Trump’s Nation: He’s a Symptom, Not the Cause a Sociological Understanding

• In Event: 1429 - Informal Discussion Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 2: Sociology In and For the Current Political Climate

Abstract

Since Donald Trump’s election, many concluded that his is an increasingly dysfunctional administration. It is not his personal characteristics that are at issue but the problematic ethos of our society that facilitated his election. In particular, the social underpinnings of the United States were established under two conceptions about people and the societies they create and maintain every day: Individualism and Adversarialism. These elements of our symbolic universe legitimate the dysfunctional structures of our society, giving them a cognitive primacy and moral authority that camouflage their problematic outcomes. In acting out these orientations, they become real. There are alternatives. Individualism can be contrasted with Collectivism, and Adversarialism with Mutualism. Individualism and Collectivism are distinct ways of organizing society, each of which can be taken to an extreme. Adversarialism and Mutualism are all-encompassing frames for social relations; each contributes differently to the character of society. We propose a reframing. First, the alternative to the extreme individualism is to balance individual needs and acknowledge the necessity of the collective good. Second, the alternative to adversarialism is mutualism: 1) a focus on commonalities as a basis for connection, rather than differences as a threat; 2) conflict resolution amenable to all parties, rather than winners and losers; 3) interaction styles that respect, rather than dominate the other; and 4) encouragement of empathy for all members of the collectivity. What we offer is a synthesis of several traditions in Sociology. Participants will discuss the issues we have presented at each of the three Sociological levels of focus, providing exemplars of the disadvantages of our current orientation (alienation, “tribalism,” and incivility) and possibilities for our proposed alternative. We conclude with suggestions that might turn us in a new societal direction, with the goal of “engaging social justice for a better world.”

Authors

• Gregory Clark Elliott, Brown University

• Susan M. Cunningham, Holy Cross College