JULY 5, WEDNESDAY

FANS—RAGE AND JOY

Fan clubs, I suppose, are people who idolize a film star and herd together to hear stories about him or her. Influencers are people who are popular on line for one reason or another who are then influence other people to do something. I have never joined a fan club or followed an influencer but I have watched sports an enormous amount on tv. I know people who are rabid followers of college basketball teams or professional baseball teams whose spirits rise and fall with the success of those teams. And I am daily cajoled to contribute to one of the largest fan clubs of all, the Democratic Party and have often been an avid follower and supporter, but draw the line at paying up. Even my church is a community of good guys taking on the world which can make me feel good to belong, and also asks me to pay up, which I do. On the 4th of July the line of American flags along Kimberly Avenue reminded me that I am invited to sing along with other Americans as I feel pride in country, but I respond with a feeling of guilt for not getting pulled in, for not being a patriot.

I have particularly wondered how people could be so attached to a sports team, city or college, when the players all came from other places and were only briefly members of that college or city only there because of their athletic ability. Why and how can people so want their particular team to win, feeling crushed when they don‘t win, with the certainty that the referees made unfair calls against them and the other team played dirty. All this intense feeling is about who can move a ball down the field or throw it through a narrow rim, of no consequence, boys being boys, or these days, girls being girls.

So when my friend Sheldon referred me to an article by a conservative opinion writer for the New York Times, David French, The Rage and Joy of MAGA America, I was particularly intrigued.

French‘s argument is that there are two sides to the MAGA movement (and probably two sides for progressives as well). The first side for MAGA people is built on rage at the elites who are threatening MAGA people in liberal, woke, radical ways. I think I understand this rage, even sort of sympathize with it. American traditional values of white supremacy, male dominance, Christian fundamentalism, American economic entitlement, American military dominance are threatened by a rapidly changing world and these MAGA folks are furious at whoever or whatever is causing this, without however being able to put their finger on just who or what this. This rage is so great that whatever conspiracy theory they hear, stealing the election, poisoning them with vaccines, brainwashing their children, they will believe. They are not alone in succumbing to conspiracy theories, I am ready to believe any terrible thing I hear about Donald Trump, the more far out and terrible and even unlikely the better. In my own way I think I understand this rage on both sides, MAGA and Liberal, even as I realize that people on both sides feel themselves to be good, decent, law abiding, friendly, thoughtful people.

But what this article opens up for me is something new, the joy of being a MAGA person (or a Liberal).

I have been to one Grateful Dead concert and in middle age I stood up and danced with everyone else as the Grateful Dead sang. There was joy at that concert, letting go and having a great time that was amplified by having a huge crowd around me doing the same thing, even though I rarely listened to Grateful Dead music myself, before or since. It was a lifestyle, a state of being that was being celebrated. I have known a number of Deadheads and have a sense of what pulled them along to concert after concert.

What David French points out is that Trump MAGA rallies are the same thing as Grateful Dead concerts. People dress up in outrageous red, white and blue costumes, scream and hoot and holler, delight in taunting the other side and are having a great time. And all of a sudden I realize that fan clubs have less to do with the person being idolized and more to do with the group spirit, the comradeship of the fan club. And this is certainly true of sports fans as well. The chance to sit with thousands of others and whoop up your team and hiss at the other team with cheerleaders egging you on is a wonderful feeling. But you can‘t have this feeling unless you abandon rationality and don’t question your reasons for being attached to a team that has nothing to do with you personally. It is the screaming and the shouting, the euphoria of victory and the depression of defeat that draw you, it is intense emotion that you are looking for and which you get. I am guessing this same feeling comes in church when you are in the presence of hundreds of others who are celebrating together being saved, being right, being the chosen ones. In a way democratic elections with all of their sloganeering and swearing at the other side and cheering your own side on is the same thing.

Joy, celebrating being among the chosen, being part of the herd, is there in all of these activities amplified by rage at the other side. You are the good guys, they are the bad guys. Warfare is the same way with flags and bands and the thrill of victory and the dejection that comes with defeat. The response to the war in Ukraine has some of these same joy/rage qualities.

That doesn‘t mean for me that it doesn‘t matter which side you choose in the MAGA/Liberal battle, or the Ukraine battle. But it does mean that as humans we seem to be suckers for the joy of celebrating our side and demeaning the other side. People on both sides feel that they are good people and that they are right. Yet, we can’t outshout each other. If MAGA folks are filled with joy and having a great time at their rallies and with each other on line they are not going to listen to my arguments, after all I am the kind of person they are furious at. All I do by arguing with them is justifying their rage.

The only way out that I can see is to listen to each other and tamp down the emotions somehow, on both sides, and to find a way out of both joy and rage through quiet discussion. But how we get there I don‘t know. Both MAGA people and Progressives are having too great a time, too much joy and comradeship to give up rage and listen to each other.