tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/hamilton-college-2966/articlesHamilton College2024-03-26T12:40:09Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2250612024-03-26T12:40:09Z2024-03-26T12:40:09ZPoliticians may rail against the ‘deep state,’ but research shows federal workers are effective and committed, not subversive<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584101/original/file-20240325-22-7ip3p7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2995%2C2043&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A worker at the National Hurricane Center tracks weather over the Gulf of Mexico.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/philippe-papin-hurricane-specialist-at-the-national-news-photo/1494908383">Joe Raedle/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s common for political candidates to disparage “the government” even as they run for an office in which they would be part of, yes, running the government. </p>
<p>Often, what they’re referring to is what <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=I_z924QAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">we</a>, as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=RW9itwwAAAAJ">scholars</a> of the inner workings of democracy, call “the administrative state.” At times, these critics use a label of collective distrust and disapproval for government workers that sounds more sinister: “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23276665.2023.2249142">the deep state</a>.”</p>
<p>Most people, however, don’t know what government workers do, why they do it or how the government selects them in the first place.</p>
<p>Our years of research about the people who work in the federal government finds that they care deeply about their work, aiding the public and pursuing the stability and integrity of government.</p>
<p>Most of them are devoted civil servants. Across hundreds of interviews and surveys of people who have made their careers in government, what stands out most to us is their commitment to civic duty without regard to partisan politics. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584107/original/file-20240325-23-c14rfc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A drawing of a statue with a caricature of Andrew Jackson riding on a pig." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584107/original/file-20240325-23-c14rfc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584107/original/file-20240325-23-c14rfc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584107/original/file-20240325-23-c14rfc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584107/original/file-20240325-23-c14rfc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584107/original/file-20240325-23-c14rfc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1144&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584107/original/file-20240325-23-c14rfc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1144&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584107/original/file-20240325-23-c14rfc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1144&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">President Andrew Jackson was a proponent of the ‘spoils system’ in which new presidents could hire friends and supporters into government jobs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:In_memorium--our_civil_service_as_it_was.JPG">Thomas Nast, Harper's Weekly, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<h2>From spoils to merit</h2>
<p>From the country’s founding through 1883, the U.S. federal government relied on what was called a “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/009539979802900606">spoils system</a>” to hire staff. The system got its name from the expression “to the victor goes the spoils.” A newly elected president would distribute government jobs to people who helped him win election.</p>
<p>This system had two primary defects: First, vast numbers of federal jobholders could be displaced every four or eight years; second, many of the new arrivals had no qualifications or experience for the jobs to which they were appointed. </p>
<p>Problems resulting from these defects were smaller than modern Americans might expect, because at that time the federal government was much smaller than it is today and had less to do with Americans’ everyday lives. This method had its defenders, including President Andrew Jackson, who <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/7597210">believed that government tasks were relatively simple</a> and anyone could do them.</p>
<p>But even so, the spoils system meant government was not as effective as it could have been – and as the people justifiably expected it to be.</p>
<p>In 1881, President James Garfield was assassinated by a <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/114423/destiny-of-the-republic-by-candice-millard/">man who believed he deserved a government job</a> because of his support for Garfield but didn’t get one. The assassination led to bipartisan passage in Congress of the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/pendleton-act">Pendleton Act of 1883</a>. </p>
<p>The law brought sweeping change. It introduced for the first time principles of merit in government hiring: Appointment and advancement were tied to workers’ competence, not their political loyalties or connections. To protect civil servants from political interference, they were given job security: Grounds for firing now revolve around poor performance or misconduct, rather than being a supporter of whichever political party lost the last election.</p>
<p>Nearly <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CES9091000001">3 million career civil servants</a> continue to have these protections today. New presidents still get to hire <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/ppo/">roughly 4,000 political appointees</a> with fewer protections.</p>
<p>As a result of these changes and related reforms in the <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/history/civil-service-reform-act-1978">Civil Service Reform Act of 1978</a>, the U.S. government is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12945">far more effective today</a> than it was prior to the Pendleton Act. </p>
