March 2, 2020: Why my old Right-wing tribe betrayed everything it once stood for
I’ve noted how lying for my tribe ended with 2003’s Iraq invasion, a stark contradiction with my pursuit of truth in nature required in the workplace. [1] Get nature wrong, whatever’s built from that analysis won’t operate. The way Right-wing “morality” undermines America today, the cost of nurtured immorality came home to roost for me then as it has now for the U.S., though half the country denies it. [2] “Mass movements,” wrote Eric Hoffer, “interpose a fact-proof screen between the faithful and realities of the world… [The true believer] cannot be frightened by danger nor baffled by contradictions because he denies their existence.” [3] Like Rome after Republic, the U.S. Senate just completed their impeachment show-trial, which validated Hoffer, and demonstrates how menacing this is. [4] Before our eyes, Constitutional governance is unraveling due to embrace, protection, and celebration of lies and liars.
But professional liars like Trump—who lies as he breathes—and his propaganda networks are different now than I was then and different from Trump’s disciples today. Iraq made me see what I was doing, but for years I thought I was (mostly) telling the truth defined by FOX and radio talker Rush Limbaugh, just as many do among Trump’s GOPP. [5] (How can I know I’m not lying now? Reference [6].) Without too much self-analysis (zero), Trump’s believers think they’re telling the truth when they defend their tribe. As it turns out, what they’re doing is a matter of biological evolution and its emergent psychology roused by recent history. As we’ll see, it’s no different for the Left. First, the biology.
Neurologist Paul MacLean’s triune brain-model subdivides our noodle into three structures that reflect its evolution: the reptile brain capping our spine at the back of our head; its mammal brain overlay; the cerebral cortex with its curvaceous terrain atop that mammal inheritance. [7] Our reptilian structure is the most primitive to ripen in the long line of human mental development. Responsible for feelings of urgency—gag, vomit, defecation, sex, fight or flight—it’s the oldest structure, fundamental to blind survival in a man-eating world, and irresistibly mighty. The mammal brain houses our emotions. The human cerebral cortex handles high-order abstractions like mathematics and religion. Our reptile brain works fast, no thinking necessary (don’t pontificate in a fistfight). The cerebral cortex works slow, rumination required. From these structures emerge primate-human psychology.
For a people too harried for inquiry since Tocqueville said we were in 1840, if one can appeal to our fast-acting reptile brain, they’ve abruptly got our attention. [8] Lace emotional attachments of the mammal brain to our tribe with threats to its survival and we’re supercharged for action. But there’s still that cerebral cortex to protect us from manipulators, right?
Not right.
“Humans are designed to be tribal,” writes Brookings Institute senior fellow, Jonathan Rauch. “We are wired to organize into in-groups…so that our reasoning and even our sensory perceptions support in-group solidarity. ‘Believing is belonging.’” [9] In an individualist nation that evacuated communities along with that belonging, as we’ve found, (human) nature abhors a vacuum. Our backfill is a mostly faceless techno-media-tribe. As an evolutionary survival mechanism, tribes are naturally partisan. But “what if partisanship is not really about anything?” asks Rauch. [10] “What if tribalism, not ideological disagreement, is behind [our] polarization? ...not so much rallying for a cause or party we believe in, as banding together to fight a collective enemy.” [11] But surely that cerebral cortex which put men on the moon honors facts that reveal how dangerous tribal factions are for republics built on compromise.
Surely not.
“Presenting people with facts that challenge a group-defining opinion does not work,” says Rauch, “instead of changing their minds, they [reject] facts to double down on false beliefs…regardless of educational and cognitive firepower. Belonging to a particular political party should distort our reasoning.” [12] As Democrats justified Bill Clinton’s sexual escapades and Republicans justify Trump’s extortion of Ukraine. “Extreme partisanship may be literally addictive,” writes social psychologist Jonathan Haidt. [13] Rationalizing their beliefs gives partisans a hit of dopamine, “Like rats that cannot stop pressing a button, partisans [Left & Right] may be simply unable to stop believing weird things.” [14]
Tribal solidarity also invites flip-flops on long-standing beliefs. “We flip, then rationalize the reversal,” says Rauch. [15] As Limbaugh preached fiscal responsibility for 30-years, ripping Obama for his failures. But with Trump’s populist tactic of spend-everything-now-who-cares-about-the-future, Limbaugh’s tribal-primate-psychology forces him to convert with, “All…this concern for the deficit and budget has been bogus for as long as it’s been around.” [16]
“[Republicans didn’t] rally to Trump because they embraced his message,” says Rauch, “they embraced his message in order to rally to Trump. Once what ‘we’ believe was redefined, the party preserved its identity by scrambling aboard. Partisans felt no psychological inconsistency or lurch, because, as a result of their ideological somersaults, they continued to be aligned with the same in-group and opposed to the same out-group. The Republican base likes Trump precisely because the Democratic base hates him. Polarization is not a byproduct of his policies and rhetoric; polarization is the product…cravings for shared outrage against a common adversary.” [17]
When it comes to influence, keep that cerebral cortex and its powers of reason out of it. Like the replacement for a dying god, the tribe can do no wrong, is sanctioned for every obscenity, beyond reproach, and must be obeyed no matter how corrupt. [18] Just as Hoffer wrote and our bio-based psychology demands.
With this psychology common to all humans, is it any wonder that conservatives would betray Jesus for political power and material gain, deny manmade global warming yet depend on science in their daily lives, or claim Trump saved democracy as everyday he attacks it? [19] Should we be shocked to find liberals are just as anti-science as conservatives but about different things, or that succeeding where the Klan failed their multiculturalism self-segregates by identity, celebrating every culture but our own? [20] Crazy? Irrelevant. It’s church dogma, defined by tribal priests. Who we hate matters most. True believers fall in line. Echo chambers assure there’s no logic clash, and the dogma is amplified for psychological comforts of belonging. With little effort, no wonder Putin upends nations. Primate psychology performs the heavy lift.
And recent history helps. [21] Snubbing simple-minded apologetics of Obama / Clinton “what aboutism,” examples of the Right’s inducement include a 2013 incident at Florida Atlantic University. A professor assigned students to write JESUS on a piece of paper, put it on the floor, and step on it. [22] One devout student refused, was suspended, and made national news. U.S. college campuses are places where people protest over photos of white girls in sombrero-and-mustache Halloween costumes (imitation is no longer flattery, but “appropriation” of minority culture). [23] However, that this assignment could insult Christians remained a mystery. Would the name MUHAMMAD have been allowed? What could make a liberal want to insult a victim of an imperial power (Rome), wrongly accused of a crime for which he was executed? Isn’t this the very type of minority the Left defends?
