How Did It Come to This? — Politics and the Age of Dissociation
Dissociation is known in psychology as a technique of the mind to deal with information processing. It is the method in which your brain ‘detaches’, or has a ‘break’, from whatever is going on around you. Typically, this method is associated with trauma responses. But has dissociation ended up becoming some kind of widespread method of dealing with politics?
I certainly think there’s an argument for it.
Shortly after the assassination of John F Kennedy, surveys of the American people showed that many of them admitted to experiencing symptoms classically associated with grief over the death of a loved one. It is no surprise that this was the case, given that JFK to this day is ranked as the most popular US President. But (God forbid) if this actually happened now — if the President, or if the Prime Minister — was assassinated now, what would the reaction be?
Of course, there would be a bi-partisan solidifying response. At least in Britain, anyway. If Boris Johnson was murdered, I’m sure every politician in Britain would offer condolences and condemnations. But what about the people?
It is quite clear that we have had an experience similar to this in our own recent history. Jo Cox, MP for Batley and Spen in Yorkshire, was murdered by a far-right extremist in 2016. Just a week before the EU referendum. It was a horrific, disgusting attack. Rightly, many of us felt distressed that an elected MP, on her way from one of her surgeries, was just attacked and killed in broad daylight. But what’s happened to our memory of Jo? Why don’t we talk about her more as a nation, and why isn’t the attack remembered by everyone as the indictment on democracy that was?
Well, the only answer I can think of is that in Britain (and the US) we have become numb towards our elected officials. This is not to say that we should all go about our daily lives thanking them for their service and worshipping at their feet. For starters, that would be the most uncharacteristically British thing to ever happen. But shouldn’t we have some compassion for our officials and some underlying, common respect for them?
A study by the New Statesman found in 2017 that 25,688 abusive tweets were sent to female MPs over a six-month period. This ranges from death threats to vile name-calling. Diane Abbott received almost half of these messages alone.
In 2018, Labour MP Jess Phillips said she received a torrent of over 600 rape threats in a single night. Phillips has called the police to her house multiple times over the online abuse she receives.
It is clear that these messages are targeted mainly at women, which is why many of them refused to stand again for election in 2019. How, then, has it come to this?
We are a different nation to America, but even over there the atmosphere towards politicians is toxic. At the Capitol riot, those involved were heard chanting “Hang Mike Pence”. An orange noose was hung to makeshift gallows and Twitter removed the phrase from its ‘Trending’ section. When this kind of dehumanisation and dissociation is going on with regards to our politicians, where do we go from here?
There seems to be a total detachment in people’s when it comes to their thoughts about politicians. They are human and have their own lives and families and hobbies and interests. They exist outside of the public sphere, whether we like them as individuals or not. And it is up to us to respect that, just as it is up to them to respect our wishes and uphold democracy.
But part of what it means to live in a democracy, I think, is an innate respect for everyone. After all, what’s the point in a democracy if it isn’t about respecting individuals enough to give them a voice that is not threatened by harm, or the prospect of harm?
This age of political dissociation we seem to have found ourselves in is actually quite scary. For as much as we might dislike some of our politicians, it’s not right that we wish death upon them, or threaten them with rape. I can’t believe it’s even gotten to the point where I have to write that. But it all goes back to what I read about JFK. People experienced real, genuine grief. Across the spectrum. I’m not saying that was right or wrong — but it happened.
Now what would happen? In a world where there seems to be so much vicious hatred spewed out online (and in person, too, probably), towards living, breathing people who happen to hold public office, would people other than their most enthusiastic supporters experience any kind of grief? Would those who hate them feel sympathy or sorrow at the fact such an attack on democracy itself — the foundation upon which our freedoms are based — was carried out?
In Britain, we have seemingly ‘patched over’ Jo Cox’s murder in the national psyche. As such, I despair at the thought of what we will be like in ten years’ time.
Democracy has to work both ways and, at times, both groups have let the side down. But hasn’t it all gone too far?
