Wars are popular because they are big fun projects that we can all work on together by growing victory gardens, collecting scrap metal, and donating blood. Wars also pit us (good) against them (evil). That’s a bonus. (I’m obviously not talking about real wars, but the imaginary “good wars” that live in the minds of wingnuts.)
I wonder how much of Trump’s wall is similarly liked because it seems like a big fun project? Democrats aren’t much for proposing big fun projects nowadays. Since Johnson’s “Great Society” our goals and aspirations have been pretty modest. We aren’t beating the Russians to the moon or eradicating small pox anymore. Hell… We are lucky to get people to buy into the notion that small pox are worth keeping eradicated.
I wonder if Bernie is popular in some circles because taking on the banks feels like a big fun project that we can all get behind? In the world of behavioral science, big fun projects are sometimes called “superordinate goals.” Muzafer Sherif was a Turkish-American social psychologist who did most of the seminal work in describing superordinate goals and their utility in conflict resolution.
We sure could use a superordinate goal that doesn’t involve invading some random country based on phony intelligence about “weapons of mass destruction” but what?
Is there some big fun project that all Americans could get behind?