<p>In fact, U.S. civil service institutions, built on merit-based appointments, merit-based advancement and security of employment, have become the <a href="https://doi.org/10.33545/26646021.2020.v2.i1b.40">standard for democratic governments</a> around the globe. U.S. federal workers are generally <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23276665.2023.2249142">high-performing, impartial and minimally corrupt</a> compared with other countries’ civil servants.</p>
<h2>Increasing government responsibilities</h2>
<p>Since 1776, the U.S. population has increased <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/07/july-fourth-celebrating-243-years-of-independence.html">from about 2.5 million people to over 330 million today</a>. With its growing size and with technological advances, the federal government now provides a great many services, including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/19/opinion/trump-deep-state.html">protecting its citizens</a> from complex environmental, health and international threats.</p>
<p>Environmental Protection Agency employees help maintain clean air and water and clean up toxic waste dumps to protect human health. Department of Energy scientists and managers oversee the treatment and disposal of <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/The-Fifth-Risk/">radioactive nuclear waste</a> from our weapons program and power plants. National Park Service staff manage over <a href="https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/uploads/fy2021-bib-bh081.pdf">85 million acres of public land across all 50 states</a>. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s forecasters’ advance detection of potential weather emergencies enable early warnings and evacuations from high-risk areas, <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/The-Fifth-Risk/">which has saved countless lives</a>.</p>
<p>Federal Emergency Management Agency employees aid survivors of natural disasters. That agency also subsidizes flood insurance, making home insurance available in flood-prone areas. The U.S. government additionally provides <a href="https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/federal-government-pays-farmers-doesnt-mean-farmers-are-fans">billions of dollars in subsidies</a> per year to support farmers and maintain food security. </p>
<p>These programs are all administered by government employees: environmental scientists, lawyers, analysts, diplomats, security officers, postal workers, engineers, foresters, doctors and many other specialized career civil servants. Andrew Jackson’s idea of government work no longer applies: You do not want just anyone managing hazardous waste, sending a space shuttle into orbit or managing public lands constituting <a href="https://www.gao.gov/managing-federal-lands-and-waters">one-third of the country’s territory</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584104/original/file-20240325-26-idylq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People wearing white helmets and white jackets slice open meat carcasses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584104/original/file-20240325-26-idylq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584104/original/file-20240325-26-idylq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584104/original/file-20240325-26-idylq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584104/original/file-20240325-26-idylq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584104/original/file-20240325-26-idylq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584104/original/file-20240325-26-idylq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584104/original/file-20240325-26-idylq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S. Department of Agriculture food safety inspectors examine meat at a processing plant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/AgSecretaryFoodSafety/51f2053e7b3841c5b9343ebff015c7c3/photo">AP Photo/Nati Harnik</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>A dedicated workforce</h2>
<p>Research, including our own, shows that these workers are not self-serving elites but rather dedicated and committed public servants.</p>
<p>That’s <a href="https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/the-new-case-for-bureaucracy/book238024">generally true</a> even of Internal Revenue Service staffers, postal service clerks and other bureaucratic functionaries who may not earn much public respect. Federal employees <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/phantoms-of-a-beleaguered-republic-9780197656945?cc=us&lang=en&">mirror demographics in the United States</a> and are hired, trained and legally obligated to uphold the Constitution and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/725313">serve the public interest</a>.</p>
<p>One of us, Jaime Kucinskas, with sociologist and law professor <a href="https://law.seattleu.edu/faculty/directory/profiles/zylan-yvonne.html">Yvonne Zylan</a>, tracked the experiences of dozens of federal employees across the EPA, Department of Health and Human Services, State Department, Department of Interior, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security and various other agencies during the Trump administration. That research found these workers were dedicated to serving the public and the Constitution, upholding the missions of their agencies and democracy, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/725313">working to support leadership and the elected president</a>. </p>
<p>Even though 80% of the centrist and Democratic Party-leaning government workers they spoke with did not believe in the ideas behind the Trump presidency, they were careful to follow legal official orders from the administration.</p>
<p>They noted the importance of speaking up while leaders deliberated what to do. After political appointees and supervisors made their decisions, however, even the civil servants who most valued speaking truth to power acknowledged, “Then it’s time to execute,” as one State Department employee told Kucinskas. “As career professionals we have an obligation to carry out lawful instructions, even if we don’t fully agree with it.”</p>
<p>Another international affairs expert told Kucinskas, “People have voted and this is where we’re at. And we’re not going to change things. We don’t do that here.” He said if political appointees “want to do what you consider bad decisions … we do our best to give more information. … And if they still decide to do (it), then we say okay, that’s what we’re going to do.”</p>
