Our Own Worst Enemy
The Assault from Within on Modern Democracy
Tom Nichols 2021 . 320.973 Nichols . CMill lib
- ix 2013 essay 2017 book "The Death Of Expertise" 303.4833 Nichols 2017 Hills-Brook Sherwood Tigard Tualatin
027 ch1 A Hunger for Apocalypse: The Perils of Peace and Plenty
050 explosion of bandwidth -> better standard of living, also democratic decline
- 051 internet "social media" breeds bad ideas, encourages attacks online, displaces real human contact
- 053 2015 average consumer 15hrs per day on internet
- 055 NYU Neil Postman agrees with Huxley, "amusing ourselves to death"
p057 ch2 The Nicest People You'll Ever Dislike: When Good Neighbors are Bad Citizens
p070 Silvio Berlusconi
- p072 poll: half of Americans believed politicians should decide rather than the American people
- p072 studied voters: whether process is democratic is not particularly important
- p073 LA voter watched "Apprentice", Trump would be more exciting than "boring" Clinton
- p075 diverse opinions mistaken for moderate opinions
- p077 OOT voter: Obama Obama Trump
p080 2019 Rauch hardening of incoherent ideological difference
- p083 Trump downplayed COVID because voters preferred irresponsibility
- p085 Voters revert to village mentality, more comfortable, inspired by celebrity
p086 John Adams: private virtue -> public virtue -> foundation of republics
p087 ch3 "Is There No Virtue Among Us?" Democracy in an Age of Rage and Resentment
- p088 civic virtue drowns in narcissism, anger, and resentment
p090 Christopher Lasch 1979 The Culture of Narcissism
p091 disco was one of the least bad parts of the 1970s
p092 Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone
p094 Mary Trump, Ph.D. Trump Narcisist
p095 Gallup Poll Americans more stressed and worried and angry
p101 Arthur Brooks 2019 Our Culture of Contempt
- p102 Nichols realizes he too feels contempt ... for liberals
p109 Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland
- p110 Laid off Trump voter "He's not hurting the people he needs to be hurting"
p112 ch4 System Failure? Human Suffering and the Case against Liberal Democracy
- p137 anti-globalization: More jobs or affordable cars?
- p138 unequal distribution of empathy
- p139 1975 no aid to NYC led to 2000s no aid elsewhere
- p140 Liberal democracy hasn't been delivering (replacements for jobs in heavy industry)
- p140 populism "style and swagger", produces unfit leaders
- p141 elites accept public anger becaus system works
- p142 Mississippi poorest state, 118% of the median income of France
- p142 no jobs? Move to where they are
- p143 1970s elder care Dickensian warehouses for the old
- p143 world 40 years ago wasn't better, dead ends and very few avenues out
- p145 we believe past better because our memories are short
p149 Bruce Springsteen 2012 Death to My Hometown robber barons to hell for killing a city that died 30 years before
- p154 "throw the bums out", the bums of both parties staying put
n4.43 p154 Fenno's Paradox throw the bums out, but re-elect our own bum
- p156 social media helps us know each other better, and we don't like each other much
p167 ch5 Hello, I Hate You: How Hyper-Connection Is Destroying Democracy
p157 Daniel Boorstin No society could survive -- and surely no society could be decent -- if everybody in it were able to communicate everything
n5.5 p160 The Capitol Rioters Aren’t Like Other Extremists
n5.6 p161 Little Man, What Now? MAGA is bored middle class
- p163 Pornhub is #3 after Facebook and Twitter, ahead of Microsoft Apple and Amazon
n5.13 p164 Yevgeny Simpkin 2020 Social Media Is The Problem
- p166 Author met first wife dating in the 1970s, second wife onliny
p169 Internet connectivity like "DANGER WILL ROBINSON" robot from 1960's Lost In Space
- p174 mental health risks increase with the number of platforms used, seven or more triples risks of anxiety and depression
- p176 much social media devisiveness older people with too much spare time
p178 Venkatesh Rao The Internet of Beefs
- p179 Robert Putnam: TV viewing strongly and negatively related to social trust and group membership, an effect that is reversed when compared to people who read newspapers
- p183 frequent Facebook users envious and depressed
p184 ressentiment
- p188 Political identities were from local experience, now shared loathing over long distances
p191 Conclusion: Is There a Road Back?"
- p192 public wants what it wants; not a democracy, but a troop of ill-tempered toddlers
nC.1 p193 some forgo their own healthcare if that denies non-whites Metzl Dying of Whiteness 2019
nC.2 p194 Support at GOP Debate for Letting the Uninsured Die
p195 Cato's Brink Lindsey "emphasizing doing good over feeling good" and "making peace with the world before trying to change it"
- p200 2016 Republican primaries "a 17-candidate circus" that led to unstable reality-TV star
- p202 Author former Republican, aid to Senator John Heinz, left party after Trump
- p203 former citizen soldiers, now professionals elevating martial over democratic values
- p206 after mob attack on Capitol, some Trump Republican Senators tried to overrule the Electoral College
- p207 Vermont (647K) and Wyoming (588K) each have two senators, DC (700K) has none
- but who do those 100 senators live among and mostly listen to?
- p210 Postman: "Who is prepared to take up arms against a sea of giggles?"
- p215 a technologically advanced version of 1970s dystopia
- p215 The elites will rule by default, not deception
p217 Pericles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pericles's_Funeral_Oration#The_greatness_of_Athens "... We throw open our city to the world ..."
p218 Lincoln: Lyceum Address "If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."