Something as innocuous as product advertising shows how ubiquitous this liberal bias is. A Honda SUV commercial shows men lifting their hatchback to grab and open food bags and beer bottles smashed into or poured over their ravenous faces as the scene draws back to reveal a woman with headphones, recording their animal behavior. A white man struggles to cook his breakfast seated on a moving bus as a black woman stands over him, shaking her head with amused disgust, a Kellogg’s breakfast bar in hand. Obese white men clad only in mini-skirts and bikini-tops stumble in their high heels to refuel Danica Patrick’s Formula 1 racecar for Boost Mobile. [24] Funny, were it not that outrage would flood the continent with reversal of race and gender. Advertisers know this, but did they assume “white males” wouldn’t notice, or could it be so ingrained in this society it didn’t occur to them?
These illustrations compare with bigotry witnessed at gun-toting Right-wing rallies against Obama, but not with torch-bearing boys marching through Charlottesville, Virginia, soon to murder with a car, or a white supremacist executing blacks at their church in Charleston, South Carolina. [25] But discharged from their factory jobs exported to China, working-class whites were inattentive. White men took the brunt of the Great Recession, decreasing American life expectancy with their suicides and opioid overdoses. [26] While talk radio reported that illegal foreigners gain driver’s licenses, rent assistance, and in-state tuition in some states, which (surprise) happens to be true. [27] When Obama DOJ AG Eric Holder announced we don’t talk enough about race, these same displaced whites asked, “Is there another topic?” [28] So Putin helped Trump win the last election; to them, it’s all the better Putin help win the next. Facts, truth, morality, the Constitution, and Christ be damned; these people are enraged. And not just at the Left. Immigration reform is stalled because the rich get richer on the backs of cheap-labor-illegals. And it’s not hard labor Americans won’t do, it slave wages they won’t take. Many lost their homes when Wall Street gamblers—saved by taxpayers—tanked the world economy, awarded themselves a $21B bonus for doing so, and not one of them went to prison. [29]
This is how my old Right-wing tribe came to betray everything it once stood for. Recent history ignited primate psychology poised for threats to survival of the clan, biologically hardwired for defense. And their answer? A self-destructive counter-movement led by our newly anointed Emperor and mafia mobster. [30]
Emperor Trump is a carnival barker, but this barker bites. His worldwide criminal network is just what the Right wanted. The more corrupt he is, the more likely he’s to cure the disease by killing the patient as he obliterates the rule of law for personal gain under guise of a despot’s refrain, “For the people!” (But he “promotes ‘conservative’ policies!”) Trump’s hypnotic perversity has seized even those few remaining Republican rationalists (except Mitt Romney and Justin Amash) who can no more ignore him than they can stand still to face a grizzly on a sixty mile per hour charge. They run. And in just the direction Trump knows they will. Onto that terrain of fear and revenge governed by automatic response of their reptile brain. [31]
Does this sound like an “intelligent species”?
Ponder Mao’s Cultural Revolution, Nazi Germany, the Bolshevik Revolution, Thirty Years War, and Crusades in this light.
Could this be symptomatic of that hypothetical PCD (Programmed Civilization Death) we considered? [32] Isn’t including this in the “human definition” a more complete characterization of unstable humans, hinting at proper governance? Enlightenment’s “natural man” never saw this. Could this biologically-based primate-tribalism garner forgiveness? After all, I did it. It’s remarkable that what saved us in the primeval beginning when there weren’t enough humans, could wreck us in the end when there’s too many.
After this 6th-consecutive Trump-GOPP-related posting, a shower is needed, shock therapy, and a passport from another country. On Monday, May 4, 2020, we return to matters more uplifting than America’s moral dive, precursor to all great power endings despite their economic prowess. [33]
[1] Brett Williams, Has America become a nation of liars?, on Goodreads, September 4, 2017.
[2] Trump disciples will claim his immorality works quite well with a boom economy almost as good as Bill Clinton’s who saw a national budget surplus, not already $3T in debt generated by Trump. Recall these same mostly self-described Christians ranked character as their #1 concern during Clinton, not his boom economy. According to Trump’s budget, he’s pushing for $30T in debt after inheriting Obama and his forerunner’s $20T. Trump’s average growth rate in his first 3-years is equal to Obama’s average of 2.1%/yr. As witnessed in Trump’s State of the Union, most of Trump’s historic economic claims are fake. What he calls in his Art of the Deal “truthful hyperbole,” which the rest of us call “lies.”
[3] Eric Hoffer, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Perennial, 1989
[4] With the exception of one moral man in the GOPP Senate, Mitt Romney (R-UT), the U.S. Senate sanctioned Trump’s attempts to rig the 2020 election in his favor through extortion of Ukraine, and thus invited him to continue his corruption. Which he has, with all the levers of governmental power now at his disposal unchecked. This includes DOJ AG Bill Barr’s repeat corruption of justice beginning with his lies about the Mueller Report, to his interference of sentencing for convicted felon and Trump criminal associate, Roger Stone; Pelosi’s correct designation of “Moscow” Mitch McConnell’s blocking of election protections against foreign interference; and coordination with the Putin, FOX and American talk radio propaganda networks. Only an almost impotent Democrat House stands in Trump’s way from rescinding the Constitution as 52% of GOPP “Republicans” hope to do (noted and referenced in previous posts). The Right has decided to kill the patient to defeat what they view as the disease of liberalism. It cannot be repeated enough that these people call themselves “Christians” for whom Jesus said, “What good is it to win the whole world and lose your soul?” as expanded on this blog last time.
[5] Trump’s “GOPP:” Grand Old Putin Party, to distinguish it from Lincoln and Reagan’s GOP: Grand Old Party.
