Irrationality that Produced the Big Bang Theory is Everywhere

 PSI Blog 20250519 Irrationality that Produced the Big Bang Theory is Everywhere

 

Review of “Why Trump?” by Douglas Giles.

 

 

I normally don’t cover politics on this site, but I am nonetheless interested in the philosophical background that underlies the absurd Big Bang Theory. Conspiracy theory and the attacks on science funding and education in the US seem to be associated symptoms based on long-standing belief in irrational assumptions.

 

This book is extremely important for understanding the current march toward neofascism in the United States. It is professionally written and easy to understand. I learned a lot.

 

Giles begins with his 3 classifications of right-wing ideology: reactionism, libertarianism, conservativism, with the last two losing out to the first. The US has always had a strain of reaction involving its infusion of Calvinism that underlies Christian Nationalism. According to Giles, it claims that “God gave worldly wealth and prosperity to the Elect and denied it to others. This doctrine translated to two beliefs among the followers of Calvinism—that wealth is a sign of virtue and that poverty is conjoined with the corruption of moral depravity. Scholars have observed that these two beliefs that are embedded in Calvinism facilitated and justified the development of capitalism.”

 

Giles observes: “The “Puritans” who came on the Mayflower to found New England were Calvinists…”, that “The American religious Right is fundamentally Calvinist in its view of the world.” And that “Reactionism on right-wing radio, television, and the Internet is the 21st century manifestation of the 16th century ideology of Calvinism.”

 

Ressentiment

 

I just learned this unfamiliar word, which sums up the reactionary's predicament. Giles explains it beautifully:

 

“Ressentiment is different from the justified anger one feels when being mistreated. Ressentiment is a particular form of hatred that arises from beliefs that one is lacking recognition and thus is socially impotent. Struggles against real injustices are movements toward higher values such as justice, truth, and love that inspire positive actions. Acts motivated by ressentiment are movements toward lower values such as spite, vengeance, and malice that inspire negative actions.” “This state triggers feelings of hopelessness…” not unlike the juvenile males wielding weapons of mass destruction.

 

Victimhood

 

All those feelings are part of victimhood, which in the United States, was mentioned first in the New York Times in 1993. It was not the subject of scientific study until 2010. In other words, the middle-class was in decline for about a generation before people started to realize what was happening. Victimhood is not confined to the right-wing, but also to the left-wing, which uses “wokeness” in its attempt to right the wrongs produced by the right-wing.

 

Although Trump appears to be a surreptitious atheist, he uses ideological slogans in tune with the beliefs of middle-class folks currently under stress. Recent cultural changes are seen as threatening their economic status. White Christians have always thought themselves to be favored by god and therefore superior to others they deemed inferior.

 

In short, Trump claims to hate the same people that the Christian Nationalists hate. By eliminating the folks deemed inferior, they hope to achieve majority status, political power, and their former self-esteem once again. Little of this hate is directed toward the captains of industry, who are admired for their exponentially increasing wealth and financial support of the reaction.

 

While at bottom, the reaction is a result of economic stress, it manifests as disgust over cultural changes that oppose the cherry-picked ideology in the bible. For instance, men are supposed to dominate women, whose place is supposed to be in the home. That is simply regressive wishful thinking. It is no longer possible to support the much-desired middle-class lifestyle without two incomes. Being “fruitful and multiplying” is unlikely, with world-wide births per mother declining from 5 in 1965 to 2.3 at present. Returning to the “good old days” is hopeless.

 

Political Power

 

Giles rightly uses power in his analysis of politics: who has it and who does not. The reaction follows the decline of “white power” buttressed by Christian Nationalism. As he points out, reactionism favors power in the hands of the few, while progressivism favors its distribution among all people. That is why reactionaries support dictatorship over democracy. This is particularly true whenever their numbers and corresponding political power are in decline.

 

Power is the ability to act. Christian Nationalists, of course, are not without the ability to act, as seen by the multifarious ways they attempt to thwart democracy. They have continually fought against voting rights and instituted gerrymandering to favor their followers. At its most extreme, they believe, without evidence, in conspiracy theories suggesting elections have been stolen. A return to white supremacy via democracy is unlikely.

 

Being a nice, well-educated philosopher, Giles understands where all this current reaction comes from. Reactionaries and progressives have always been parts of the political equation. He points out that the inflammatory language used on both sides of the left-right debate should be avoided. Name calling seldom changes opinions. He encourages progressives to avoid taking the bait. Both sides are American. Neither side is evil.

 

Should democracy prevail through all this, we still will have the Bill of Rights. We might want to curtail the Second Amendment to reduce violence, but the First is sacrosanct. Giles rightly states that “All speech should be permitted except speech that seeks to silence other people. That remains one of the most profoundly wise ideas I have heard. It is a principle I have tried to apply ever since. I combine that principle with John Stuart Mill’s idea that the answer to wrong speech is more speech.” Currently, both the right and the left tend to shout down and de-platform the opposition. They do not wish to hear from folks deemed “evil” or “racist.”

 

Overall, Giles appears overly optimistically idealistic about the power of rationality to overcome the irrationality of Calvinism. One thing missing from the book is any mention of the similarities with the development of fascism and other right-wing movements in other countries. “American exceptionalism” has resulted in the world’s longest-lived democracy. But much of that was beholden to its success as the world’s domineering economic power. The commensurate growth of its large middle-class led to a semblance of voter satisfaction until 1971. Since then, the number of households deemed middle-class has declined from 61% to 50%. The middle-class has shrunk before, but never for over a half century.

 

So, that is what is meant by “Make America Great Again.” It is supremely ironic that it would take a melodramatic billionaire to recognize the squeeze on the middle-class and its Calvinistic traditions being ripe for the accumulation of political power. Few of Trump’s regressive promises are going to relieve the middle-class or decrease income inequality unless he produces a new slogan: “Tax the Rich.” Don’t hold your breath.

 

 

PSI Blog 20250519

 

 

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