The Siege Mentality

This almost perfectly explains the political drift here in eastern Indiana over the last 30 years.

While the collapse of the auto industry, advances in technology, and the pro-business anti-labor policies of both parties destroyed our local economies, Rush Loudmouth, talk-radio, and Fox Propaganda turned our conservative, but mostly optimistic populace, into a group of pissed-off, Fox News watchers who hate "the government" and "those people".

A fine marketing job that led directly to Mr. Trump.


The Siege Mentality Problem - The New York Times:

You see the siege mentality not just among evangelical Christians but also among the campus social justice warriors and the gun lobbyists, in North Korea and Iran, and in the populist movements across Europe.

The siege mentality starts with a sense of collective victimhood. It’s not just that our group has opponents. The whole “culture” or the whole world is irredeemably hostile.

From this flows a deep sense of pessimism. Things are bad now. Our enemies are growing stronger. And things are about to get worse. The world our children inherit will be horrific. The siege mentality floats on apocalyptic fear.

The odd thing is that the siege mentality feels kind of good to the people who grab on to it. It gives its proponents a straightforward way to interpret the world — the noble us versus the powerful them. It gives them a clear sense of group membership and a clear social identity. It offers a ready explanation for the bad things that happen in life.

Most of all, it gives people a narrative to express their own superiority: We may be losing, but at least we are the holy remnant. We have the innocence of victimhood. We are martyrs in a spiteful world.

Leaders, even sports coaches, try to whip up the siege mentality, because it makes their job easier. After all, this mentality encourages people to conform and follow orders. Resentment can be a great motivator. It’s us against the world!

The siege mentality also excuses the leader’s bad behavior. When our very existence is on the line we can’t be worrying about things like humility, sexual morality, honesty and basic decency. In times of war all is permissible. Even molesting teenagers can be overlooked because our group’s survival is at stake.

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