[6] If I didn’t know I was lying (usually) for my tribe when I was a member, how do I know I’m not lying now? There are only two tribes in America. The “Reason Tribe” does not exist, unless we decide most scientists, some sector of philosophers of reason, and true independents are its members, even though they don’t know it, which refutes the idea of a tribe from the start. I didn’t join the Left-wing tribe, so what tribe would I lie for? As I’ll elucidate in a future post, I oppose abortion (with caveats) and support mammal rights (with caveats), both based on the same reasoned argument. Am I a conservative or a liberal? This violates both dogmas, relying instead on reason, thus open to change should superior reasoned arguments warrant. Would that not constitute a “flip-flop”? No, because it’s not a “belief.” Reason is based on facts, data, nature as it is, not how we feel about it. Finding the earth orbits the sun rather than the sun orbits the earth, what is our position on the orbit? “Belief” wanted to ignore reality to keep humans at the center. Reason places truth above dogma. In the political arena, I didn’t join another tribe because based on my own actions I came to suspect I couldn’t tell the truth if I were married to one of them. Now I know why—biology. From that biology is the emergent property of primate psychology. From that psychology springs the need for belonging, and that means a tribe. In pluralistic modernity on a massively overcrowded planet in one of the poorest educated nations in the industrialized world, tribe means cult. However, none of this means I can’t be wrong. Just because I don’t lie for a tribe is not to say I’m not ignorant about something that could change some conclusion based on reason. Tribes make life easier with absolutism, as Limbaugh (whom I listen to daily) proves. Only by knowing the truth can civilization be made to work, like those devices we build that depend on knowing the truth of nature, regardless of how we feel about it. We’re now seeing in real-time the social failures of lying with Trump and his GOPP’s defense against the coronavirus as a “liberal/Democrat hoax.” How to manage reality while simultaneously satisfying Trump’s inferiority disease and keeping him in office (and out of prison) has been an historic example of societal failures when the truth can no longer be spun, faked, or lied about as the corona pandemic spreads and body counts get the attention of all those reptile brains.
[7] Richard Restak, The Brain, Bantam, 1984, pg. 136
[8] Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Mentor, 1984
[9] Jonathan Rauch, Rethinking Polarization, National Affairs, Fall 2019.
[10] ibid
[11] ibid. Our Founders called tribes “factions” and sought to defang them.
[12] ibid. And Steve Rathje, Why People Ignore Facts, Psychology Today, Oct 25, 2018. As an example, and in keeping with Hoffer, recall that in our November 2018 post was noted a man who said, “I’m not going to listen to your facts and data” about manmade global warming. And might I repeat for the n-th time, he’s a devout Christian, for whom Jesus said, “Seek the truth to set you free.” See, Brett Williams, The betrayal of Christ: global warming denial, on Goodreads, November 5, 2018.
[13] Rauch
[14] ibid
[15] ibid
[16] Billy Binion, Rush Limbaugh Abandons Fiscal Conservatism, Reason, 7.18.2019. And for Limbaugh’s flip-flopping and lifetime of lies—a man who claims to live in Realville—he got the Medal Of Freedom (which used to mean something, until now) from Trump as reward for fealty. Hence the value of liars when lies run the country. Talmon Joseph Smith, Rush Limbaugh in His Own Words: A collection of comments from the latest recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, New York Times, Feb. 7, 2020.
[17] Rauch
[18] The “death of god” remark is a direct reference to the last post here as it applies to the descent of religion in America, but tangentially invites a much larger discussion for another occasion in regards to what came first, the God or the tribe. Marcel Gauchet makes a strong case for the latter in his Disenchantment of the World: The Political History of Religion. In that case, the tribe exists, the scriptures are then written as though God precedes the tribe and must be adhered to. In Gauceht’s reading, God then depends completely on the tribe for existence. When the Maya disappeared, so did their gods. For the former reference, see Brett Williams, The Collapse of American Christianity, on Goodreads, January 18, 2020.
[19] A very few examples of Trump and his GOPP’s attacks on democracy, America, and its place in the world are provided here. Others noted are easily Googled. His motivation is trifold: feed his malignant inferiority disease, stay out of prison, and keep fleecing the country and foreign powers for his bank account. On this blog, we’ve discussed how science is the father of modern democracy, as supported by Michael Shermer and Timothy Ferris. Trump inaugurated his term by chasing down scientists who performed climate science research. He’s dismissed science and his intel agencies from the beginning, and now with the coronavirus, he suddenly needs the science and all those he chased out of the Center For Disease Control and National Institutes of Health where’s he’s cut budgets and closed departments meant to manage pandemics. Trump repeatedly assaults the Constitutional guarantee of a free press with his Stalinist claim that the press is “the enemy of the people,” his restrictions on named reporters and media outlets, his discontinuation of press briefings, his support of or silence concerning reporters murdered by his favored despots including his tacit sanction of Putin and MBS assassinations. Trump now interferes with the judicial branch by attacking judges and jurors who threaten his criminal associates with justice, as he seeks to change sentencing and “promises” pardons for convicted felons like Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, and Michael Flynn after granting clemency to white-collar criminals who were promoted by FOX, and for those who gave him $580,600/couple at a fundraising event. Trump is directing DOJ to kill multiple investigations into his own decades of corruption moving cases from the independent Sothern District of New York to the more compliant Eastern District. Trump’s foreign policy is slave to his business interests in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Russia, etc. The list of corrupted U.S. government institutions by Trump continues to grow: DOJ, State, EPA, and now intel agencies with loyalist installed at their head. He seeks to corrupt DOD, but his success there is as yet unclear to this reader. Trump’s lauding of despots from Kim to Xi and Putin supports the growing worldview that republican democracy and classical Founder’s liberalism is, as Putin said, over. The U.S. now ranks 25th as a “flawed democracy,” with Hungary, Poland, Turkey, and Brazil tied or slightly ahead of us in the global collapse of democratic forms of governance. Trump’s suggestion that NATO be dismantled, his imitation concern for their short defense budgets, which cost the U.S. nothing, and his continued belligerence against Europe and it’s leaders per Putin’s delight make it no surprise that as they laugh at Trump behind his back and turn to China for trade deals (even Italy’s part of China’s Belt & Road), while Europe embrace’s Huawei’s 5G despite pleas from Trump not to. Like Hugo Chavez, Trump interferes with existing contractual agreements not under his auspices (e.g. between Amazon and the USPO), under Constitutional and Congressional controls. Trump has repeatedly noted how collusion with foreign powers that so terrified the Founders—notably George Washington as noted in his Farewell Address—is the right thing to do. It appears that in keeping with Trump’s mafia history since at least 1985 when he bragged about his Russian connections in his Art of the Deal, that and he and his family may be profiting from repeat manipulations of the markets with fake news and exaggerations. A few links illuminating points noted are provided here, recalling that previous posts have shown that Right-wing media is now made up almost universally of liars and that Left-wing media in regards to Trump has been validated by our own eyes, the Mueller Report, and its validation by the Republican Senate intel report:
Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin, Trump transition team for Energy Department seeks names of employees involved in climate meetings, Washington Post, December 9, 2016.
