Storytime

Last week, I was visiting family in the rural South, and this gave me the opportunity to talk to people that I wouldn't otherwise rub shoulders with, like some of my family members' neighbors. What's interesting about conversations like that is understanding a perspective on the world that one might not otherwise be exposed to. Even short talks can give perspective.

While we were talking to one of the neighbors, the subject of a local store came up. (Judging from the number of people who'd mentioned this particular place in conversation, it must have been fairly popular.) Apparently, it had recently been sold to new owners, apparently Indian immigrants. The money for the sale had, we were told, come from "the government." And not in the form of a small business loan, or anything like that. The neighbor told us, with all of the conviction of someone who'd read the paperwork themselves, that "the government" simply gave money, no strings attached and no questions asked, to Indian immigrants, specifically so that they could purchase local businesses that were for sale, and thus displace the locals from the area business community.

The line of reasoning appeared to go something like this: Since everyone in India is poor, immigrants to the United States simply couldn't have enough money to buy a business. And people in Washington, D.C. don't care about what happens to rural Americans. 2 + 2 = 4.

I didn't bother to mention that I was dubious about the math. The neighbor clearly saw their logic as not only impeccable, but self-evident, and I hadn't spent more hours than I would have liked getting all the way down there just to argue with the locals. Besides, in the end, the logic, faulty or not, wasn't relevant. It was simply an article of faith that explained a change in the local environment that didn't make sense otherwise. It speaks to an emotional reality whose power is unconnected from a broader picture of the world.

In that reality can be seen the tripartite structure of Populism that's become associated with the American Right; there are "The People," the corrupt "Élite" and those Others who have something they shouldn't, because the Élites gave them what rightfully belonged to the People. It's an explanation of why what Is differs from what the person understands Ought to be. And it offers up villains locally and at a remove.

It's an expression of suffering and anxiety that is ignored because the story that it's attached to is too ridiculous to be paid any attention to. And so, when someone does pay attention, when they do take the time to notice how people are feeling, they earn a loyalty seems difficult to fathom.