"People want a sense of their own power again, even if it is an illusion"

[phantom power]

Disempowered people looking for alternatives to the status quo are behind what Reich is hearing and behind what is powering the alternative medicine industry. Politically, people are looking for alternatives to having their power further usurped. In the case of alternative politicians, people are ready to buy what Donald Trump and Ben Carson (former quack medicine pitchman) are selling even if they are essentially irrelevent. People want a sense of their own power again, even if it is an illusion.

Writing about conspiracy theories, Michael Shermer explains:

... polls reveal that “conspiracy theories permeate all parts of American society and cut across gender, age, race, income, political affiliation, educational level, and occupational status.” They note that in laboratory experiments “researchers have found that inducing anxiety or loss of control triggers respondents to see nonexistent patterns and evoke conspiratorial explanations” and that in the real world “there is evidence that disasters (e.g., earthquakes) and other high-stress situations (e.g., job uncertainty) prompt people to concoct, embrace, and repeat conspiracy theories.”

Posessing secret "truths" gives conspiracy theorists a false sense of power in a world beyond their control. When life feels as if you have awakened locked in the trunk of a car careening down a rutted mountain road, you want to believe – you need to believe – that someone, anyone, is sitting behind the wheel. Even a diabolical someone is better than no one at all.

Maybe what Reich is hearing and what the mood of the electorate indicates is that people are waking up, finally, to the fact that their country and their world has been hijacked, and not by immigrants, the poor, or ethnic minorities. What hangs in the balance is whether they will reach for a real alternative or another placebo.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2015/11/revenge-of-disempowered-by-bloggersrus.html

[phantom power]

1. This actually explains a lot of otherwise-inexplicable human behaviors.

[The2ndWheel]

2. It's not that it's been hijacked

It's that nobody can steer a ridiculously complex global civilization. Every step, it seems it's more and more people under the same roof, which makes your particular choices or opinions less relevant. It also increases the distance between you and those making the choices that matter. How does one person in congress "represent" hundreds of thousands or millions of people at the same time?

Even if it was about finally waking up to a hijacked world, what exactly would people do about it? Vote every few years?