I think it's simply a fact that when you back an idea against a wall, it fights back.
There are a number of ideas that have been cornered.
They are more than ideas, actually. They are NARRATIVES. People live their lives according to narratives. Sometimes narratives conflict. When that happens one narrative becomes obsolete.
But people don't necessarily want to give up their narratives: narratives, spoken in the language of symbols, give our lives meaning.
Most people's narratives are not their own. They have been taught them in school and by the culture that they live in.
In complex cultures like 'Europe' and 'the USA' there are obviously many different narratives; subcultural narratives and counter-cultural narratives; nationalist narratives and 'Grand March of History' EU narratives.
A good example would be the resistance among some members of the older generation in the USA to even admit that the US government's actions vis-a-vis the Native American population was ever less than glorious.
My father, for example--and if not him, then at least other people of his generation-- will tell you that they were extremely warlike and seems to see a history in which US expansion and manifest destiny was a desperate fight for survival ordained by God, practically.Like all such fights, it might have some unfortunate and ugly sides to it, but it was what it was.
This is because, simply enough, he grew up with this narrative.
It was taught in school; it was reflected in the films and TV shows he watched; it was assumed by everyone and formed part of the contextual tapestry on which life was lived.
The narrative of the brave pioneer fighting against the elements, against wild nature and against the Wild Men of America in order to eventually tame the vast North American continent to create a base from which the Great American Republic could achieve heights of grandeur is a powerful one.
Nowadays, the narrative has changed ,or rather, is changing. It tends to paint Native Americans only as victims of a rapacious and savage culture who were murdered by the millions.
The real truth of course is probably much, much, much more nuanced than either narrative. But the common man's narrative doesn't usually consider a lot of nuance. Less is more, when it comes to narrative power.
But my father, seeing the second narrative being pushed, a narrative which is clearly incompatible with the first narrative, rejects the second narrative as 'revisionist history.'
When this happens over many years to many different narratives, people are supremely uncomfortable.
Because narratives make our realities and if your reality is pulled out from under you, its a very disconcerting thing. I'm sure you've had an experience where you've misunderstood a situation; The moment when the reality dawns on you, you feel confused and bewildered.
Politicians instinctively realize that narratives govern our realities so they manipulate these realities for their own purposes.
Politicians like Donald Trump or LePen are absolute geniuses at this: Trump can effortlessly imply a narrative that speaks to people who have had their realiteis ripped from them. As harsh as their message is, people find comfort in them.
People believe them because they want to believe them. It's easier and less psychologically threatening for some people to believe that someone is changing their narrative because of nefarious purposes than it is to believe that the old narrative is wrong.
Especially when the new narrative is being sold using the same manipulative propagandistic techniques as the old; and the simplifications in it often don't hold up to scrutiny.
It's a scary world. Some Europeans feel threatened by Russia, by immigrants from Africa and the Middle East; by an undemocratic parliament and the loss of their fought-for national sovereignty; by the erosion of their ethno-linguistic exeptionalim by an all-inclusive EU; by the economy, an aging population and the rise of the developing world.
Americans feel similar pressures, though the threat from Russia is less menacing. Americans also have the experiencce of being at the top of the heap in the Global Order and therefore might feel they have further to fall.
In a world where the narratives that rule people's lives are rapidly changing, it's no wonder that some individuals are falling back on the comfort of politics that affirm their trusted narratives that were 'true' for them in the past and bucking the trends..
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