SOCIETIES, HIERARCHIES AND CONFLICT

 

Making sense of our politics and world today is difficult. One approach to understanding requires realizing that all human societies are always “‘socially stratified.”  It means, in part, that some categories of people are in control and are deemed superior (top rung of the ladder) to other categories of people who are disvalued (bottom of the hierarchy).    Examples are India today with its caste system, South Africa under apartheid, and blacks in the South under slavery and Jim Crow laws.

These hierarchies are justified by those who are advantaged.  The status quo will be justified by a variety of arguments, including religious ones.    However, hierarchies are often challenged, and those who benefit from it will often fight change.   With regard to blacks and whites in America, the term ‘white rage’ is used to describe some of the motivation for white nationalism, and the revival of white supremacy ideas.  This paradigm could apply, for instance, to ISIS which is fighting the spread of Western values.

In the U.S., starting with Supreme Court decisions and federal civil rights laws, many whites, especially in the South, resisted the challenges to white supremacy with hatred, if not violence.  This was especially noticeable with regard to desegregating public schools.

Another example is male domination over females. This has a long history all over the world.  Wives were viewed as the property of their husbands.  Women were unfit for many occupations.  They were forbidden to vote. Women were expected to marry and become sex and baby machines, maids, cooks and for their husbands, and nannies for the man’s children.  Men were especially concerned about the sexuality of women.  Miscegenation was outlawed. A century ago, if a black man in the South was even suspected of raping a white woman, he would be lynched as soon as possible.  The superior race doesn’t want to see itself mongrelized.  You can see this in male desires control the sexuality and reproduction of their female partners.    This is one of the reasons, but not the only reason, for opposition to abortion and birth control.   It gives women control of their fertility. The sexual double-standard allowed men to be promiscuous but women were not allowed.  Women who were raped were often seen as ‘loose women” who deserved it.

Race and gender are not the only issues.  Religion and ethnicity are also factors.  White, Protestant residents of the U.S. were appalled at the influx of Catholic Irish starting in the 1830's.   Resistance to immigrants, esp.  Muslims, is now rampant.

 Social change today is more rapid than any time in U.S history.  Hierarchies are being challenged like never before.  People who are uncomfortable with change now feel threatened more than ever.  Their reactionary voices have become loud and angry.  For example, the alt-right has emerged and neo-Nazis have reemerged from the shadows.  political polarization and group animosity toward others is growing.

The nation was founded by white male Christians.   To many people who voted for Trump, “Make America Great” means restoring white, Christian male supremacy.

Many suspect that one of the reasons for the Trump victory was this reactionary movement.  Many white working-class people felt that the democrats were more interested in helping minorities, LJGBT’s etc., than white working-class people.  An 81-year-old retired police captain who voted or Mr. Trump stated that “the white man is a low person on the totem pole. Everybody else is above the white man.”