Rush Limbaugh, The Four Corners of Deceit : Prominent Liberal Social Psychologist Made It All Up, Rush Limbaugh .com, April 29, 2013.
Heather Horn, Is the Right Wing Anti-Science?, The Atlantic, 9.10.2010.
Zack Beauchamp, A major democracy watchdog just published a scathing report on Trump, VOX, January 5, 2019.
Robert C. Lieberman, Suzanne Mettler, Thomas B. Pepinsky, Kenneth M. Roberts and Richard Valelly, The Trump Presidency and American Democracy: A Historical and Comparative Analysis, Cambridge, January 5, 2019.
URI FRIEDMAN, Democrats Have Found Their Battle Cry, The Atlantic, JULY 15, 2019.
Alan Crawford, Andre Tartar and Hayley Warren, Europe Has Had Enough of Trump’s Tirades From Trade to Security, Bloomberg, August 19, 2019.
David E. Sanger and David McCabe, Huawei Is Winning the Argument in Europe, as the U.S. Fumbles to Develop Alternatives, New York Times, Feb. 17, 2020.
Damian Paletta and Josh Dawsey , Trump personally pushed postmaster general to double rates on Amazon, other firms, The Washington Post, May 18, 2018.
Justin Baragona, Asawin Suebsaeng, Trump Grants Clemency to Another Round of Crooks He Saw on Fox News, The Daily Beast, Feb. 19, 2020.
CHAUNCEY DEVEGA, Are Trump and his circle manipulating the markets for personal gain? Here's the evidence, Salon, JANUARY 26, 2020.
[20] Brett Williams, Why America’s anti-science movement is a moral matter: Part II, The Left, on Goodreads, January 1, 2018.
Brett Williams, Why America’s anti-science movement is a moral matter. Part I: The Right, on Goodreads, March 6, 2017.
[21] While every social movement is a counter-movement, who started what when is a chicken-or-the-egg question. The Left is now responding to the Right with their own populism in Bernie Sanders. But didn’t the Right respond to the Left’s proliferation of minorities with special rights and privileges as the Left vilified white males as dominant oppressors? But wasn’t the Left’s emphasis on minorities a response to racism in the Sixties, when blacks exercising their Constitutional right to peaceful protest were blown off their feet by water cannons and attacked by white, baton-wielding cops? This could go on for volumes, hence, it is suggested here that the Left started this latest round of tribalism if for no other reason than the Right was so slow to realize that institutionalized lying had real power in a nation that had—by a significant fraction—become a nation of liars. The Left was well on to this thanks to their embrace of 1950s, 60s French postmodernist liars like Foucault, Derrida, and Lacan.
[22] “What aboutism” is American slang adopted from Russian espionage tactics, this time for the mental acrobatics “conservatives” go through to protect Trump and deflect from his corruption. “What about Obama’s whisper to Russia’s Medvedev?” “What about Obama’s debt?” “What about Antifa radicals at Charlottesville?” “What about Hillary’s emails?” Greg Lukianoff, FAU College Student Who Didn’t Want To Stomp On ’Jesus’ Runs Afoul of Speech Code, Forbes, Mar 26, 2013.
Avik Roy, FAU College Student Who Didn't Want To Stomp On 'Jesus' Runs Afoul of Speech Code, Forbes, Mar 26, 2013.
[23] There are so many references to "racial appropriation" by Halloween costumes, I picked this, the first to popup on Google: Kirk Johnson, Halloween Costume Correctness on Campus: Feel Free to Be You, but Not Me, New York Times, Oct. 30, 2015.
[24] Boost mobile commercial.
[25] Paul P. Murphy, White nationalists use tiki torches to light up Charlottesville march, CNN, August 14, 2017.
Wikipedia, Charleston church shooting.
[26] Erica Meade, Men hit harder during the recession, but are recovering jobs faster than women, Urban Institute, July 11, 2012.
Alison Burke, Working class white Americans are now dying in middle age at faster rates than minority groups, Brookings Institute, March 23, 2017.
Anne Case and Angus Deaton, Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century, PNAS December 8, 2015.
[27] Wikipedia, Driver's licenses for illegal immigrants in the United States.
Housing for Eligible Noncitizens.
Assistance for undocumented or illegal immigrants. This site is full of information but no links to the organizations it notes:
Housing for Eligible Noncitizens.
[28] ANDY BARR, States remains “a nation of cowards” on issues involving race, POLITICO, 02/18/2009.
[29] Louise Story and Eric Dash, Bankers Reaped Lavish Bonuses During Bailouts, New York Times, July 30, 2009.
[30] Brett Williams, Our Dear (mafia) Leader, on Goodreads, December 24, 2019.
[31] Combine all this (our reptile brain, etc.) with a U.S. primary and secondary educational system ranking near bottom in the industrialized world and it’s no wonder Trump’s Senate tribe would sanction his extortion of Ukraine to rig the next election. The study of Constitutional governance (civics) was killed in states across America decades ago. When Trump’s lawyers claimed impeachment was some alien construct invented by Democrats; that “the people” should decide his impeachment by their vote the way Moscow Mitch McConnell (Pelosi’s correct assessment) said they should for Supreme Court Justice nominee Merrick Garland; that no executive commits a crime by bribing another country to cheat elections if he claims his re-election is in the public interest; most Americans have no more understanding of what Constitutional desecrations these are than Trump himself.
[32] Like Programmed Cell Death responsible for the death of our bodies once our DNA “knows” our reproductive years have passed, instead Programmed Civilization Death has been hypothesized here as responsible for the death of society once some psychological threshold is crossed, perhaps too many of us. Brett Williams, Is PCD an acronym for Programmed Civilization Death?, on Goodreads, November 7, 2016.
