How complex the culture of fear in Europe and North America [View All]

[pampango]

In The Geopolitics of Emotion, the French analyst Dominique Moïsi observes that Europe and America are devolving into “cultures of fear.” Having travelled widely, I’m convinced he’s right. But what I haven’t fathomed until recently is just how complex the fear can be – and, therefore, why it’s simple-minded to accuse the fearful of being simple-minded. Let me illustrate through a YouTube clip that a fellow writer in Sweden sent me. The video features a small-town representative of the Sweden Democrats (SD). He’s being invited to name those elements of Swedish culture that need protecting. For several seconds, the man falls mute. Finally, he replies, “Christmas and, uh, ancient ruins.”

Mr. Lindgren believes that Swedes now suffer the “hidden, anaesthetized pain” of living in a country with little or no connection to its traditions. Their pain remains hidden because “we have learned not to complain.” Immigration didn’t precipitate this identity crisis, he emphasizes. Modernization and its various trappings did. As he puts it, “We were told – and we accepted – that our traditions were worthless compared to the benefits of modernity.” The upshot: A profound lack of confidence, individually and socially.

But it’s aggravated by our era of mass migration, Mr. Lindgren goes on, because you’re bound to bump into someone “who is full of self-confidence about his culture or religion. That confrontation brings out all the postponed feelings – you feel hurt, angry, inferior, ashamed, envious.” Mr. Lindgren claims that he has no idea how to move his country forward. Yet in one of our exchanges, he offers a valuable clue. “Whenever someone says that we should discuss the problems with immigration,” he sighs, “the response comes instantly: Aha! So you want to help the SD bastards!”

Which brings me to conclude that a culture of fear isn’t merely one in which the natives fear the immigrants. It’s one in which people of all backgrounds fear being branded for their sincere worries about whether unity can be extracted from diversity. After all, if you don’t know who you are, to what are you asking newcomers to adapt?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/how-complex-the-culture-of-fear/article1813978/