<p>He was firm in this loyal and deferential position to the elected president and his administration in 2018 and again in a 2020 follow-up interview. “If you want to be an advocate, you can leave and work in a different sector,” he concluded. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584106/original/file-20240325-20-pr6w27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People wearing reflective safety vests stand in a clearing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584106/original/file-20240325-20-pr6w27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584106/original/file-20240325-20-pr6w27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584106/original/file-20240325-20-pr6w27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584106/original/file-20240325-20-pr6w27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584106/original/file-20240325-20-pr6w27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584106/original/file-20240325-20-pr6w27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584106/original/file-20240325-20-pr6w27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Environmental Protection Agency workers tour the site of an abandoned mercury mine in California slated for cleanup.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/environmental-protection-agency-remedial-project-manager-news-photo/2041454729">Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Some decided to do just that: More than a quarter of the upper-level government workers Kucinskas spoke with left their positions during the Trump administration. Although exits typically rise during presidential transitions, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jpart/article/31/2/451/5983893">they typically remain under 10%</a>, making this degree of high-level exits unusually high.</p>
<p>Even as many Americans express frustration with the president, Congress and the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2022/06/06/the-people-of-government-career-employees-political-appointees-and-candidates-for-office/">federal government as a whole</a>, however, we believe it is important not to take for granted what federal government workers are doing well. U.S. citizens benefit from effective federal services, thanks in part because the government hires and rewards civil servants because of their merit rather than loyalty.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225061/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Years of research about the people who work in the federal government finds that most of them are devoted civil servants who are committed to civic duty without regard to partisan politics.Jaime Kucinskas, Associate Professor of Sociology, Hamilton CollegeJames L. Perry, Professor of Public and Environmental Affairs Emeritus, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2250692024-03-13T12:38:35Z2024-03-13T12:38:35ZHopes that Biden will quit his reelection campaign ignore the differences – and lessons – of LBJ and 1968’s Democratic catastrophe<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580739/original/file-20240308-16-a0f8xb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C5%2C3671%2C2447&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago was not a peaceful event.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-sign-over-archway-leading-to-the-international-news-photo/515578006?adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s just over six months until Election Day. The president faces a tough fight for reelection. His approval rating has cratered below 40% in the polls, his party is divided over a foreign war, and a bipartisan chorus declares that he’s no longer up to the job. Polls show him running neck and neck with the likely Republican nominee. </p>
<p>Faced with this grim situation, the president decides to put country before his own political ambition and declares he won’t run for reelection.</p>
<p>Joe Biden in 2024? </p>
<p>Nope, it’s Lyndon Johnson in 1968. On March 31 of that year, <a href="https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/march-31-1968-remarks-decision-not-seek-re-election">LBJ shocked the nation when</a>, at the end of a televised address on the Vietnam War, he declared, “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.”</p>
<p>Today, a chorus of <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2024/0227/Biden-should-drop-out!-No-he-shouldn-t!-Debate-rages">political commentators predict or hope</a> that Biden will follow LBJ’s example. But 2024 is not 1968, and Joseph Robinette Biden is not Lyndon Baines Johnson.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CJeLoMCF6Jo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president,’ said LBJ on March 31, 1968.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Divisions over a war</h2>
<p>In 1968, the Democratic Party was deeply divided over the Vietnam War. Despite having deployed over 500,000 troops and suffered over 20,000 deaths, the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/03/the-vietnam-war-part-ii-losses-and-withdrawal/389192/">U.S. seemed no closer to victory</a>. </p>
<p>So-called “<a href="https://news.gallup.com/vault/191828/gallup-vault-hawks-doves-vietnam.aspx">hawks</a>” demanded that the president hold the line in Vietnam or even escalate further in order to achieve total victory. “<a href="https://news.gallup.com/vault/191828/gallup-vault-hawks-doves-vietnam.aspx">Doves</a>” argued that the war was unwinnable and the U.S. should look for a negotiated settlement.</p>
<p>Today, many <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/inside-democratic-rebellion-against-biden-over-gaza-war-2024-02-27/">Democrats oppose Biden’s support</a> for Israel’s military campaign against Hamas, but it’s easy to overstate this division. A recent Gallup poll found that only 1% of Americans cited “war in the Middle East” as <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/1675/most-important-problem.aspx">the nation’s top problem</a>. </p>
