{"id":264821,"date":"2017-02-17T16:59:38","date_gmt":"2017-02-17T21:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/issues\/populism-threatens-socialists-not-civilization\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T21:29:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T01:29:19","slug":"populism-threatens-socialists-not-civilization","status":"publish","type":"issues","link":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2017\/02\/populism-threatens-socialists-not-civilization\/","title":{"rendered":"Populism threatens socialists, not civilization"},"content":{"rendered":"

On January 11, 2017, David Moscrop told us<\/a> that we need to understand \u201chow different people see the world,\u201d in order to \u201ccombat\u201d populism (notwithstanding that such combat undermines small-d democratic and small-r republican will).\u00a0 He says that politicians make policy based on facts of two stripes, black and white \u2014 although, of course, facts are either facts or they are not.\u00a0 Most politicians do not make policy based on facts (although they may tell us they do) but on their opinions, possibly coloured by their interpretation of facts, as Moscrop alludes to when he talks about \u201cmessaging\u201d related to facts.\u00a0 In reality, only scientists do things based on facts, and philosopher Karl Popper taught us that even scientists should be careful what they assert based on learning; science only progresses in the negative (disproving a theory) not the positive (one cannot really prove anything; it just means one hasn\u2019t found the experiment that disproves it yet).<\/p>\n

My point is that popular perception is based on sufficient reality, and reality is assessed by the people based on deeper values and beliefs, not manipulation.\u00a0 While Moscrop attempts to find populism dangerous, the real danger is actually to the socialist, not civilization.<\/p>\n

There is no \u201ccynical manipulation\u201d behind populist movements, or we are dismissing the opinions of the population as mere rabble lacking intelligence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some politicians possess a unique skill: the ability to sense popular will on a marginal or transactional basis, rather than on the basis of the holistic and overarching terms that academics use (and that Moscrop utilized in his piece).\u00a0 In other words, politicians interpret popular will based on the last job lost, the last shop closed and the last terrorist incident.\u00a0 This sufficient reality is what underlies popular opinion as to what is good, fair or just and what a market entails. Thus, popular perceptions are rooted in that social reality: jobs lost, shops closed and people killed.\u00a0 There is no \u201ccynical manipulation\u201d behind populist movements, or we are dismissing the opinions of the population as mere rabble lacking intelligence.\u00a0 The manipulation occurred when they lost their jobs or saw someone killed and became fearful as a result.<\/p>\n

These incidents are not illusory \u2013 they are real.\u00a0 How we react to these incidents may eventually end up in a discussion of holistic or overarching ideas, but we first have to pause and reflect to understand the foundations of populism.<\/p>\n

Moscrop tells us that truth is about what is, as in ontology, and how we know, as in epistemology.\u00a0 In fact, epistemology is based on three<\/em> constructs \u2013 taxonomy<\/em> (essentially words, grunts, gestures, etc., with some denotation), ontology<\/em> (the nature of being, which is essentially putting words and concepts into a context of useful meaning) and, most importantly, axiology<\/em> (values, cultures, and beliefs).\u00a0 Axiology is where truth is determined, and it is based on deeper values and culture, not populist manipulation.\u00a0 The demagogue cannot raise what is not already there \u2013 we are fearful because we understand the importance of a job, to our well-being; of the economic structure of our towns, no matter how small; and the preservation of our families\u2019 security.\u00a0 The creation of an echo chamber on Facebook or Twitter is not the problem, nor is the election of someone like Donald Trump \u2013 the fears are real, not transient, and they are based in reality, not illusion.<\/p>\n

So, what are the solutions?\u00a0 Black and white \u201cfacts\u201d are breaking down along two distinct lines these days \u2013 the left-leaning, essentially socialist, line, and the right-leaning, Constitution-based line, based on maximizing economic value.\u00a0 What we know from economist and philosopher F.A. Hayek is that, according to empirical reality (that is, real<\/em> facts, not interpreted \u201cmessaging\u201d), socialist regimes and constructs have failed through history and will always fail. To see this, we only have to look at Germany from the mid-19th century through the Second World War, early 20th century Italy and Russia, the Soviet Union, and even early 20th century England (as discussed in Hayek\u2019s The Road to Serfdom<\/em>), as well as many democratic-socialist countries today (including most of the EU and too much of the US).\u00a0 This is because these regimes require coercion and minimize innovation and creativity \u2014 which is anathema to the progress of civilization and causes stagnation and ultimately totalitarianism, as central planning wipes out free thought of any kind.<\/p>\n

When democratic populists insist we should just care, raise wages, supply health care for free and everything else, realists clearly understand the deadly implications of all that, and they resist it.\u00a0 For example, all too often innovation in health care does not take place in those countries with national health care but in economically free countries where legitimate profit from those enterprises can be obtained.\u00a0 The United States\u2019 attempt at national health care, the Affordable Care Act, <\/em>is an example of truly Orwellian doublespeak \u2014 providing unaffordable<\/em> (and diminishing) health care, as the \u201cmarkets\u201d created by the act are untenable and failing. And yet, people are being subjected to extreme coercion to get this unaffordable and failing \u201cinsurance.\u201d\u00a0 The fact\u00a0that the democratic populists (that is, socialists) insist (by denying empirical reality and history) that we as global citizens do not see the reality of their philosophy, means that perception is now clouded by academic and political dishonesty. That is not a sound foundation for rational debate.<\/p>\n

The perceptions behind populism \u2013 marginal jobs and towns lost, and people killed, are real.\u00a0 Today\u2019s neoliberals and quasiliberals need to agree that the solutions must be based on what Hayek taught us, or the solutions will become final, as in terminal, for society, politics, perception and, indeed, civilization.\u00a0 Instead, we are fighting a veiled danger \u2013 socialists hide the reality of their policies, while more jobs are lost and more lives are lost to terrorism.\u00a0 The populist tears away the veil, and this is not dangerous, except to the socialists.\u00a0 Until it can be agreed that, as a premier example for the world, the US Constitution (in its original form and interpretation) must again be at the foundation of US society, and its originalist tenets can be applied more globally, we will constantly fight to tear away this veil.\u00a0 The real marginalization is being created by those who keep putting this veil back into place, not the populists who are fighting to tear it away.<\/p>\n

Photo:\u00a0A Boeing employee holds a sign before US President Donald J. Trump speaks on the debut of the Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner at the Boeing South Carolina faculty in North Charleston, South Carolina, USA, 17 February 2017. EPA\/STEPHEN B. MORTON<\/span><\/p>\n

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On January 11, 2017, David Moscrop told us that we need to understand \u201chow different people see the world,\u201d in order to \u201ccombat\u201d populism (notwithstanding that such combat undermines small-d democratic and small-r republican will).\u00a0 He says that politicians make policy based on facts of two stripes, black and white \u2014 although, of course, facts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":252663,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-08-30T05:52:33Z","apple_news_api_id":"2580de5c-8746-4efc-ba38-1c79c65b517a","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-08-30T05:52:33Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AJYDeXIdGTvy6OBx5xltReg","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false},"categories":[9360,9358,9372],"tags":[8689,9212,8676],"article-status":[],"irpp-category":[4217,4250,4295],"section":[],"irpp-tag":[7161,7067],"class_list":["post-264821","issues","type-issues","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-politique","category-recent-stories-fr","tag-affordable-care-act","tag-democratie","tag-populisme-fr","irpp-category-affaires-internationales","irpp-category-democratie","irpp-category-politique","irpp-tag-populisme","irpp-tag-united-states"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nPopulism 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