The Structure of Today’s Political Discourse
I’ve been following the French presidential elections on TV5. One thing is becoming quite clear. The French are discussing the same stuff that we’ll be arguing about in 2008. There are differences in the way things are talked about or the specific realities discussed, but the underlying ideological structure seems very much the same to me. Or, at least, that would be what I see as a pertinent structure for today’s political discourse here in the US too. Here are the main dimensions:
competition —- cooperation
locality —- mobility
predictability —- fluidity
identity —- context
effective —- affective
locality —- mobility
predictability —- fluidity
identity —- context
effective —- affective
Most of the other stuff that may come to mind – like “security vs. growth” or “dependence vs. autonomy” for example – seems derivative to me.