<p>In contrast, early in 1968, Gallup found that a majority of Americans – 53% – said that Vietnam was the <a href="https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/ipoll/study/31087737/questions#fdf0b252-9191-417f-89ba-ba32cd16c587">most important issue facing the nation</a>. </p>
<p>Furthermore, most Democrats remain supportive of Israel. A recent Reuters poll found that 46% of Democrats blame Hamas for the war compared with <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-dogged-by-democrats-anger-over-israel-reutersipsos-poll-finds-2024-02-29/">only 22% who blame Israel</a>. </p>
<p>Whatever concerns Democrats might have over Biden, the fact remains that no prominent Democrats have chosen to oppose him for the party nomination. Even leading progressive Democrats like <a href="https://apnews.com/article/bernie-sanders-biden-endorsement-2024-d8f0772b117e2bf83e1062708ea651c0">Sen. Bernie Sanders</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/aoc-endorses-biden-2024-president-democrats-3c722f5ac1bc2c568b6d962d4fe4e2b7">Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez</a> have endorsed Biden. Ocasio-Cortez even went so far as to call Biden “one of the <a href="https://nbcmontana.com/news/nation-world/aoc-calls-biden-one-of-the-most-successful-presidents-in-history-amid-age-concerns-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-2024-election-special-counsel-report-donald-trump-president-white-house">most successful presidents</a> in modern American history.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580744/original/file-20240308-28-p15lv5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A crowd of people in a convention hall, with some holding signs that say 'Stop the war.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580744/original/file-20240308-28-p15lv5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580744/original/file-20240308-28-p15lv5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580744/original/file-20240308-28-p15lv5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580744/original/file-20240308-28-p15lv5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580744/original/file-20240308-28-p15lv5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580744/original/file-20240308-28-p15lv5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580744/original/file-20240308-28-p15lv5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bitter differences over the Vietnam War were on display at the 1968 Democratic convention.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-the-new-york-delegation-protesting-against-the-news-photo/51247068?adppopup=true">Washington Bureau/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>After LBJ, no unity</h2>
<p>In contrast, differences over the Vietnam War and other issues led two sitting U.S. senators, <a href="https://features.apmreports.org/arw/campaign68/c2.html">Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota</a> and <a href="https://features.apmreports.org/arw/campaign68/a1.html">Robert F. Kennedy of New York</a>, to challenge Johnson for the Democratic nomination. And despite low name recognition and a shoestring campaign, McCarthy even managed a near upset of Johnson in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/03/12/eugene-mccarthy-vs-lbj-the-new-hampshire-primary-showdown-that-changed-everything/">the New Hampshire primary</a>, held on March 12, 1968. </p>
<p>Given these differences, it seems very unlikely that Biden will seek to follow LBJ’s example by dropping out of the race. And for those who hope Biden will do so anyway, they should be careful what they wish for. </p>
<p>Johnson’s withdrawal failed to unify the party. Far from it. </p>
<p>McCarthy, Kennedy and Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who joined the race after Johnson’s exit, <a href="https://features.apmreports.org/arw/campaign68/e1.html">fought a bitter battle</a> for the nomination. Tensions exploded during that year’s <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/1968-democratic-convention-931079/">Democratic convention in Chicago</a>. </p>
<p>Americans watched on live television as <a href="https://time.com/5377386/1968-democratic-national-convention-protesters/">police brutally beat anti-war demonstrators</a> in the streets outside the convention hall. </p>
<p>Inside the convention, Sen. Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut denounced “<a href="https://75.stripes.com/archives/chicago-democratic-convention-68-embodies-clash-over-future-america">Gestapo tactics on the streets of Chicago</a>.” In response, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley unleashed a torrent of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/25/nyregion/ribicoff-and-daley-head-to-head.html">vulgar, antisemitic comments</a>. <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/680830convention-dem-ra.html">Humphrey eventually won the nomination</a>, but his candidacy was deeply wounded and he went on to narrowly lose the election to Richard Nixon.</p>
<p>Should Biden decide not to run, Democrats might face a similar situation. </p>
<p>There is no obvious candidate to replace him, and the contest to do so would likely inflame Democratic divisions over ideology, gender and race. Furthermore, at this late date, it would be nearly impossible to win the nomination via the remaining caucuses and primaries. </p>
<p>Instead, the Democratic convention, slated for late August in Chicago, would probably end up choosing the nominee, leaving him or her open to criticism that they were selected by party bosses rather than the people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225069/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip Klinkner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An unpopular president. A war that’s dividing the country. An upcoming election. What year is it?Philip Klinkner, James S. Sherman Professor of Government, Hamilton CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2228312024-02-21T13:18:19Z2024-02-21T13:18:19ZMaking it personal: Considering an issue’s relevance to your own life could help reduce political polarization<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576054/original/file-20240215-28-zbjze5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C1720%2C1732&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Thinking about issues’ impact on their own lives can help people envision more common ground.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/polarization-in-the-united-states-royalty-free-image/1436162554?phrase=political+polarization&adppopup=true">wildpixel/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Political polarization can be reduced when people are told to think about the personal relevance of issues they might not care about at first glance.</p>
