Actor Ralph Fiennes has apparently said recently that he attributed Trump’s win in the United States presidential election to having a better story.
It seems he thinks that Make America Great Again (MAGA) was able to capture people’s spirit and imaginations in a way that liberal progressivism wasn’t.
I’m no expert in American politics, but I can see his point about the liberal story. The ‘progressive’ side doesn’t really have a story any more. Liberalism used to – it triumphed originally largely because of the incredibly powerful narrative of humanity growing up, becoming mature, becoming enlightened and responsible for itself; growing past the juvenile stage of believing what it was told, believing in superstitions and so on. The story was of free thought and human autonomy flourishing in humanity’s new state of independent adulthood, having grown away from the foolishness of childish thinking.
The problem of distraction
Consider this quotation: “If we are overcome by laziness and negligence and let ourselves be taken up with wicked behaviour …