & the people in them instead.
Sure, authoritarianism is a power grab but to what end? Simply to have power? More likely to use that power as a way to protect/stabilize self--including stabilizing self in the new, unpredictable role of parenting. It's a survival technique.
So even tho authoritarian parenting often comes w/ a coolness that's named "emotional maturity," it's more likely a form of detachment from self & others. This detachment is necessary to survive the complexity & variability of human relationships.
Repressing emotions is like taking the batteries out of the smoke detector when it goes off. The warning might signal a fire & the need to flee or it might simply be burnt toast. But only the foolish think the alarm is the problem.
Teaching children to ignore & repress their emotions is especially dangerous b/c they need these responses to keep them safe in the world. Rather, we teach our children how to recognize, define, & articulate their emotions while helping them engaging with reality around them.
Emotion maturity does not mean repressing or ignoring our emotions--shoving them down until they "go away." Emotional maturity means learning to interpret the breadth of our God-given emotional responses & walking in wisdom.