JeffW - The Monday Morning Memo

“In a piece for The Atlantic called “Chicken Littles are Ruining America,” David Brooks argues that American society has swung from an emphasis on communalism in the mid 20th century to individualism from the 1970s on. But now, he argued, the pendulum is swinging back. “Twenty-first-century communalism is a peculiar kind of communalism,” he wrote. “Whether you’re on the MAGA right or the social-justice left, you define your identity by how you stand against what you perceive to be the dominant structures of society. Groups on each side of the political divide are held together less by common affections than by a common sense of threat, an experience of collective oppression. Today’s communal culture is based on a shared belief that society is broken, systems are rotten, the game is rigged, injustice prevails, the venal elites are out to get us; we find solidarity and meaning in resisting their oppression together. … In this culture, people feel bonded not because they are cooperating with one another but because they are indignant about the same things. … In this way, pessimism becomes a membership badge – the ultimate sign that you are on the side of the good. If your analysis is not apocalyptic, you’re naive, lacking in moral urgency, complicit with the status quo.”

- Michael Drew quoting TheDispatch.com, Feb 2, 2024

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