[33] Moral depravity is central to Will Durant’s hypothesis for why civilizations fail in his Lessons From History, built on his 11 volume, ~ 10,000 word Story Of Civilization. Oswald Spengler’s Decline of the West offers a youth to old age trajectory. Brooks Adam’s Law of Civilization and Decay notes a cyclic process from religious fear and emergent creativity to organization so stifling that society is eviscerated by hyper-economic control and humane debasement in the limit when civilization returns to religious fear. Arnold Toynbee emphasizes incompetent leadership, unable to adjust to rapid change in mature societies as to blame for their collapse.
But professional liars like Trump—who lies as he breathes—and his propaganda networks are different now than I was then and different from Trump’s disciples today. Iraq made me see what I was doing, but for years I thought I was (mostly) telling the truth defined by FOX and radio talker Rush Limbaugh, just as many do among Trump’s GOPP. [5] (How can I know I’m not lying now? Reference [6].) Without too much self-analysis (zero), Trump’s believers think they’re telling the truth when they defend their tribe. As it turns out, what they’re doing is a matter of biological evolution and its emergent psychology roused by recent history. As we’ll see, it’s no different for the Left. First, the biology.
Neurologist Paul MacLean’s triune brain-model subdivides our noodle into three structures that reflect its evolution: the reptile brain capping our spine at the back of our head; its mammal brain overlay; the cerebral cortex with its curvaceous terrain atop that mammal inheritance. [7] Our reptilian structure is the most primitive to ripen in the long line of human mental development. Responsible for feelings of urgency—gag, vomit, defecation, sex, fight or flight—it’s the oldest structure, fundamental to blind survival in a man-eating world, and irresistibly mighty. The mammal brain houses our emotions. The human cerebral cortex handles high-order abstractions like mathematics and religion. Our reptile brain works fast, no thinking necessary (don’t pontificate in a fistfight). The cerebral cortex works slow, rumination required. From these structures emerge primate-human psychology.
For a people too harried for inquiry since Tocqueville said we were in 1840, if one can appeal to our fast-acting reptile brain, they’ve abruptly got our attention. [8] Lace emotional attachments of the mammal brain to our tribe with threats to its survival and we’re supercharged for action. But there’s still that cerebral cortex to protect us from manipulators, right?
Not right.
“Humans are designed to be tribal,” writes Brookings Institute senior fellow, Jonathan Rauch. “We are wired to organize into in-groups…so that our reasoning and even our sensory perceptions support in-group solidarity. ‘Believing is belonging.’” [9] In an individualist nation that evacuated communities along with that belonging, as we’ve found, (human) nature abhors a vacuum. Our backfill is a mostly faceless techno-media-tribe. As an evolutionary survival mechanism, tribes are naturally partisan. But “what if partisanship is not really about anything?” asks Rauch. [10] “What if tribalism, not ideological disagreement, is behind [our] polarization? ...not so much rallying for a cause or party we believe in, as banding together to fight a collective enemy.” [11] But surely that cerebral cortex which put men on the moon honors facts that reveal how dangerous tribal factions are for republics built on compromise.
Surely not.
“Presenting people with facts that challenge a group-defining opinion does not work,” says Rauch, “instead of changing their minds, they [reject] facts to double down on false beliefs…regardless of educational and cognitive firepower. Belonging to a particular political party should distort our reasoning.” [12] As Democrats justified Bill Clinton’s sexual escapades and Republicans justify Trump’s extortion of Ukraine. “Extreme partisanship may be literally addictive,” writes social psychologist Jonathan Haidt. [13] Rationalizing their beliefs gives partisans a hit of dopamine, “Like rats that cannot stop pressing a button, partisans [Left & Right] may be simply unable to stop believing weird things.” [14]
Tribal solidarity also invites flip-flops on long-standing beliefs. “We flip, then rationalize the reversal,” says Rauch. [15] As Limbaugh preached fiscal responsibility for 30-years, ripping Obama for his failures. But with Trump’s populist tactic of spend-everything-now-who-cares-about-the-future, Limbaugh’s tribal-primate-psychology forces him to convert with, “All…this concern for the deficit and budget has been bogus for as long as it’s been around.” [16]
“[Republicans didn’t] rally to Trump because they embraced his message,” says Rauch, “they embraced his message in order to rally to Trump. Once what ‘we’ believe was redefined, the party preserved its identity by scrambling aboard. Partisans felt no psychological inconsistency or lurch, because, as a result of their ideological somersaults, they continued to be aligned with the same in-group and opposed to the same out-group. The Republican base likes Trump precisely because the Democratic base hates him. Polarization is not a byproduct of his policies and rhetoric; polarization is the product…cravings for shared outrage against a common adversary.” [17]
When it comes to influence, keep that cerebral cortex and its powers of reason out of it. Like the replacement for a dying god, the tribe can do no wrong, is sanctioned for every obscenity, beyond reproach, and must be obeyed no matter how corrupt. [18] Just as Hoffer wrote and our bio-based psychology demands.
With this psychology common to all humans, is it any wonder that conservatives would betray Jesus for political power and material gain, deny manmade global warming yet depend on science in their daily lives, or claim Trump saved democracy as everyday he attacks it? [19] Should we be shocked to find liberals are just as anti-science as conservatives but about different things, or that succeeding where the Klan failed their multiculturalism self-segregates by identity, celebrating every culture but our own? [20] Crazy? Irrelevant. It’s church dogma, defined by tribal priests. Who we hate matters most. True believers fall in line. Echo chambers assure there’s no logic clash, and the dogma is amplified for psychological comforts of belonging. With little effort, no wonder Putin upends nations. Primate psychology performs the heavy lift.
And recent history helps. [21] Snubbing simple-minded apologetics of Obama / Clinton “what aboutism,” examples of the Right’s inducement include a 2013 incident at Florida Atlantic University. A professor assigned students to write JESUS on a piece of paper, put it on the floor, and step on it. [22] One devout student refused, was suspended, and made national news. U.S. college campuses are places where people protest over photos of white girls in sombrero-and-mustache Halloween costumes (imitation is no longer flattery, but “appropriation” of minority culture). [23] However, that this assignment could insult Christians remained a mystery. Would the name MUHAMMAD have been allowed? What could make a liberal want to insult a victim of an imperial power (Rome), wrongly accused of a crime for which he was executed? Isn’t this the very type of minority the Left defends?
