Are We Depoliticized?

Humanity's fate depends on whether we can fight back against what power is doing.

“People are depoliticized in the US and in Canada and in other Western countries—the results are incredibly dangerous.”

“It’s even worse than an obsession with voting, though—people are actually depoliticized altogether.”

“So the obvious solution is for activists to counteract these destructive efforts—these destructive efforts to depoliticize people and stimulate distrust and isolate people and destroy social bonds. People need to join activism and fight back against these forces before it’s too late.”

People are depoliticized in the US and in Canada and in other Western countries—the results are incredibly dangerous.

One way that you can tell that people are depoliticized is that people regard voting as somehow a huge part of their political life. And it’s true that voting is important, but an activist will recognize two facts:

• (1) voting is important—you have to vote against the worst politicians in order to keep the worst politicians out of office and protect the world from what the worst politicians will do in terms of state violence and global heating and everything else

• (2) when it comes to politics, voting—even though it’s important—is approximately 0.001% of an activist’s annual expenditure of time and energy

These two points are really basic and apparently these two points used to be absolute bedrock common sense for the left. So it’s troubling that there was such a firestorm over whether to vote against Trump in 2020—apparently no such firestorm would’ve ever conceivably happened in the previous era in which there was a bedrock common sense about these matters among people on the left.

It’s even worse than an obsession with voting, though—people are actually depoliticized altogether. Check out this interesting comment from the 1990s about depoliticization:

We have a fantastic propaganda system in this country. There’s been nothing like it in history. It’s the whole public relations industry and the entertainment industry. The media, which everybody talks about, including me, are a small part of it. I talk about mostly that sector of the media that goes to a small part of the population, the educated sector. But if you look at the whole system, it’s just vast. And it is dedicated to certain principles. It wants to destroy democracy. That’s its main goal. That means destroy every form of organization and association that might lead to democracy. So you have to demonize unions. And you have to isolate people and atomize them and separate them and make them hate and fear one another and create illusions about where power is. A major goal of this whole doctrinal system for fifty years has been to create the mood of what is now called anti-politics.

So the main points are:

• the US propaganda system is “just vast” and it’s “dedicated to certain principles”

• the system “wants to destroy democracy”

• “That means destroy every form of organization and association that might lead to democracy.”

• “So you have to demonize unions.”

• “And you have to isolate people and atomize them and separate them and make them hate and fear one another and create illusions about where power is.”

And regarding depoliticization, look at this additional interesting comment from the 1990s:

There have been fifty years of propaganda stimulating anti-government feeling. Here’s where I again don’t care so much about Rush Limbaugh as I do about the mainstream. There have been fifty years of propaganda which suppresses the fact that the government reflects powerful, private interests, and they’re the real source of power.

So take the angry white males who are maybe joining what they mistakenly call militias, paramilitary forces. These people are angry. Most of them are high school graduates. They’re people whose incomes have dropped maybe 20% over the last fifteen years or so. They can no longer do what they think is the right thing for them to do, provide for their families. Maybe their wives have to go out and work. And maybe make more money than they do. Maybe the kids are running crazy because nobody’s paying attention to them. Their lives are falling apart. They’re angry. Who are they supposed to blame? You’re not supposed to blame the Fortune 500, because they’re invisible. They have been taught for fifty years now by intense propaganda, everything from the entertainment media to school books, that all there is around is the government. If there’s anything going wrong, it’s the government’s fault. The government is somehow something that’s independent of external powers. So if your life is falling apart, blame the government.

There are plenty of things wrong with the government. But what’s harmful to people about the government is that it’s a reflection of something else. And that other thing you don’t see. Why don’t you see that other thing? Because it’s been made invisible. So when you read Clinton campaign propaganda you’ve got workers and their firms but not owners and investors. That’s just the end result of fifty years of this stuff. Talking about your subtext, if people are angry and frightened, they will naturally turn to what they see. And what they’ve been taught to see is the government.

