By: Michael Powell

Michael Powell — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 15:53:07 +0000

This is an insightful analysis, very understandable and should be read by a broad audience, I would hope. So thanks. I recently engaged in the kind of conversation you mention above with a fearful neighbor, on facebook, and found that he was deeply concerned about so-called Muslim “no-go zones” where Sharia Law supercedes the state, in the UK and France. Apparently there’s this fear that these zones will also emerge in the US, or already have in places like Dearborn, Michigan, and that these zones will be breeding grounds for terrorists. So, perhaps that’s another of the cultural fears to add to your list. See: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/01/paris-mayor-to-sue-fox-over-no-go-zone-comments/384656/

By: Strong

Strong — Mon, 30 Jan 2017 21:51:42 +0000

Yes, Trumpism all about building a “high group, low grid” social environment in Douglas’s terms, which is why risk is constructed as a danger coming from the outside, rather than a danger that results from breaking a taboo that regulates behaviour. (You could contrast this with the virtue politics of the Democrats, which are very focused on regulating behavior in various ways. Similarly, ‘nature’ is robust within limits in the Trumpist worldview: there will be no recourse to fragile nature in order to coerce the sacrifice of private interest in respect of the public good = ‘global warming is a myth the Chinese made up.’) There are very few symbols as evocative of a ‘high group’ social sensibility as is “The Wall.” Moving outside the US context, you could say that various polities are retreating from the norms and forms of hierarchical encompassment and integration characteristic of the (still emergent) liberal, democratic, global order.

Comments on: The Anthropology of Trump’s Executive Order on Immigration

By: Michael Powell

By: Strong