Something as innocuous as product advertising shows how ubiquitous this liberal bias is. A Honda SUV commercial shows men lifting their hatchback to grab and open food bags and beer bottles smashed into or poured over their ravenous faces as the scene draws back to reveal a woman with headphones, recording their animal behavior. A white man struggles to cook his breakfast seated on a moving bus as a black woman stands over him, shaking her head with amused disgust, a Kellogg’s breakfast bar in hand. Obese white men clad only in mini-skirts and bikini-tops stumble in their high heels to refuel Danica Patrick’s Formula 1 racecar for Boost Mobile. [24] Funny, were it not that outrage would flood the continent with reversal of race and gender. Advertisers know this, but did they assume “white males” wouldn’t notice, or could it be so ingrained in this society it didn’t occur to them?
These illustrations compare with bigotry witnessed at gun-toting Right-wing rallies against Obama, but not with torch-bearing boys marching through Charlottesville, Virginia, soon to murder with a car, or a white supremacist executing blacks at their church in Charleston, South Carolina. [25] But discharged from their factory jobs exported to China, working-class whites were inattentive. White men took the brunt of the Great Recession, decreasing American life expectancy with their suicides and opioid overdoses. [26] While talk radio reported that illegal foreigners gain driver’s licenses, rent assistance, and in-state tuition in some states, which (surprise) happens to be true. [27] When Obama DOJ AG Eric Holder announced we don’t talk enough about race, these same displaced whites asked, “Is there another topic?” [28] So Putin helped Trump win the last election; to them, it’s all the better Putin help win the next. Facts, truth, morality, the Constitution, and Christ be damned; these people are enraged. And not just at the Left. Immigration reform is stalled because the rich get richer on the backs of cheap-labor-illegals. And it’s not hard labor Americans won’t do, it slave wages they won’t take. Many lost their homes when Wall Street gamblers—saved by taxpayers—tanked the world economy, awarded themselves a $21B bonus for doing so, and not one of them went to prison. [29]
This is how my old Right-wing tribe came to betray everything it once stood for. Recent history ignited primate psychology poised for threats to survival of the clan, biologically hardwired for defense. And their answer? A self-destructive counter-movement led by our newly anointed Emperor and mafia mobster. [30]
Emperor Trump is a carnival barker, but this barker bites. His worldwide criminal network is just what the Right wanted. The more corrupt he is, the more likely he’s to cure the disease by killing the patient as he obliterates the rule of law for personal gain under guise of a despot’s refrain, “For the people!” (But he “promotes ‘conservative’ policies!”) Trump’s hypnotic perversity has seized even those few remaining Republican rationalists (except Mitt Romney and Justin Amash) who can no more ignore him than they can stand still to face a grizzly on a sixty mile per hour charge. They run. And in just the direction Trump knows they will. Onto that terrain of fear and revenge governed by automatic response of their reptile brain. [31]
Does this sound like an “intelligent species”?
Ponder Mao’s Cultural Revolution, Nazi Germany, the Bolshevik Revolution, Thirty Years War, and Crusades in this light.
Could this be symptomatic of that hypothetical PCD (Programmed Civilization Death) we considered? [32] Isn’t including this in the “human definition” a more complete characterization of unstable humans, hinting at proper governance? Enlightenment’s “natural man” never saw this. Could this biologically-based primate-tribalism garner forgiveness? After all, I did it. It’s remarkable that what saved us in the primeval beginning when there weren’t enough humans, could wreck us in the end when there’s too many.
After this 6th-consecutive Trump-GOPP-related posting, a shower is needed, shock therapy, and a passport from another country. On Monday, May 4, 2020, we return to matters more uplifting than America’s moral dive, precursor to all great power endings despite their economic prowess. [33]
[1] Brett Williams, Has America become a nation of liars?, on Goodreads, September 4, 2017.
[2] Trump disciples will claim his immorality works quite well with a boom economy almost as good as Bill Clinton’s who saw a national budget surplus, not already $3T in debt generated by Trump. Recall these same mostly self-described Christians ranked character as their #1 concern during Clinton, not his boom economy. According to Trump’s budget, he’s pushing for $30T in debt after inheriting Obama and his forerunner’s $20T. Trump’s average growth rate in his first 3-years is equal to Obama’s average of 2.1%/yr. As witnessed in Trump’s State of the Union, most of Trump’s historic economic claims are fake. What he calls in his Art of the Deal “truthful hyperbole,” which the rest of us call “lies.”
[3] Eric Hoffer, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Perennial, 1989
[4] With the exception of one moral man in the GOPP Senate, Mitt Romney (R-UT), the U.S. Senate sanctioned Trump’s attempts to rig the 2020 election in his favor through extortion of Ukraine, and thus invited him to continue his corruption. Which he has, with all the levers of governmental power now at his disposal unchecked. This includes DOJ AG Bill Barr’s repeat corruption of justice beginning with his lies about the Mueller Report, to his interference of sentencing for convicted felon and Trump criminal associate, Roger Stone; Pelosi’s correct designation of “Moscow” Mitch McConnell’s blocking of election protections against foreign interference; and coordination with the Putin, FOX and American talk radio propaganda networks. Only an almost impotent Democrat House stands in Trump’s way from rescinding the Constitution as 52% of GOPP “Republicans” hope to do (noted and referenced in previous posts). The Right has decided to kill the patient to defeat what they view as the disease of liberalism. It cannot be repeated enough that these people call themselves “Christians” for whom Jesus said, “What good is it to win the whole world and lose your soul?” as expanded on this blog last time.
[5] Trump’s “GOPP:” Grand Old Putin Party, to distinguish it from Lincoln and Reagan’s GOP: Grand Old Party.
