(I think the US example is perhaps a bit more complicated. It’s not just very wealthy, it’s also highly unequal and offers much weaker safety nets than most other liberal democracies. So the bitter politics may have more to do with material insecurity than with post-scarcity boredom.)
That said, I do agree that as scarcity recedes, zero-sum status games could become more prevalent.
Another reason why fanaticism could matter more in the long run is that future disagreements may be much more about terminal value differences than instrumental policy questions like how to create jobs or make things more affordable (no one will need jobs and there could be huge abundance). That’s where fanaticism becomes especially relevant because it entails potentially drastic value disagreements that are locked in, with potentially no room for change, trade, or compromise.
(I think the US example is perhaps a bit more complicated. It’s not just very wealthy, it’s also highly unequal and offers much weaker safety nets than most other liberal democracies. So the bitter politics may have more to do with material insecurity than with post-scarcity boredom.)
As I linked in my comment, ideologues in the US tend to be rather wealthy:
Progressive Activists have strong ideological views, high levels of engagement with political issues, and the highest levels of education and socioeconomic status. Their own circumstances are secure. They feel safer than any group, which perhaps frees them to devote more attention to larger issues of social justice in their society.
The Devoted Conservatives are the counterpart to the Progressive Activists, but at the other end of the spectrum. They are one of the highest-income groups, and they feel happier and more secure than most other Americans.
I worry that American ideologues have got all the lower levels of Maslow’s hierarchy satisfied, and they are now pursuing self-actualization through partisanship.
Furthermore there appear to be a number of “urban legends” which float around the internet about the United States which are not true, or at least not as obviously true as you’ve been lead to believe. One blogger claims:
Common measures of poverty in the U.S. do not factor in taxes and transfers. The very things implemented to address the issue. We already “won” the “war on poverty” in absolute terms to reduce suffering—as measured by consumption. The same stunt is often done for inequality. If you don’t move the goalposts and count existing policy interventions, we’re already largely post-scarcity and highly egalitarian—to the extent the U.S. is more progressive and redistributive than any European country. Which is why poverty became positively correlated with obesity about the same time that bottom line dropped below 5% in the 1990s.
Interesting points!
(I think the US example is perhaps a bit more complicated. It’s not just very wealthy, it’s also highly unequal and offers much weaker safety nets than most other liberal democracies. So the bitter politics may have more to do with material insecurity than with post-scarcity boredom.)
That said, I do agree that as scarcity recedes, zero-sum status games could become more prevalent.
Another reason why fanaticism could matter more in the long run is that future disagreements may be much more about terminal value differences than instrumental policy questions like how to create jobs or make things more affordable (no one will need jobs and there could be huge abundance). That’s where fanaticism becomes especially relevant because it entails potentially drastic value disagreements that are locked in, with potentially no room for change, trade, or compromise.
As I linked in my comment, ideologues in the US tend to be rather wealthy:
https://hiddentribes.us/profiles/#progressive-activists
https://hiddentribes.us/profiles/#devoted-conservatives
I worry that American ideologues have got all the lower levels of Maslow’s hierarchy satisfied, and they are now pursuing self-actualization through partisanship.
Furthermore there appear to be a number of “urban legends” which float around the internet about the United States which are not true, or at least not as obviously true as you’ve been lead to believe. One blogger claims:
source, see also