Abstract
In the realm of politics, the world is faced with two distinct phenomena at their finite end. First, the dominance of more than 150 years of class politics which began a decline since its peak after the second World War. Second, identity politics as more contemporary and new policy peaking in the 1980s. A simple sociological observation of why and how leaders such as Donald Trump get elected by much of the population in a nation demonstrates a leap to the right and conservative side of politics. The feeling of loneliness and survival has given rise to electing the ultimate monarch in the Hobbesian sense of social order. Globally we have ended the two main epochal togetherness, class, and identity. In the past 120 years or so we have transformed social connections from class as the collective to the postmodern collectives of Black people, women, LGBTQ, Latino, ethnic minorities, and nationalities, to the extreme individualism of trusting no one, connecting with no one. We are now in solitude, on our own, in a lonely world of survival looking for the authoritarian monarch to save us from the ‘other’. Electing heavy-handed authoritarians like Trump as leaders demonstrates the fragmentation of the previously fragmented. In this paper the author delves into the real sociology of why a fragmented population, vis-à-vis class identity, has become even more fragmented into extreme individualism and fear of the other.
Presenters
Abdy JavadzadehAssociate Professor, Sociology/Criminology, St Thomas University, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Global, Election, Authoritarian, Loneliness, Fragmented Population, Postmodern fragmentation
