Back again? I’m surprised.
Bill Bishop was recently in an interview on The Daily Show with lovable and notorious Jon Stewart. The duo discussed Bishop’s noteworthy book, The Big Sort.
In order to introduce this concept I’m going to ask you to think back to high school. Remember not only the teachers and classes, but remember the friends with whom you surrounded yourself. Did all of your friends share similar interests and/or beliefs with you, or were people polarized against each other? More than likely, everyone was similar to you.
This isn’t a coincidence at all. It’s actually the phenomenon on which Bishop’s book focuses. The Big Sort is the term that is essentially the same as what I described above, but on a national level. When given a choice, people will surround themselves with those who are most like themselves. We may not do it continuously, but we gravitate towards comfort, and like-minded people provide us with the most comfort.
I’m a perfect example of this tendency. I grew up in the small town of Lake City, Colorado. As you will have probably gathered by reading the rest of my posts, I am quite a liberally-minded individual. However, the majority of my class-mates and teachers in Lake City leaned in the opposite political direction. This didn’t mean that I didn’t get along with them but for some reason, I felt out of place. When I moved to Durango and began here at Animas, all of a sudden I found myself surrounded by like-minded, more liberally-oriented people. I felt more comfortable. Past the school walls, you’ll find that I am also in a community of outdoor enthusiast, health-conscientious, animal-loving people; much like me.
While that’s all great and dandy, what does any of this have to do with politics? Well, it has EVERYTHING to do with politics. The Big Short has literally changed the way our political system functions. We not only surround ourselves with people that reflect who we are, but we also vote for people who are the most like us. As Bishop accurately points out in his interview, “politics aren’t about issues, they’re about lifestyles.”
Voters no longer elect representatives based on who has the best plan to tackle political issues, but instead on candidates that remind us of ourselves and the community to which we belong. The electoral system simply holds up a row of mirrors, and we pick the one that most closely resembles our reflection.
Stewart comically pointed out that, “everyone voted on Bush not for his policies, but because they looked at him and said, “I bet that’s a guy who watches six hours of TV every night.’”
Taking yet another step back, one can see a correlation between The Big Sort and an idea thrown around by the French Historian, Alexis de Tocqueville, who wrote a multi-volume analysis of the Democratic American government in 1899. Regardless of age, many of Tocqueville's observations still hold true to this day.
One of his main arguments is that any political society is controlled by the majority. It’s easy to point out the majority in a dictatorship, but in a democracy, the majority is the greatest number of people who stand behind a certain set of beliefs. That majority then is able to control the minority through our presidential electoral system.
Thanks to this concept of sorting, the difference between the majority and the minority are growing more and more apparent.
I am still new to the ways of this world, and I still have quite a few years ahead of me. I look forward to sitting back and observing our system of groups and majorities and how they will continue to alter our political system. I’ll of course watch all of this unfold while I’m around my friends who also love walking dogs, skiing, and eating gluten-free muffins.
Bill Bishop was recently in an interview on The Daily Show with lovable and notorious Jon Stewart. The duo discussed Bishop’s noteworthy book, The Big Sort.
In order to introduce this concept I’m going to ask you to think back to high school. Remember not only the teachers and classes, but remember the friends with whom you surrounded yourself. Did all of your friends share similar interests and/or beliefs with you, or were people polarized against each other? More than likely, everyone was similar to you.
This isn’t a coincidence at all. It’s actually the phenomenon on which Bishop’s book focuses. The Big Sort is the term that is essentially the same as what I described above, but on a national level. When given a choice, people will surround themselves with those who are most like themselves. We may not do it continuously, but we gravitate towards comfort, and like-minded people provide us with the most comfort.
I’m a perfect example of this tendency. I grew up in the small town of Lake City, Colorado. As you will have probably gathered by reading the rest of my posts, I am quite a liberally-minded individual. However, the majority of my class-mates and teachers in Lake City leaned in the opposite political direction. This didn’t mean that I didn’t get along with them but for some reason, I felt out of place. When I moved to Durango and began here at Animas, all of a sudden I found myself surrounded by like-minded, more liberally-oriented people. I felt more comfortable. Past the school walls, you’ll find that I am also in a community of outdoor enthusiast, health-conscientious, animal-loving people; much like me.
While that’s all great and dandy, what does any of this have to do with politics? Well, it has EVERYTHING to do with politics. The Big Short has literally changed the way our political system functions. We not only surround ourselves with people that reflect who we are, but we also vote for people who are the most like us. As Bishop accurately points out in his interview, “politics aren’t about issues, they’re about lifestyles.”
Voters no longer elect representatives based on who has the best plan to tackle political issues, but instead on candidates that remind us of ourselves and the community to which we belong. The electoral system simply holds up a row of mirrors, and we pick the one that most closely resembles our reflection.
Stewart comically pointed out that, “everyone voted on Bush not for his policies, but because they looked at him and said, “I bet that’s a guy who watches six hours of TV every night.’”
Taking yet another step back, one can see a correlation between The Big Sort and an idea thrown around by the French Historian, Alexis de Tocqueville, who wrote a multi-volume analysis of the Democratic American government in 1899. Regardless of age, many of Tocqueville's observations still hold true to this day.
One of his main arguments is that any political society is controlled by the majority. It’s easy to point out the majority in a dictatorship, but in a democracy, the majority is the greatest number of people who stand behind a certain set of beliefs. That majority then is able to control the minority through our presidential electoral system.
Thanks to this concept of sorting, the difference between the majority and the minority are growing more and more apparent.
I am still new to the ways of this world, and I still have quite a few years ahead of me. I look forward to sitting back and observing our system of groups and majorities and how they will continue to alter our political system. I’ll of course watch all of this unfold while I’m around my friends who also love walking dogs, skiing, and eating gluten-free muffins.