[6] If I didn’t know I was lying (usually) for my tribe when I was a member, how do I know I’m not lying now? There are only two tribes in America. The “Reason Tribe” does not exist, unless we decide most scientists, some sector of philosophers of reason, and true independents are its members, even though they don’t know it, which refutes the idea of a tribe from the start. I didn’t join the Left-wing tribe, so what tribe would I lie for? As I’ll elucidate in a future post, I oppose abortion (with caveats) and support mammal rights (with caveats), both based on the same reasoned argument. Am I a conservative or a liberal? This violates both dogmas, relying instead on reason, thus open to change should superior reasoned arguments warrant. Would that not constitute a “flip-flop”? No, because it’s not a “belief.” Reason is based on facts, data, nature as it is, not how we feel about it. Finding the earth orbits the sun rather than the sun orbits the earth, what is our position on the orbit? “Belief” wanted to ignore reality to keep humans at the center. Reason places truth above dogma. In the political arena, I didn’t join another tribe because based on my own actions I came to suspect I couldn’t tell the truth if I were married to one of them. Now I know why—biology. From that biology is the emergent property of primate psychology. From that psychology springs the need for belonging, and that means a tribe. In pluralistic modernity on a massively overcrowded planet in one of the poorest educated nations in the industrialized world, tribe means cult. However, none of this means I can’t be wrong. Just because I don’t lie for a tribe is not to say I’m not ignorant about something that could change some conclusion based on reason. Tribes make life easier with absolutism, as Limbaugh (whom I listen to daily) proves. Only by knowing the truth can civilization be made to work, like those devices we build that depend on knowing the truth of nature, regardless of how we feel about it. We’re now seeing in real-time the social failures of lying with Trump and his GOPP’s defense against the coronavirus as a “liberal/Democrat hoax.” How to manage reality while simultaneously satisfying Trump’s inferiority disease and keeping him in office (and out of prison) has been an historic example of societal failures when the truth can no longer be spun, faked, or lied about as the corona pandemic spreads and body counts get the attention of all those reptile brains.
[7] Richard Restak, The Brain, Bantam, 1984, pg. 136
[8] Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Mentor, 1984
[9] Jonathan Rauch, Rethinking Polarization, National Affairs, Fall 2019.
[10] ibid
[11] ibid. Our Founders called tribes “factions” and sought to defang them.
[12] ibid. And Steve Rathje, Why People Ignore Facts, Psychology Today, Oct 25, 2018. As an example, and in keeping with Hoffer, recall that in our November 2018 post was noted a man who said, “I’m not going to listen to your facts and data” about manmade global warming. And might I repeat for the n-th time, he’s a devout Christian, for whom Jesus said, “Seek the truth to set you free.” See, Brett Williams, The betrayal of Christ: global warming denial, on Goodreads, November 5, 2018.
[13] Rauch
[14] ibid
[15] ibid
[16] Billy Binion, Rush Limbaugh Abandons Fiscal Conservatism, Reason, 7.18.2019. And for Limbaugh’s flip-flopping and lifetime of lies—a man who claims to live in Realville—he got the Medal Of Freedom (which used to mean something, until now) from Trump as reward for fealty. Hence the value of liars when lies run the country. Talmon Joseph Smith, Rush Limbaugh in His Own Words: A collection of comments from the latest recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, New York Times, Feb. 7, 2020.
[17] Rauch
[18] The “death of god” remark is a direct reference to the last post here as it applies to the descent of religion in America, but tangentially invites a much larger discussion for another occasion in regards to what came first, the God or the tribe. Marcel Gauchet makes a strong case for the latter in his Disenchantment of the World: The Political History of Religion. In that case, the tribe exists, the scriptures are then written as though God precedes the tribe and must be adhered to. In Gauceht’s reading, God then depends completely on the tribe for existence. When the Maya disappeared, so did their gods. For the former reference, see Brett Williams, The Collapse of American Christianity, on Goodreads, January 18, 2020.
[19] A very few examples of Trump and his GOPP’s attacks on democracy, America, and its place in the world are provided here. Others noted are easily Googled. His motivation is trifold: feed his malignant inferiority disease, stay out of prison, and keep fleecing the country and foreign powers for his bank account. On this blog, we’ve discussed how science is the father of modern democracy, as supported by Michael Shermer and Timothy Ferris. Trump inaugurated his term by chasing down scientists who performed climate science research. He’s dismissed science and his intel agencies from the beginning, and now with the coronavirus, he suddenly needs the science and all those he chased out of the Center For Disease Control and National Institutes of Health where’s he’s cut budgets and closed departments meant to manage pandemics. Trump repeatedly assaults the Constitutional guarantee of a free press with his Stalinist claim that the press is “the enemy of the people,” his restrictions on named reporters and media outlets, his discontinuation of press briefings, his support of or silence concerning reporters murdered by his favored despots including his tacit sanction of Putin and MBS assassinations. Trump now interferes with the judicial branch by attacking judges and jurors who threaten his criminal associates with justice, as he seeks to change sentencing and “promises” pardons for convicted felons like Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, and Michael Flynn after granting clemency to white-collar criminals who were promoted by FOX, and for those who gave him $580,600/couple at a fundraising event. Trump is directing DOJ to kill multiple investigations into his own decades of corruption moving cases from the independent Sothern District of New York to the more compliant Eastern District. Trump’s foreign policy is slave to his business interests in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Russia, etc. The list of corrupted U.S. government institutions by Trump continues to grow: DOJ, State, EPA, and now intel agencies with loyalist installed at their head. He seeks to corrupt DOD, but his success there is as yet unclear to this reader. Trump’s lauding of despots from Kim to Xi and Putin supports the growing worldview that republican democracy and classical Founder’s liberalism is, as Putin said, over. The U.S. now ranks 25th as a “flawed democracy,” with Hungary, Poland, Turkey, and Brazil tied or slightly ahead of us in the global collapse of democratic forms of governance. Trump’s suggestion that NATO be dismantled, his imitation concern for their short defense budgets, which cost the U.S. nothing, and his continued belligerence against Europe and it’s leaders per Putin’s delight make it no surprise that as they laugh at Trump behind his back and turn to China for trade deals (even Italy’s part of China’s Belt & Road), while Europe embrace’s Huawei’s 5G despite pleas from Trump not to. Like Hugo Chavez, Trump interferes with existing contractual agreements not under his auspices (e.g. between Amazon and the USPO), under Constitutional and Congressional controls. Trump has repeatedly noted how collusion with foreign powers that so terrified the Founders—notably George Washington as noted in his Farewell Address—is the right thing to do. It appears that in keeping with Trump’s mafia history since at least 1985 when he bragged about his Russian connections in his Art of the Deal, that and he and his family may be profiting from repeat manipulations of the markets with fake news and exaggerations. A few links illuminating points noted are provided here, recalling that previous posts have shown that Right-wing media is now made up almost universally of liars and that Left-wing media in regards to Trump has been validated by our own eyes, the Mueller Report, and its validation by the Republican Senate intel report:
Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin, Trump transition team for Energy Department seeks names of employees involved in climate meetings, Washington Post, December 9, 2016.
