Follow the Sacredness
Politics is so weird in part because voters are not pursuing their self-interest, they’re pursuing their group interest. And even for group interest, it’s often not about the group’s material interests, it’s about protecting their sacred totems. Circling around sacred objects helps a group cohere. So if you want to understand why we’re suddenly all talking about birth control and abortion at a time when economic matters are so much more important, follow the sacredness. I explain this in more detail in a NYT Review essay, here,
and also in a 2 minute NYT video, below:
If you want to learn more about sacred values in action, read the work of Scott Atran, e.g., here on war, and read chapters 11 and 12 of The Righteous Mind.
Breitbart vs Occupy, Battle of the Foundations
Conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart lost his cool, to put it mildly, against the Occupy protestors outside of the C-PAC convention in Washington, Feb 10 2012. Pete Ditto, my colleague at YourMorals.org, sent me the video clip, along with an insightful analysis of the confrontation as a clash of moral foundations (below).
As Pete explains:
“This is a beautiful demonstration of uncivil politics and the moral foundation clash underlying the culture war. Breitbart yells “behave yourself”. He calls the occupy protestors “freaks and animals” and says they are “filthy” and “raping people.” This seems a great illustration of the Authority/subversion foundation (behave yourself and respect tradition, don’t behave like freaks) blended with the Sanctity/degradation foundation (calling them filthy, animals, and rapists). The protestors in turn go right for the symbolic touchstones of victimization (the Care/harm foundation) and oppression (the Liberty/oppression foundation) chanting “racist, sexist, anti-gay, right-wing bigots go away”.
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