Is Populism Good Or Bad?
Populism is known as a political philosophy in which, in addition to conveying a message in a more simplistic way so that a larger population can grasp its meaning, it also focuses a lot on the struggle of the "people" against the elites who have oppressed them, like all philosophy, can have different realities and therefore, today we are going to analyze the nature of Populism, I invite you to read it to the end.
If we look at it from a philosophical point of view, nothing is really good or bad, because each individual has a different perspective of seeing things, it is something subjective that varies depending on many factors, such as the reasons, the situation, the objective, the way in which the action is said or carried out, who did or said it, among others? Populism is a philosophy that, depending on the way it is applied, can be negative or positive. Certainly, in my opinion, I love to see philosophy in a "neutral" way, to give two well-known examples, in the debate on whether human beings are good or bad, I consider us to be ambivalent beings. In the debate on whether the end justifies the means, I think it depends on the circumstances and whether or not there is a better alternative. And if, in this case too, I see it in a very "neutral" way because I think that populism as a philosophy is perhaps not inherently bad.
Populism is, after all, a way of giving a message, which, while it uses certain "modes" that can be considered "dirty" in some way, such as creating a common enemy, which is pathetic and disgusting in my view, it is true that the majority of the population does not know about technisisms and does not want to know how' things are done. To take one example, Trump is populist because he shared information about what he wanted to do in a populist way, he said "I'm going to build a wall", he didn't give technical data or any other information that a fairly large section of the population would think "I don't care" or "I don't understand it".
Are you "bad" for using a populist discourse even if you do exactly what you said you were going to do?, imagine you are a politician and you use a populist discourse to get your information out to as many people as possible because that information would arrive in a very compact and understandable way, and you suddenly win the elections, if during your term, you didn't do everything you said you were going to do, you did it wrong, right? But what happens if you do everything you said you'd do, or at least almost everything, things change there, you said you were going to build a wall and you did it. You said you were going to improve the economy in the long run, and you did, it wasn't empty promises.
If you hadn't used populist discourse you probably wouldn't have won that election, again we can see the case of Donald Trump, who, in addition to using a "populist" discourse, had it in front of what I think is a terrible opponent, but why wouldn't you have won, again, because most people don't care about or understand technicalities, unfortunately, many just want to hear what you're going to do, not how you're going to do it.
The big problem with populism is the use of this physiology for negative ends, such as lying, sowing hatred, seeking more power to be the "messiah" of your nation, populism is used much more negatively than positively. Gloria Álvarez and Axel Kaiser, two Libertarians born in Nicaragua and Chile respectively, talk a lot about this in their book "El Engaño Populista" where they talk and explain how populism has been used in Latin America in order to create a division between social classes, totalitarian governments, lies, among other things. And it is true that many politicians use populism as a way of deceiving and manipulating people, leaving aside all logic and reason and then coming to power and continuing to lie, increasing their powers and therefore corruption. In this case, populism is very bad, because you deceive people, in this case you knew you wouldn't do or couldn't do the things you promised.
That is, depending on your point of view, populism can be good if you promise and keep your promises. It's bad, if you use it to lie, gain a lot of power, generate hatred and corruption... But if we had a society that was intelligent, critical thinking and had no desire to depend on a government to live its life, would it be necessary or would there even be Populism, let us bear in mind that populism is a simplistic way of saying things, it appeals to people's feelings and even ignorance and ignorance. Information is power, education is also power, therefore, with education there could not be populists because everyone would understand a more elaborate message.
In this case, we have populism as an enemy of education and as an ally of disinformation, although it is true that it continues to be a way of compacting information and making it available in a quick and understandable way to everyone, it is also true that since it is compacted information, it will always leave out very important information, for example, "I am going to create jobs", How will you do it? it's very important to know, because depending on how you do it can generate a problem or not, it can be positive or not in the long run. This is another problem. The lack of information and the previous assumption that you are stupid enough not to understand an important message completely, or the previous assumption that you "don't want to know".
In conclusion, philosophically as everything else, populism is neither good nor bad, it is merely subjective. Personally, I believe that populism appeals to ignorance and sentimentality even though it can be used for "good", but using it for good is not the general rule, for unfortunately Populism has been used much more and will continue to be used to manipulate and deceive people in order to gain a political place and continue to plunge nations into misery, As a lover of information and truth and as an ally of Education, I believe that populism must disappear, only with education and information can people be able to be independent and make good decisions and populism is most often used for the opposite, in addition to sowing hatred towards an "elite" or "empire". Thanks for reading, peace.
| # | References | Titles |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nassau Institute | On populism |
| 2 | Planeta Libros | El Engaño Populista |
| 3 | The Conversation | How populism can be turned into an opportunity, not a threat |
| 4 | Youtube | What Is Populism? |
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://daniscib.vornix.blog/2018/07/11/is-populism-good-or-bad/
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I've never heard populism described as a message "delivery system" in quite the way you've used it. I find this article very informative and interesting, but I have always thought of populism as more of a pure political philosophy--like fascism, democracy, communism, monarchism, republicanism, etc.
I've been a lifelong fan of populists. I cut my political teeth on William Jennings Bryan and Charles Lindbergh (Sr., and Jr., ...but especially junior.) I see populism as the more sensible of the reactions against monopolism (the other being progressivism..i.e. socialism)...here in the USA that would be specifically against the enormous power and influence of the oil industry led by the Rockefeller empire.
The monopolism of the early 20th century which (I believe) came to thoroughly dominate the republicanism of our founders, is, IMO, a nearly equivalent evil to totalitarian fascism and/or totalitarian communism. It has morphed slightly into what we now often hear called oligarchy or "crony capitalism" now, but the energy basis of our economy still drives American politics--especially our "science" (or what passes as acceptable science,) academia more generally, and our foreign policy.
Populism..i.e. the idea that government should serve the popular needs of the greatest number of people... is the antithesis to our current system, and it is a MUST USE rhetoric for anyone seeking high office in any but the most left-wing areas of the nation. I still have my doubts that DJT is a real populist. Most astute politicians run populist and "serve" statist.
Yes, in addition to being a political philosophy, "Populism" can also be considered as a way of sending a message in a simple way. The so-called "Populist Speech"
I like everything you've written, I've learned something new, thanks for sharing it! ^^
My pleasure...and backatcha.
To me Populism is the social, political values of the general population for a given country or society. This has historically meant that if you attack the populist ideals of a country you are attacking the social cultural values of that society.
This is why most in America do not comprehend Antifa or the many Corporation supported organizations that are funding such. Something I think is true is that countries that do not have clear social cultural ideas that cement the society together generally don't have populism within there boarders. Thus the boarders are really a wall making the country a prison.
That is a interesing view. Normally "Populists" implant a common enemy. And speaking about Antifa, probably I will make a post about them soon o,o
The truth is if you want to attack people with ill logic, you must attack the terms instead of the logic. That is what I think is happening and why populism is coming back is because those within the boarders of a country wish to keep the culture and tradition intact.
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