Rush Limbaugh, The Four Corners of Deceit : Prominent Liberal Social Psychologist Made It All Up, Rush Limbaugh .com, April 29, 2013.
Heather Horn, Is the Right Wing Anti-Science?, The Atlantic, 9.10.2010.
Zack Beauchamp, A major democracy watchdog just published a scathing report on Trump, VOX, January 5, 2019.
Robert C. Lieberman, Suzanne Mettler, Thomas B. Pepinsky, Kenneth M. Roberts and Richard Valelly, The Trump Presidency and American Democracy: A Historical and Comparative Analysis, Cambridge, January 5, 2019.
URI FRIEDMAN, Democrats Have Found Their Battle Cry, The Atlantic, JULY 15, 2019.
Alan Crawford, Andre Tartar and Hayley Warren, Europe Has Had Enough of Trump’s Tirades From Trade to Security, Bloomberg, August 19, 2019.
David E. Sanger and David McCabe, Huawei Is Winning the Argument in Europe, as the U.S. Fumbles to Develop Alternatives, New York Times, Feb. 17, 2020.
Damian Paletta and Josh Dawsey , Trump personally pushed postmaster general to double rates on Amazon, other firms, The Washington Post, May 18, 2018.
Justin Baragona, Asawin Suebsaeng, Trump Grants Clemency to Another Round of Crooks He Saw on Fox News, The Daily Beast, Feb. 19, 2020.
CHAUNCEY DEVEGA, Are Trump and his circle manipulating the markets for personal gain? Here's the evidence, Salon, JANUARY 26, 2020.
[20] Brett Williams, Why America’s anti-science movement is a moral matter: Part II, The Left, on Goodreads, January 1, 2018.
Brett Williams, Why America’s anti-science movement is a moral matter. Part I: The Right, on Goodreads, March 6, 2017.
[21] While every social movement is a counter-movement, who started what when is a chicken-or-the-egg question. The Left is now responding to the Right with their own populism in Bernie Sanders. But didn’t the Right respond to the Left’s proliferation of minorities with special rights and privileges as the Left vilified white males as dominant oppressors? But wasn’t the Left’s emphasis on minorities a response to racism in the Sixties, when blacks exercising their Constitutional right to peaceful protest were blown off their feet by water cannons and attacked by white, baton-wielding cops? This could go on for volumes, hence, it is suggested here that the Left started this latest round of tribalism if for no other reason than the Right was so slow to realize that institutionalized lying had real power in a nation that had—by a significant fraction—become a nation of liars. The Left was well on to this thanks to their embrace of 1950s, 60s French postmodernist liars like Foucault, Derrida, and Lacan.
[22] “What aboutism” is American slang adopted from Russian espionage tactics, this time for the mental acrobatics “conservatives” go through to protect Trump and deflect from his corruption. “What about Obama’s whisper to Russia’s Medvedev?” “What about Obama’s debt?” “What about Antifa radicals at Charlottesville?” “What about Hillary’s emails?” Greg Lukianoff, FAU College Student Who Didn’t Want To Stomp On ’Jesus’ Runs Afoul of Speech Code, Forbes, Mar 26, 2013.
Avik Roy, FAU College Student Who Didn't Want To Stomp On 'Jesus' Runs Afoul of Speech Code, Forbes, Mar 26, 2013.
[23] There are so many references to "racial appropriation" by Halloween costumes, I picked this, the first to popup on Google: Kirk Johnson, Halloween Costume Correctness on Campus: Feel Free to Be You, but Not Me, New York Times, Oct. 30, 2015.
[24] Boost mobile commercial.
[25] Paul P. Murphy, White nationalists use tiki torches to light up Charlottesville march, CNN, August 14, 2017.
Wikipedia, Charleston church shooting.
[26] Erica Meade, Men hit harder during the recession, but are recovering jobs faster than women, Urban Institute, July 11, 2012.
Alison Burke, Working class white Americans are now dying in middle age at faster rates than minority groups, Brookings Institute, March 23, 2017.
Anne Case and Angus Deaton, Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century, PNAS December 8, 2015.
[27] Wikipedia, Driver's licenses for illegal immigrants in the United States.
Housing for Eligible Noncitizens.
Assistance for undocumented or illegal immigrants. This site is full of information but no links to the organizations it notes:
Housing for Eligible Noncitizens.
[28] ANDY BARR, States remains “a nation of cowards” on issues involving race, POLITICO, 02/18/2009.
[29] Louise Story and Eric Dash, Bankers Reaped Lavish Bonuses During Bailouts, New York Times, July 30, 2009.
[30] Brett Williams, Our Dear (mafia) Leader, on Goodreads, December 24, 2019.
[31] Combine all this (our reptile brain, etc.) with a U.S. primary and secondary educational system ranking near bottom in the industrialized world and it’s no wonder Trump’s Senate tribe would sanction his extortion of Ukraine to rig the next election. The study of Constitutional governance (civics) was killed in states across America decades ago. When Trump’s lawyers claimed impeachment was some alien construct invented by Democrats; that “the people” should decide his impeachment by their vote the way Moscow Mitch McConnell (Pelosi’s correct assessment) said they should for Supreme Court Justice nominee Merrick Garland; that no executive commits a crime by bribing another country to cheat elections if he claims his re-election is in the public interest; most Americans have no more understanding of what Constitutional desecrations these are than Trump himself.
[32] Like Programmed Cell Death responsible for the death of our bodies once our DNA “knows” our reproductive years have passed, instead Programmed Civilization Death has been hypothesized here as responsible for the death of society once some psychological threshold is crossed, perhaps too many of us. Brett Williams, Is PCD an acronym for Programmed Civilization Death?, on Goodreads, November 7, 2016.
[33] Moral depravity is central to Will Durant’s hypothesis for why civilizations fail in his Lessons From History, built on his 11 volume, ~ 10,000 word Story Of Civilization. Oswald Spengler’s Decline of the West offers a youth to old age trajectory. Brooks Adam’s Law of Civilization and Decay notes a cyclic process from religious fear and emergent creativity to organization so stifling that society is eviscerated by hyper-economic control and humane debasement in the limit when civilization returns to religious fear. Arnold Toynbee emphasizes incompetent leadership, unable to adjust to rapid change in mature societies as to blame for their collapse.
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