There’s a reason why attention is focused on the government as the source of problems. It has a defect. It’s potentially democratic. Private corporations are not potentially democratic. The propaganda system does not want to get people to think, The government is something we can take over and we can use as our instrument of public power. They don’t want people to think that. And since you can’t think that, you get what’s called populism, but is not populism at all. It’s not the kind of populism that says, Fine, let’s take over the government and use it as an instrument to undermine and destroy private power, which has no right to exist. Nobody is saying that. All that you’re hearing is that there’s something bad about government, so let’s blow up the federal building.

And so the main points are:

• “There have been fifty years of propaganda stimulating anti-government feeling.”

• “There have been fifty years of propaganda which suppresses the fact that the government reflects powerful, private interests, and they’re the real source of power.”

• “The government is somehow something that’s independent of external powers.”

• “So if your life is falling apart, blame the government.”

• “what’s harmful to people about the government is that it’s a reflection of something else”

• “And that other thing you don’t see.”

• “Why don’t you see that other thing? Because it’s been made invisible.”

• “if people are angry and frightened, they will naturally turn to what they see”

• “And what they’ve been taught to see is the government.”

• “There’s a reason why attention is focused on the government as the source of problems. It has a defect. It’s potentially democratic.”

• “Private corporations are not potentially democratic.”

• “The propaganda system does not want to get people to think, The government is something we can take over and we can use as our instrument of public power.”

• “They don’t want people to think that.”

• “And since you can’t think that, you get what’s called populism, but is not populism at all.”

• “It’s not the kind of populism that says, Fine, let’s take over the government and use it as an instrument to undermine and destroy private power, which has no right to exist. Nobody is saying that.”

• “All that you’re hearing is that there’s something bad about government, so let’s blow up the federal building.”

I recently saw a fascinating piece about depoliticization in Russia—it’s one of the most interesting things that I’ve read in a long time and I highly recommend that everyone take a look at it:

• “‘Russia Is Completely Depoliticized’” (7 April 2022)

I took some notes—as you read these notes consider the similarities with your own society:

• “There is an incredible contempt and disdain for all kinds of politics just because Russians are completely certain that there is no possible way to change anything through politics, that no change is possible in general.”

• “Any kind of political activity is all just complete nonsense to a vast majority of Russians. If you believe in extraterrestrials, that’s at least interesting. If you are into politics, you’re silly.”

• “I always say the best way to spoil the party is to start talking about politics in Russia. You will never be invited again.”

• “It is precisely under Putin that this disdain for politics took shape.”

• “Elections are a masquerade. They were flooded with all kinds of ideas just to create repulsion toward politics. You had all kinds of porn stars, like complete kooks. And that, of course, created the impression that you shouldn’t show up.”

• “The TV show House was actually incredibly popular in Russia precisely because the motto is ‘Everyone lies.’ This is so to the point with what Russians feel. Everyone lies. There’s no truth at all. It’s endless relativism.”

• “And the media was saying all the time that you should never trust anyone, including the media, of course.”

• the distrust in Russia “destroys any kind of social bond between people”

• “Sociologists have this tool, asking, ‘Do you think that people, in general, can be trusted?’ Russia has very high levels of distrust. I’ve seen it as a sociologist. Often people don’t even understand the question—‘How on earth can you trust people?’ You can trust dogs, cats, but with people, this is impossible.”

• “I’m sure it was strategic for Putin to depoliticize the country and to trade relative economic prosperity for complete civic disengagement.”

This dynamic in Russia parallels what we see in the West. In both Russia and the West, power pursues a highly effective strategy—a strategy where you depoliticize people and stimulate distrust and isolate people and destroy social bonds—that has a devastating effect on the population.

So the obvious solution is for activists to counteract these destructive efforts—these destructive efforts to depoliticize people and stimulate distrust and isolate people and destroy social bonds. People need to join activism and fight back against these forces before it’s too late.