Book Review: Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal by George Packer
America, this is you; this is us decoded. No matter who you are, or what your socioeconomic perspective, George Packer provides in this book the most insightful explanation I have seen of why some people behave in inexplicable ways and believe in demonstrably false premises. Avoiding the posture of a progressive rant against the usual suspects, Packer effectively presents an objective break down of how American democracy is in fact in peril—from forces that were active even prior to the founding of the United States.
Packer documents well the fissures throughout American history, categorizing four recognizable groups in our contemporary time:
1. Free America, as in neoliberal and libertarian, I’ve got mine and your problems are your own fault, and concern for individual freedom overrides any recognition that the actual market is far from free.
2. Smart America, I’ve got the creds at least in my narrow specialty, a world where skewed meritocracy is simultaneously foundational and precarious, and why can’t everyone else be smart like me (emphasis on like me).
3. Real America, basically rural whites and others who think like them, often whose sense of reality is conjured by right wing media, a world of cohabiting inferiority and superiority complexes, where loyalty overrides logic.
4. Justice America, the driver of identity based cancel culture that has jumped the fence of academia and infected business and society in general, although properly promoting marginalized groups sometimes ignored by preceding Liberals they are selective themselves on which causes to champion, refusing the wisdom of progressive giants in history in emphasizing separate identity over common economic justice.
Packer’s antidote for these fissures is the art of self-government, explained as community interaction at the local level—which would provide the foundation for healing at the state and federal levels. This would be accomplished by people of the different categories interacting with each other on matters other than what separates them—with the intended result that they begin to see each other as fellow humans. This cannot be just “both sidesism,” as one can still affirm another’s human agency without legitimizing their false premises.
I found this book short on solutions to the problems Packer so skillfully describes. All the human interaction that is possible is still limited as long as well funded promulgators of fallacy based propaganda continue to influence large sections of society. Those in each category will need to see those in the other categories as fellow humans, looking past their (obvious to themselves) ignorance and intolerance. Someone or something will need to facilitate such inter-category interaction—who’s up to that task?
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