Globalization and Difference

Many believed that globalization would usher in an age of cosmopolitanism that would bring people together and cut through centuries of national and ethnic strife and conflict. While this has been true in some cases, arguably including popular support for the Arab Spring and spread of Hip Hop to marginalized populations across the globe, in other cases hatred has returned with a vengeance. Yesterday in Southern France, for just the latest example, a lone gunman started shooting at a Jewish school, killing four (CNN). Anti-semitism in France is, of course, nothing new and the more than middling popularity of right-wing, reactionary Le Pen is just one example of a European populace that has reacted with racism and violence to the increasing number of immigrants from poor countries seeking refuge and economic opportunity within their borders (particularly those of the Muslim faith). But it appears that reaction then resurfaces in more traditional cultural clashes -- including widespread Antisemitism throughout Europe (including roving Neo-Nazi youth in parts of Germany) often cloaked within critiques of Israel. Anti-Muslim discourses continue to be popular and many reactionary or near reactionary governments have won elections or at least popular support in Italy, Spain, Holland, Denmark and France. 

In this  country, hatred appears to be on the rise as well. Racism has reemerged in less covert ways since the ascendancy of Obama's primary nomination in 2008, anti-gay rhetoric is a leitmotif of religious conservatism (particularly from the Santorum camp), anti-immigrant discourse has become orthodoxy among GOP candidates and the less than subtle attack on the poor in general appears to display the end of any empathy beyond the 1% on the right. Rush Limbaugh's attack on women who might actually want to have protected sex without relying on the guy is yet another example of the Neanderthal stance of the right-wing of the GOP at present. And few could be surprised when Santorum lost Puerto Rico after arguing at a rally that their official language should become English ("El loco es serio?"). In a more general sense, the rise of the religious right has appeared to ushered in the age of cantankerous politics, where conservatives are taught to hate everyone who disagrees with them -- including elite "educated" liberals, gays, blacks, "illegal" immigrants and now maybe even women.

The vehemence of their anger is the most surprising aspect of the new mentality. As I have reported before, research has shown that presenting conservatives with counterfactual evidence only strengthens their resolve. Reason or facts merely spark their anger anew and provide further proof to them of the conspiracy to destroy America by letting anyone except God and the market make decisions. While some of this anger clearly emerges from the fading American dream, the emergence of women, Blacks and Latinos as competition to White men and the deep-seated fear that the "American" identity is in peril of being forever altered appear equally important. Yet many of these angry conservatives are successful, with families and kids. Where does their anger come from? Is it really a religious fervor over a Godless America? Is it a fervent enmity for anyone who disagrees with their dogmatic and largely irrational ideology? Is it the stretch backward for a 50s Utopia that never existed to begin with? Or are conservatives just less happy people in general, turning their internal self-loathing outward in every direction to not face its manifestations within? I suppose it is probably all of these to some degree and that the only way to turn the tide in a country that appears on the precipice of jumping off the cliff of sanity is to explore the rather lofty goal of an American catharsis that can restore some belief in democracy, popular rule, empathy for one's neighbors and the power of the people to actually make the world a better place. Massive economic, social and individual unrest unfortunately only seems to increase hatred as people look in all directions for someone, anyone, to blame but themselves and their beliefs.