One good thing about lockdowns is it gives you a chance to do some reading.
Recently I rediscovered a book written by humanist philosopher, Herbert Marcuse, more than half a century ago titled “One Dimensional Man”. In it he posits that in Western liberal economies we all self-construct reality in a way that is functional to the system we live in. In this way, we are led to believe that we are unique individuals, but we behave and think homogeneously.
It made me think that in our modern world, despite our claims to diversity of thought, we are increasingly dominated by one politically correct world view that is legitimised through the media, social pressure and our education systems.
Political correctness is a set of norms and values that increasingly socialize us and shapes our reality. It is one dimensional in the sense that it insists that its truths, its new “woke” observations, are the only legitimate ones.
One of its insidious features is in the way political parties like the Greens use cultural identity politics to further their political objectives. They encourage reshaping of identity of disadvantaged groups, migrants, refugees and first nation peoples into victim identities. They get them to see themselves as victims – and not as equals – and thus continue voting for the Greens.
The pressure to conform to a politically correct world view has created a huge backlash in America and led to the assertion of a counter reality, a counter worldview. Marcuse, if he was alive may well have called this “the great refusal” which he saw as the inevitable outcome of conformity pressure. It happens when those who feel excluded refuse to accept the prevailing culture any longer.
It is this sentiment that Donald Trump tapped into. As a result, in America today there are two opposing world views – both one-dimensional.
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One sees the world through political correctness when it comes to gender, race and LGBTI differences and promotes a Green left-of-centre political agenda.
The other presents the world as a set of establishment political forces that seek to exercise power over ordinary people and deny them a voice and access to the nation’s wealth. It is increasingly dominated by reactionaries that oppose migration, identity politics and liberal/Green ideas.
These two world views are convinced that their reality is the true reality. The genius of the Trump mobilisation is to be found in its understanding of their political potency.
The creation of two diametrically opposed one dimensional personality types in America means there is little chance of constructive dialogue between them. We see this played out every day where the two sides cannot even agree on an enquiry into the assault on Congress. It is well and truly a divided America.
Australia is also moving in this direction. Two opposing one-dimensional narratives are developing. One adhering to an extreme politically correct Greens Party world view. The other to a Hansonite reactionary world view also present within the National party that supports new coal stations, opposes migration and all liberal/Green ideas.
Federal Labor is bleeding voters to both ends of these extreme one-dimensional world views, while Scott Morrison has navigated it with care. Morrison has given away some ground to the politically correct with symbolic actions like replacing “young” for “one” in the national anthem and with massive spending on NDIS and Jobkeeper. But he has also refused to bend on zero emissions, supported coal mines and gas power stations and strong border protection policies.
Morrison has also perfected the art of wedging Labor between these two one-dimensional narratives. I heard Albanese at the Minerals Week lunch emphasise Labor’s support for the resources industry. But Morrison, speaking at the evening dinner, would have none of that. He pointed-out Labor’s failure to support new legislation that shifts responsibility to the States for environmental approval of new mines (even though all States had agreed) and its failure to support the proposed gas peaking station in the Hunter.
Wedge politics aside, for those committed to diversity and to challenging rather than pandering to one dimensional narratives I do not think all is lost.
One important theorist, Jurgen Habermas has analysed human communication and concluded that our statements have implied within them truth claims and an implication that we could defend them in open discourse.
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All around the world authorities are increasingly seeking to constrain such open discourse precisely because they cannot defend their truth claims. In Putin’s Russia, Erdogan’s Turkey, Xi Jinping’s China and many other places truth-based communication is constrained, and one-dimensional compliance demanded.
We can only hope that with new mass communication systems the truth claims embedded in the one-dimensional narratives of authoritarian regimes will be resisted by brave people.
In America, notwithstanding the attack on Congress democratic institutions have survived that can challenge the extreme one-dimensionality of both sides.
In Australia, Labor can still win the next election, but to do so it must resist the temptation to pander to these emerging extremes by:
- Continuing to support important goals like gender and race equality without conceding exclusive ownership of them to the one-dimensional Greens or pander to the Greens other extreme social or climate change policies.
- Emphatically support the values of its traditional base – workers and families across the nation – who support aspiration, security, practical energy policies and protecting and creating jobs – while rejecting the extreme Right’s anti climate change, anti-immigration, and pro new coal stations policies.
In Australia standing against the one-dimensional thinking of the extremes and with the sensible middle remains the only way to win elections.
Theo Theophanous is a Commentator and Former Victorian Government Minister.