[All] Progressive causes are failing: here's how they could be turned around

Wed Oct 13 21:40:51 EDT 2010

An interesting read. 

But I take personal issue with this comment: "Those who succeed in politics
are, by definition, people who prioritise extrinsic values. Their ambition
must supplant peace of mind, family life, friendship - even brotherly love."
But then again, I'm not a politician.yet. I am counting on all of you to
stop me if I start prioritizing extrinsic values! 8-)

Susan  K

Progressive causes are failing: here's how they could be turned around

By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 12th October 2010

So here we are, forming an orderly queue at the slaughterhouse gate. The
punishment of the poor for the errors of the rich, the abandonment of
universalism, the dismantling of the shelter the state provides: apart from
a few small protests, none of this has yet brought us out fighting. 

The acceptance of policies which counteract our interests is the pervasive
mystery of the 21st Century. In the United States, blue-collar workers
angrily demand that they be left without healthcare, and insist that
millionaires should pay less tax. In the UK we appear ready to abandon the
social progress for which our ancestors risked their lives with barely a
mutter of protest. What has happened to us? 

The answer, I think, is provided by the most interesting report I have read
this year. Common Cause, written by Tom Crompton of the environment group
WWF, examines a series of fascinating recent advances in the field of
psychology(1 <http://assets.wwf.org.uk/downloads/common_cause_report.pdf> ).
It offers, I believe, a remedy to the blight which now afflicts every good
cause from welfare to climate change. 

Progressives, he shows, have been suckers for a myth of human cognition he
labels the Enlightenment model. This holds that people make rational
decisions by assessing facts. All that has to be done to persuade people is
to lay out the data: they will then use it to decide which options best
support their interests and desires. 

A host of psychological experiments demonstrates that it doesn't work like
this. Instead of performing a rational cost-benefit analysis, we accept
information which confirms our identity and values, and reject information
that conflicts with them. We mould our thinking around our social identity,
protecting it from serious challenge. Confronting people with inconvenient
facts is likely only to harden their resistance to change. 

Our social identity is shaped by values which psychologists classify as
either extrinsic or intrinsic. Extrinsic values concern status and
self-advancement. People with a strong set of extrinsic values fixate on how
others see them. They cherish financial success, image and fame. Intrinsic
values concern relationships with friends, family and community, and
self-acceptance. Those who have a strong set of intrinsic values are not
dependent on praise or rewards from other people. They have beliefs which
transcend their self-interest. 

Few people are all-extrinsic or all-intrinsic. Our social identity is formed
by a mixture of values. But psychological tests in nearly 70 countries show
that values cluster together in remarkably consistent patterns. Those who
strongly value financial success, for example, have less empathy, stronger
manipulative tendencies, a stronger attraction to hierarchy and inequality,
stronger prejudices towards strangers and less concern about human rights
and the environment. Those who have a strong sense of self-acceptance have
more empathy and a greater concern about human rights, social justice and
the environment. These values suppress each other: the stronger someone's
extrinsic aspirations, the weaker his or her intrinsic goals. 

We are not born with our values. They are shaped by the social environment.
By changing our perception of what is normal and acceptable, politics alters
our minds as much as our circumstances. Free, universal health provision,
for example, tends to reinforce intrinsic values. Shutting the poor out of
healthcare normalises inequality, reinforcing extrinsic values. The sharp
rightward shift which began with Margaret Thatcher and persisted under Blair
and Brown, all of whose governments emphasised the virtues of competition,
the market and financial success, has changed our values. The British Social
Attitudes survey, for example, shows a sharp fall over this period in public
support for policies which redistribute wealth and opportunity(2). 

This shift has been reinforced by advertising and the media. The media's
fascination with power politics, its rich lists, its catalogues of the 100
most powerful, influential, intelligent or beautiful people, its obsessive
promotion of celebrity, fashion, fast cars, expensive holidays: all these
inculcate extrinsic values. By generating feelings of insecurity and
inadequacy - which means reducing self-acceptance - they also suppress
intrinsic goals. 

Advertisers, who employ large numbers of psychologists, are well aware of
this. Crompton quotes Guy Murphy, global planning director for the marketing
company JWT. Marketers, Murphy says, "should see themselves as trying to
manipulate culture; being social engineers, not brand managers; manipulating
cultural forces, not brand impressions"(3). The more they foster extrinsic
values, the easier it is to sell their products. 

Rightwing politicians have also, instinctively, understood the importance of
values in changing the political map. Margaret Thatcher famously remarked
that "economics are the method; the object is to change the heart and
soul."(4) Conservatives in the United States generally avoid debating facts
and figures. Instead they frame issues in ways that both appeal to and
reinforce extrinsic values. Every year, through mechanisms that are rarely
visible and seldom discussed, the space in which progressive ideas can
flourish shrinks a little more. The progressive response to this trend has
been disastrous. 

Instead of confronting the shift in values, we have sought to adapt to it.
Once-progressive political parties have tried to appease altered public
attitudes: think of all those New Labour appeals to Middle England, which
was often just a code for self-interest. In doing so they endorse and
legitimise extrinsic values. Many greens and social justice campaigners have
also tried to reach people by appealing to self-interest: explaining how,
for example, relieving poverty in the developing world will build a market
for British products, or suggesting that, by buying a hybrid car, you can
impress your friends and enhance your social status. This tactic also
strengthens extrinsic values, making future campaigns even less likely to
succeed. Green consumerism has been a catastrophic mistake. 

Common Cause proposes a simple remedy: that we stop seeking to bury our
values and instead explain and champion them. Progressive campaigners, it
suggests, should help to foster an understanding of the psychology which
informs political change and show how it has been manipulated. They should
also come together to challenge forces - particularly the advertising
industry - which make us insecure and selfish. 

Ed Miliband appears to understands this need. He told the Labour conference
that he "wants to change our society so that it values community and family,
not just work" and "wants to change our foreign policy so that it's always
based on values, not just alliances . We must shed old thinking and stand up
for those who believe there is more to life than the bottom line."(5
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/28/ed-miliband-labour-conferenc
e-speech> ) But there's a paradox here, which means that we cannot rely on
politicians to drive these changes. Those who succeed in politics are, by
definition, people who prioritise extrinsic values. Their ambition must
supplant peace of mind, family life, friendship - even brotherly love. 

So we must lead this shift ourselves. People with strong intrinsic values
must cease to be embarrassed by them. We should argue for the policies we
want not on the grounds of expediency but on the grounds that they are
empathetic and kind; and against others on the grounds that they are selfish
and cruel. In asserting our values we become the change we want to see. 

www.monbiot.com

pareto2080: The Return of Pareto

by Susan Koswan

Treehuggers. 

The 80/20 Rule. 

One long weekend... 

 <http://www.volumesdirect.com> www.volumesdirect.com or
<mailto:dandelion at gto.net> dandelion at gto.net 

Now on Kindle!  <http://www.amazon.com> www.amazon.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20101013/1a343e76/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 5638 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20101013/1a343e76/attachment.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 3745 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20101013/1a343e76/attachment-0001.jpg>