Strangers in Their Own Land: Allegory, Emotion & Right Wing Opposition to Equality | Hochschild 2015

Ulysses Medal lecture delivered by Prof Arlie Russell Hochschild (UC Berkeley Sociology Department) 10 September 2015
"In much of the world, the gap between rich and poor has widened. Yet, across Europe and the U.S. many rising right-wing groups oppose the very idea of equality. Why? Based on new fieldwork on the U.S. Tea Party - embraced by some quarter to a third of all voting Americans, I ask: what emotional needs does such a movement meet? How does emotion underlie political belief? In answer, I propose the concept of an allegorical story. It is a collectively shared, honor-focused, “feels-as-if” story."
Arlie Russell Hochschild is a Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of three New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year, including The Second Shift, The Managed Heart, and The Time Bind. She has received numerous awards and grants ranging from Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellowships to a three-year research grant from the National Institute of Public Health. Her articles have appeared in Harper’s, Mother Jones, and The New York Times Magazine, among others. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, the writer Adam Hochschild; they have two sons
The event was hosted by UCD School of Sociology in collaboration with Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and the TCD Policy Institute.
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UCD Homepage: www.ucd.ie

[@Liquidanalogexperience]

I just found out about this woman. She is brilliant!!

[@bearcingetorix6326]

She's brilliantly stupid.

[@jamesscaminaciiii1537]

First, I am looking forward to reading her book which will be published in about two weeks. Second, her book is probably a very interesting ethnographic study with some keen insights. That said, I think her talk was actually fairly weak on sociology, especially theory. How much of the "Mary Beths" of Louisiana's "deep story" is actually rooted in her felt experience? While Hochschild constructed a metaphorical "deep story" of waiting in line on a hill, how did the participants actually construct their own "deep story"? How much of this "deep story" is acquired through the major institutions in their lives? I would suggest that much of the "deep story" is rooted in their religion which is very Calvinistic. In her recent (August 2016) Mother Jones article, she wrote that one woman, Sharon, viewed taking welfare from the government as "shameful." Sharon looked down on the white working class men who were given permission by Trump to take government benefits because they needed them. It is also rooted in their Confederate historical experience. Hochschild alludes to this larger social force but then immediately jumps back to Mary Beth. It is also shaped by Fox News, conservative talk radio, and Christian radio and television. If you read other studies of the Tea Party movement, especially what Tea Party activists actually say, there is hardly an original thought in the entire movement. Hochschild does not mention in her talk--though she might in her book--the massive messaging apparatus and infrastructure that informed Tea Party groups in the hinterland of what to support and what to oppose and what to mobilize around. Their literalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, for example, is not original to the Tea Party. Are we really to believe that Mary Beth came to the conclusion that Obama is a Muslim all on her own? Southerners were not always anti-welfare or anti-federal handouts. Just look at the history of the New Deal in the South. Southern leaders were opposed to Blacks benefiting from the New Deal and they made sure that Black folks did not benefit. Southern leaders did not turn down the TVA. They did not turn down WPA projects. But, they damn well made sure that poor whites and Blacks could not organize together and they made sure that Blacks could not participate in WPA projects. And just to give an indicator of how vacuous Louisiana is, if you drive (as I have) from New Orleans to Baton Rouge along "Cancer Alley," the only thing Louisiana is proud of is the LSU Tigers. They celebrate a football team with roadside signs. Nothing scientific. Nothing cultural. Outside of New Orleans they have nothing to celebrate. I am looking forward to reading her book.

[@cberlet]

Awesome analysis of the Tea Party participants that neither demonizes them nor lets them off the hook.

[@laserbuddha]

Would be interesting to hear what the people she analysis thinks about her thoughts.

[@mieliav]

there are interviews w/ her where this question is answered.

[@laserbuddha]

got any links? Seen a couple of interviews with her but that question hasn't come up.

[@mieliav]

I'm pretty sure it was in an interview w/ robert wright.

[@Bete_Noir]

The "honor" that Hochschild talks about is actually undeserved privilege. Specifically, the undeserved privilege to take from and shit on others different from you. This is the source of the sense of their loss. This is what Marybeth misses.

[@susanhull1098]

I think she has nailed it. As a Southern Republican woman who is shocked by the wide Trump support, I understand and support her premises.

[@DehnusNorder]

My problem with her thesis is, I tried reaching out. Only to get stabbed in the back by these people. Being beaten up, stabbed and even harassed for my sexuality or just made fun off. Even though I filled in their tax returns, helped them with their carpentry and did my best to listen to their problems. After 10 years of it, I'm kind of through with it. They want me gone, and to me the answer is very simple: Very well I'll go. I do not step over an Empathy wall anymore when the other side is digging an "empathy ditch" for me to fall into. I"m perfectly willing to make an "Empathy Pillow" for them to land on if they are willing to climb over their own wall. But I shall no longer try to climb over mine. I'm perfectly willing to meet them half way, not take their churches away and all that crap. But don't give me this "shit" about me being "poison" to them by simply existing as I got "Inline" for my "dream". This thing goes both ways.

[@davidprimeau3368]

Now at 7:50 she is talking about fracking. Hillary is a fracking queen, and has touted the process around the world.

[@davidprimeau3368]

So now I am into this 6:25 and hear how Trump resolved his hair issue. How about Hillary opening a jar of pickles which was shown to be fake?

[@hisredrighthand5212]

Just watch it stoically till the end.

[@davidprimeau3368]

saw about 1/2

[@erikbarrett85]

It's about republicans.

[@MrBuzben]

Sad the richest yet the poorest country in the world.The rich could house and feed all the poor in the whole world and they would still be rich.They say LET THEM EAT CAKE.Dr Jill Stein the lonely logical choice.

[@mieliav]

in fact, the 'each generation rises' idea has been dead for the since about the end of the 1970s.