The Human Condition: Voting IQ

By DR. DANIEL SCHNEE on April 5, 2023.

As things heat up toward our next provincial election on May 29, it is good to do our homework and be sure we stay as politically savvy as possible.

We know the candidates will be putting their patriotic vision for Alberta on display, though there is an ever growing distrust in their honesty or integrity. Therefore, this is the time when buttressing our common sense with political insight is most necessary. So how do we do so; spot the hidden flies in our provincial soup bowl?

First of all we must remember that all politicians – for better or for worse – need us in order to get access to the biggest players in politics: higher ranking politicians, corporate leaders, lobbyists and so on. To wit: going after Trudeau is much easier when you stand mere feet away from him every day. At that level your political career is dictated less by your constituents and more so by your peers, so many cease caring for/about those in their riding. Indeed, we must watch for those that see us as stepping stones, rather than people with legitimate concerns.

To that end it behooves us to become media savvy. Any good public speaker knows that words can be wielded as emotional triggers, because humans are predictably emotional around specific issues.

I once gave a special guest lecture on Japanese society in a fellow professor’s political science class, and before I began a student left to complain to the department head. My crime? In my friend’s introduction he mentioned that I had taught music in Palestine. The actual class or my lecture had nothing to do with Middle Eastern politics and/or Israel at all, and I did not mention them. But just the word “Palestine” was enough to send the student out the door before the introduction had even finished.

Words gather impact in multiple ways, so we have to study what emotions politicians strategically use through the words they say.

We also have to watch out for false dilemmas in emotional language. This is basically ‘for or against’ argumentation that does not allow for ‘maybe,’ ‘a bit of both,’ ‘neither,’ etc. Life is not so cut and dried in that regard, yet politicians often (and vigorously) seek ways to ignore that fact in their campaign messaging. In this sense political action is what you might call pathological (i.e. compulsive). The driving hate that is worked up in people can then be easily transferred to another person or issue, because it is addictive and continuously present.

This is why I reject blind hatred for Justin Trudeau, though I highly dislike him and the various activities of his party. That kind of hate literally has nothing to do with him, and such mob politics will seek their next focal point once he is gone. He could permanently cure all cancer, and some would still hate him for “taking away” their access to the free treatments provided by Alberta Health. Thus, when politics are this pathological they are not rational, and hate is dangerous politicking.

Ultimately, it boils down to words and their usage in advertising and speech. We are going to hear a lot of words in the coming weeks. Hopefully some of them will be true…

Dr. Daniel Schnee is an anthropologist and jazz/rock drummer

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