Edward O. Wilson zooms out from our current politics to tectonic shifts in a social world:
We are entering a new world, but we’re entering it as Paleolithic brains. Here’s my formula for Earth’s civilization: We are a Star Wars civilization. We have Stone Age emotions. We have medieval institutions — most notably, the churches. And we have god-like technology. And this god-like technology is dragging us forward in ways that are totally unpredictable.
We have not gotten beyond the powerful propensity to believe our group is superior to other comparable groups. However, we are draining away the instinctual energy from nationalism — that’s a big help. I think we’re seeing the beginning of the draining away from the dreadfully dissolutive, oppressive institutions of organized religion. Seeing what’s happening is part of the reason for the Tea Party and the populist revolt now that has kidnapped the Republican Party. There’s a resentment about the old bonds and the old groups dissolving and new groups being formed.
I think his psychological analysis of the current reactionaryism in the GOP is dead-on. It's a form of cultural and sexual panic, as the world globalizes and miscegenates, above all in the chaotic melting pot of America. What conservatives need to be doing, to my mind, is not screeching ideology but figuring out ways to mitigate the disruption of inevitable change, and carefully adjust our institutions and policies to coopt it. Instead, they are standing athwart history and yelling "Backward!"
(Photo of "Field", an installation of 200,000 clay figures by Antony Gormley. Hat tip: My Modern Met.)
The Dish 