Psychology’s Contribution to Socio-Cultural, Political, and Individual Emancipation by Carl Ratner

Author:Carl Ratner
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030280260
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

5.1 Confronting the Personal

Contemporary populism seeks an entirely different kind of emancipation. There is no official self-definition of populism from an international populist society. Identifying it requires a perceptive construction of its essential elements. Husserl made important contributions to this construction of essences. He asked, how do we know that instances of a table, despite many variations in shape, size, and color, are, in fact, instances of a coherent ‘eidos’ table? What is this deeper, structural essence – “eidos”? How do we know that something is not a table and does not possess this eidos? I ask the same question about instances of populism: what is the essence of populism that unifies the disparate appearances and allows us to call them populism, and to exclude other things from this typology?

My essential construction of populism emphasizes its abiding concern for the freedom of individual subjectivity. This is the freedom to define oneself and one’s social and natural interactions and to express one’s self-definitions through free actions. The contemporary populist solution is to open society to encourage individual self-definition and expression. Emancipation does not come from transforming the structure of society to another structure (e.g., a feudal structure to a capitalist structure or a capitalist structure to a socialist structure)—as we have described in the previous chapter, and as the Populist Party sought to do. Populists do engage in political work that is primarily oriented to supporting individual rights to freedom of expression and civil rights.

Populists are person-centric; that is, they regard the individual person as primary. Individuals hold the keys to their own fulfillment and society’s fulfillment. Individual persons must be cherished, encouraged, stimulated, empowered, respected, and freed to develop their agency, choice, and fulfillment.

Populists contend that emancipation is essentially and ultimately fulfilled subjectivity; therefore, populists seek to achieve this fulfillment, directly and immediately, in interpersonal interactions where subjectivity is expressed. This is where people can expose injustice—in the treatment of individuals which is obvious in gestures, words, and symbols. Interpersonal interactions are also where people can most directly and obviously be treated better via new gestures, words, and symbols. This is the most direct, visible, powerful, rapid, and democratic way to expose and improve mistreatment. It is much more direct, fast, easy, and participatory than changing the vast, impersonal political-economic character of society.

This perspective is why populists are primarily concerned with laws that protect personal interactions, as in sexual harassment laws. New York State defines sexual harassment as any unwelcome physical contact, including unwanted touching, unwanted personal questions about social life, unwelcome invitations to date, and referring to an adult as a girl. Harassment laws protect individual autonomy, privacy, and respect at the micro, interpersonal level. Harassment laws are thus populist in nature.

Society is delighted to give individuals control over their micro, interpersonal interactions so that they feel in control of their lives which the government protects. Populist laws are the perfect model of a government that protects individual autonomy and empowerment. However, if your employer changes your work schedule

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