What's in a Name? MAGA, Authoritarianism and Fatalism

What we call things guides our perception. This is especially true in both the Cultural (Grid-Group) Theory of Mary Douglas and politics. There is a lot to unpack here.

The rise of Trump and his MAGA movement has thrown cultural theory on its head. Many assumed that, because MAGA is Republican, it's members are hierarchists or individualists. This is not the case. They are authoritarian, but we need to describe how that is if we hope to understand them. Looking at cultural theory through its underlying factors, rather than what we call each way of life (hierarchy, egalitarianism, individualism and fatalism) is the key to doing so.

Cognitive Typing, as devised by Carl Jung and popularized by Myers-Briggs can help us do this, but it's terms must also be defined.

Let us start with the Fatalist way of life, which Dennis Coyle has called Despotism. Is this where we can find the real MAGA and its authoritarian denizens? Some of them may have lived there once until the rise of their hero, Prisoner 45.

Cultural Theory describes them as helpless, blown about by a universe of nature, especially human nature that they just cope with but not change. The theory categorizes as high grid, where grid is prescribed roles and behaviors, and low group membership. Marx called them the working class and Durkheim (the father of sociology) describes them as experiencing anomie. Sounds grim, but is it true?

Marx's rallying cry to the fatalist working class was to unite and lose our chains did not resonate. While there are certainly people in the high Grid-Low group way of life who becomes fatalistic, most see themselves as responsible, not victims of persecution. They are mildly peeved at "experts" who manage their work without actually doing it, but don't want to join a revolutionary organization to overthrow the regime. The regime gives them nice stuff, for the most part.

Fatalism, as an emotion, can be found in every way of life. One can be in a military hierarchy or the priesthood and be fatalistic, even while holding a role in the hierarchy and quietly quitting (but enjoying the protections against arbitrary action).

Likewise, hierarchs can be despotic, as can CEOs whose job is marketing the company to the world. Such individualists provide yeast to the bread of the organization, as do those workers who have responsibility without being part of the ruling hierarchy - or the shop stewards who are a competing egalitarian movement (which can also be hierarchic). Proving how this occurs is a possible dissertation topic in Sociology or Business (probably the latter),

Egalitarians can also be fatalistic, especially if the ruling clique hogs power or if the whole group suffers from paralysis by analysis. Likewise, the sales force, working on commission, can be fatalistic when they don't meet sales targets or when non-conformism is not what it is cracked up to be. Fatalism is an emotion, not a way of life.

Co-mingling cultural theory and personality typing can help us understand whether what we call fatalism is simply conformist (but again, everyone conforms to their own way of life) or has deeper roots in those who are attracted to that way of life. One can simply be not willing to join the hierarchy (or priesthood), join the revolution or go it alone in sales or by living the van life.

This chart shows how culture relates to personality:

The thinking-feeling duality can be laid onto grid rather nicely. Thinkers predominantly use reason (whether it is general expertise (tribal) or individual expertise (analysis), while feelers are concerned with ones own or the tribe's value system. In this scheme, being high grid can be interpreted as putting reason before emotion. Most people do that. What is called fatalism, then, is more akin to realism - seeing things as they are. The fact of the matter is, reality is a lot more random (especially human reality), than the other ways of life are willing to admit.

The myth that reality can be known, or the procedure for knowing it, is a. group function. Group rationality is what Max Weber described in his essay on bureaucracy. Indeed, the reasoned coordination of group activity is the essence of the hierarchic way of life. Group roles and discipline are not random (if the organization is functional), but based on shared reasons (preferences, rather than values). Science, academia, business and government are all high-grid and high-group.

While hierarchies can be authoritarian, that is a function of personalities, not the ideal type. There are also mechanisms in every hierarchy to remove such atavism. Hierarchies are defined by the use of expertise. MAGA, with its anti-masking and anti-vaxxing, are not respectful of such expertise.

Cognitive theory is also important to whether or not someone prefers groups. Individuals rely on their senses, not the theoretical life of he scientist. Intuition goes beyond sensation to explanation in a group setting. It can also be seen as planning, either for the self to navigate within the bureaucracy or egalitarian group, or for the group - leading or participating in the intellectual life of science or other modes of expertise. The entire purpose of science is to search for the truth by applying intuition to measured (rather than experienced) data or experience and to share that intuition in academic or professional publications, or intragroup analysis. 

