Starhawk, you wrote, "When avenues for earning healthy pride are few [...] when society itself makes it hard to fulfill its expectations, and casts that failure as personal lack rather than larger structural impediments, it’s going to be hard to construct a personal identity you can truly feel proud of.... [....] Appeals like that of white nationalism gain all the more force."
Yes! Along very similar lines, I've been deeply inspired by Rachel Kleinfield's work in "Five Strategies to Support U.S. Democracy" where she writes about the need to offer images of healthy masculinity as an alternative to toxic ones... "The authoritarian movement is cultivating a story that puts men, Christians, and White people at the top of a status hierarchy.... [Yet}... writing off all members of these groups as racist or unsaveable simply thrusts them closer together [...] if prodemocracy efforts don’t reach people who are feeling their loss of status and seeking explanations, then authoritarian politicians, male-chauvinist Proud Boys, incel chat boards, hypermasculine militia movements, and myriad white nationalist groups are happy to recruit them instead."
A lot of deep convergences here... being (wisely) inclusive, being able to work with differences in a caring way, helps our own movements internally, and, it also helps us build broader movements...
Arlie Hochschild is my favorite living sociologist Her insights into how social structures affect individual experiences and behaviors are brilliant. I'm looking forward to reading Stolen Pride.
I appreciate the focus on shame in understanding the dynamics of reactionary authoritarian movements and leadership. Among other things, I think it explains why so many interactions between so called “progressives” and those likely to support leaders like Trump end up being counterproductive: reinforcing commitment to the reactionary movement and hostility toward “progressives” or “wokes”.
Shame (including its relationship to fear of humiliation and fear of losing status) is related to the fear of being scapegoated which only intensifies to the extent that one participates in scapegoating behaviors or emotions. The fears associated with shame (or the prospect of being shamed) can often be MUCH more galvanizing than fear of physical pain or even death. (How this may be related to masculinity or testosterone is actually beside the point given that half the population is male and that testosterone plays a role in female emotions and motivations too.) Shame is also generally the most important driver of what is sometimes viewed as “jealousy” or “resentment”. And the level of intense focus on “honor,” “dignity,” or “respect” is often an indication of the level of fearfulness regarding shame.
When we are careless about the way we may be shaming others, we may ourselves be revealing a level of insecurity related to our own vulnerable sensitivity to being shamed. It’s extraordinary how sometimes even a show of humility can be driven by a motivation to shame others, just as some people are so sensitive to being shamed that almost any interaction or presentation can trigger a shame based reaction.
Starhawk, you wrote, "When avenues for earning healthy pride are few [...] when society itself makes it hard to fulfill its expectations, and casts that failure as personal lack rather than larger structural impediments, it’s going to be hard to construct a personal identity you can truly feel proud of.... [....] Appeals like that of white nationalism gain all the more force."
Yes! Along very similar lines, I've been deeply inspired by Rachel Kleinfield's work in "Five Strategies to Support U.S. Democracy" where she writes about the need to offer images of healthy masculinity as an alternative to toxic ones... "The authoritarian movement is cultivating a story that puts men, Christians, and White people at the top of a status hierarchy.... [Yet}... writing off all members of these groups as racist or unsaveable simply thrusts them closer together [...] if prodemocracy efforts don’t reach people who are feeling their loss of status and seeking explanations, then authoritarian politicians, male-chauvinist Proud Boys, incel chat boards, hypermasculine militia movements, and myriad white nationalist groups are happy to recruit them instead."
A lot of deep convergences here... being (wisely) inclusive, being able to work with differences in a caring way, helps our own movements internally, and, it also helps us build broader movements...
Arlie Hochschild is my favorite living sociologist Her insights into how social structures affect individual experiences and behaviors are brilliant. I'm looking forward to reading Stolen Pride.
I appreciate the focus on shame in understanding the dynamics of reactionary authoritarian movements and leadership. Among other things, I think it explains why so many interactions between so called “progressives” and those likely to support leaders like Trump end up being counterproductive: reinforcing commitment to the reactionary movement and hostility toward “progressives” or “wokes”.
Shame (including its relationship to fear of humiliation and fear of losing status) is related to the fear of being scapegoated which only intensifies to the extent that one participates in scapegoating behaviors or emotions. The fears associated with shame (or the prospect of being shamed) can often be MUCH more galvanizing than fear of physical pain or even death. (How this may be related to masculinity or testosterone is actually beside the point given that half the population is male and that testosterone plays a role in female emotions and motivations too.) Shame is also generally the most important driver of what is sometimes viewed as “jealousy” or “resentment”. And the level of intense focus on “honor,” “dignity,” or “respect” is often an indication of the level of fearfulness regarding shame.
When we are careless about the way we may be shaming others, we may ourselves be revealing a level of insecurity related to our own vulnerable sensitivity to being shamed. It’s extraordinary how sometimes even a show of humility can be driven by a motivation to shame others, just as some people are so sensitive to being shamed that almost any interaction or presentation can trigger a shame based reaction.
I just got around to reading this today. I’m so glad I did. Such an important topic. Another word that comes to mind is vulnerability.