If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer… And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please.”– Hannah Arendt
We happened to have a conversation with a workman yesterday which meandered into a political conversation. This nice young guy, Mexican American, obviously wasn’t particularly political and didn’t have strong view. But he said something that I think may be at the heart of a lot of what’s going on with people who aren’t as politically engaged as we are: “I just don’t know what to believe. I don’t know who to believe.”
In the past past busy people who weren’t particularly interested in politics and current events just didn’t have access to the information beyond their own local paper so they tended to go with whatever the authority figures in their community would tell them. Today, the problem is that there’s too much information and they are presented with a cacophony of opinions and noise. This has happened at the same time as we’ve seen a breakdown in government, religion, academia and even parental authority. Some people, naturally, are then drawn to someone they see as a strongman to fill that void. But I think there are many who are exactly like that young guy I spoke with yesterday.
I thought about all this when I read the big piece in the NY Times today (gift link) interviewing regretful Trump voters. They’re in transition, trying to make sense of it all and they are all at least somewhat aware of what’s happening in our politics and seem to be opening up to the idea that Trump is a con man. But the bigger question is what to do about the people like the young man I spoke to yesterday and I have absolutely no idea what to do about it.