There are two parts to Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity: general relativity and special relativity. General relativity explains the law of gravity; special relativity speaks to the phenomenon of the absence of gravity.
The re-election of Mr. Trump to the White House explains a third part to Einstein’s theory: the relativity of truth. It applies to the phenomenon of the absence of truth in democratic politics.
Relative truth is essential to the survival of autocracies and dictatorships, but in democratic politics relative truth is a “relatively” new phenomenon not limited to the United States. The consequences, as French philosopher Pierre Charbonnier noted in 2020, is that “[p]retty much across the world, a movement back towards entrenched borders and social conservatism has created a loose alliance between those who have lost out in the process of globalization and are now desperately in search of new protectors, and the economic elites who are determined to force nations to compete with one another so as to preserve capital accumulation.”
This alliance was evident in pictures showing thousands of ordinary citizens, struggling to cope with the rising costs of housing, food, health care, energy, transportation and education, nonetheless cheering and applauding Mr. Musk, a middle-aged man whose personal wealth would allow him to give one million dollars to every woman, man and child in Terrace. It would reduce his fortune by 4 per cent, but he would still hold the #1 spot on Forbes’ list of real-time billionaires.
How did Mr. Musk amass $309 billion, more than $665,000 for every hour, 24/7, from the day he was born? Keep in mind that this is what he “saved”, what is left to him after paying for his lavish lifestyle. How does one “earn” this kind of money? What would be a fair rate of taxation for an hourly rate of $665,000?
A more troubling question is why do millions of citizens who struggle to keep their heads above water from payday to payday applaud a person who enriches himself by firing tens of thousands of employees as he keeps on pushing for more deregulation, more tax breaks, and the elimination of more jobs?
Forty years ago our winner-take-all voting system enabled “Reaganomics”, the neo-liberal ideology of government being the problem and not the solution, to become the world’s socio-economic foundation. Neo-liberalism’s cure for any and all problems is the marketplace. Its elements are privatization, deregulation, and tax cuts.
The politics of neo-liberalism allow the theory’s immediate savings to be hoarded by a minority who “grow up” to become billionaires, and its long-term costs to fall on the many, leaving them marginalized as they line up at food banks. The winners, eager to protect their stash, need to fabricate a target on which neo-liberalism’s losers are encouraged to focus their growing frustrations. What better target than refugees, the people with nothing left to lose?
First-past-the-post voting predates political parties; the system predates the American Revolution. Neo-liberalism creates pools of money to grease first-past-the-post’s wheels and to put wind in its sails. First-past-the-post voting links up with neo-liberal economics to reward populism, sugarcoating a politic of personality cult, and sloganism – MAGA, Axe the Tax. It is easier today to blame one villain (Leader ‘A’) for all our problems and to hail a new protector (Leader ‘B’) than it is to engage citizens in truthful, well-informed public policy discussions.