Individualism (Coyle calls it libertarianism) is concerned with sensation, rather than intuition - the personal observation of reality - and the emotional response to it. People in active marketing (rather than analysis) are individualists. They are essentially performers. The true elites fall within this category. Henry David Thoreau is the hero of the individualists, as were the hippies who have matured into American nomads. They go where they feel. No one has given them a plan (non-individualists have vacation itineraries - rather than just hanging on the beach).  

Can individualists be authoritarian? Of course. Rich individualists, especially if they lead the realist workforce or the management hierarchy are almost expected to be despotic, although they dress up their despotism under the guise of individual bargaining in hiring. The reality is that rich individualists have the power to roll over those they negotiate with, taking any advantage. Lawyers and some members of congress are in this class. They can also provide the yeast to egalitarian groups, giving them the charismatic leadership they need to go beyond talk and into (direct) action. 

Donald Trump is the ultimate individualist despot. His morality is the deal. Morality is relative to agreement or power. In the developing world, where bargaining rules and there is no set price, morality is as equally transactional and equally personal. This is why hierarchy does not take hold well in the developing world. Development bureaucrats create bureaucrats in the developed nation. Note that in social welfare in the developed world, what we see as corruption is simply a form of individuality. It is why the rule of law is foreign to Trump and his MAGA minions, as well as to immigrants from the developing world. They will work for less without complaining, undercutting what would be a set wage.

It would be tempting to stop here and conclude that MAGA is full of individualism. That would ignore the QAnon Oath, "Where we go one, we go all." Where evil in hierarchy is deviance (and in realism, shirking responsibility), real is outside the Sect. Before it was called Egalitarian, the way of life in grid-group theory was Sectarianism. One can be a conservative sectarian as easily as a liberal sectarian. Suspicion of the enemy other is an egalitarian or sectarian trope.

The American South is an example of how egalitarian tyranny works. Among White segregationists, everyone covered their individuality with a white sheet. A myriad of evils can be explained when the morality is centered in the group, rather than the individual. The only sin is mercy to the "other." Looking at poor white culture, equality ruled social relations until they were coopted by the planter elite, with the job of controlling the slave population, who were the enemy other.

All of the notable purges and genocides are based in the myth of equality for the in group and the dehumanizing of the enemy other (from Paris to Cambodia to Rwanda to Alabama). Prejudice is the main tool of authoritarianism. It is based in emotion and values rather than reason and shared intuition rather than individual sensation. This allows for the infliction of pain by being blind to the sensations that others experience.

Like fatalism, everyone believes they are somewhat egalitarian, which is why the term Sectarian is much more apt. On January 6th, the mob was overcome with group irrationality, the feeling of the moment.  People did what they would not otherwise do. Any cursory survey of sentencing transcripts by January 6 insurrectionists shows this to be the case, which is a hint about a future research paper (although it is too big a job without some kind of grant funding - it is another possible dissertation topic).

How to deal with MAGA sectarian authoritarianism? In time, the moment passes and people's natural empathy for the suffering born by others replaces the heat of the moment. Reason brings about the rule of law, general tolerance and fixed pricing - rather than haggling over every point.

People worry about a MAGA tyranny. It will not happen. The days of Trumpism will end now that the immunity claims of Trump are tossed out by the Supreme Court. This will come in days, not months. Expect Trump to make a deal rather than relying on the rule of law to excuse his inexcusable conduct.

Can MAGA be controlled with appeals to reason? Have you been reading above this sentence? It must be adopted viscerally, as a value. It is odd and ironic that immigrant others, who live in a world of transactional and emotional morality share that approach to cognition with MAGA in the low grid world. It is necessary to change hearts rather than minds. That is why mixed marriages (which in Iowa over 100 years ago was when a German Catholic married an Irish Catholic) are usually part of the solution - which is why school segregation (de facto as well as de jure) is a signature authoritarian strategy. Will it work? With each generation, there is progress, so yes.