<p>We, <a href="https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/our-faculty/directory/faculty-detail/Rebecca-Dyer">a social psychologist</a> and <a href="https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/our-faculty/directory/faculty-detail/keelah-williams">an evolutionary psychologist</a>, decided to investigate this issue with two of our undergraduate students, and recently published <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296177">our results</a> in the science journal PLOS One.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015141">Previous research</a> has found that conservatives tend to judge “disrespecting an elder” to be more morally objectionable behavior than liberals do. But when we had liberals think about how “disrespecting an elder” could be personally relevant to them – for example, someone being mean to their own grandmother – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296177">their immorality assessments increased</a>, becoming no different than conservatives’.</p>
<p>When people consider how an issue relates to them personally, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000567">an otherwise neutral event seems more threatening</a>. This, in turn, increases someone’s perception of how morally objectionable that behavior is.</p>
<p>The pattern was different with conservative participants, however. When conservatives considered the personal relevance of what is typically considered a more “liberal” issue – a company lying about how much it is contributing to pollution – their judgments of how immoral that issue is did not significantly change. </p>
<p>Contrary to what we expected, both conservatives and liberals cared relatively equally about this threat even without thinking about its personal relevance. While some people did focus on the environmental aspect of the threat, as we intended, others focused more on the deception involved, which is less politically polarized. </p>
<p>All participants, no matter their politics, consistently rated more personally relevant threats as more immoral. The closer any threat feels, the bigger – and more wrong – someone considers it to be.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>In the United States today, it can feel like conservatives and liberals are <a href="https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/political-divide-america-beyond-polarization-tribalism-secularism">living in different realities</a>. Our research speaks to a possible pathway for narrowing this gap. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576815/original/file-20240220-22-4q8cod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two rows of seated people, seen from the back, listen to four people speaking as they face the audience." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576815/original/file-20240220-22-4q8cod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576815/original/file-20240220-22-4q8cod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576815/original/file-20240220-22-4q8cod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576815/original/file-20240220-22-4q8cod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576815/original/file-20240220-22-4q8cod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576815/original/file-20240220-22-4q8cod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576815/original/file-20240220-22-4q8cod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thinking about issues as closer to your own life – happening sooner, nearer or to people you care about – can change how you view them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/rear-view-photo-of-audience-listening-to-panel-royalty-free-image/1179025358?phrase=%22town+hall%22+meeting&adppopup=true">SDI Productions/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>People often think of moral beliefs as relatively fixed and stable: Moral values feel ingrained in who you are. Yet our study suggests that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296177">moral beliefs may be more flexible</a> than once thought, at least under certain circumstances. </p>
<p>To the extent that people can appreciate how important issues – like climate change – could affect them personally, that may lead to greater agreement from people across the political spectrum.</p>
<p>From a broader perspective, personal relevance is just one dimension of something called “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018963">psychological distance</a>.” People may perceive objects or events as close to or far away from their lives in a variety of ways: for example, whether an event occurred recently or a long time ago, and whether it is real or hypothetical.</p>
<p>Our research suggests that psychological distance could be an important variable to consider in all kinds of decision-making, including financial decisions, deciding where to go to college or what job to take. Thinking more abstractly or concretely about what is at stake might lead people to different conclusions and improve the quality of their decisions.</p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>Several important questions remain. One relates to the differing pattern that we observed with conservative participants, whose assessments of a stereotypically “liberal” threat did not change much when they considered its relevance to their own lives. Would a different threat – maybe gun violence or mounting student loan debt – lead to a different pattern? Alternatively, perhaps conservatives tend to be more rigid in their beliefs than liberals, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000446">as some studies have suggested</a>.</p>
<p>In addition, how might these findings contribute to actual problem-solving? Is increasing the personal relevance of otherwise-neutral threats the best way to help people see eye to eye?</p>
<p>Another possibility might be to push things in the opposite direction. Making potential threats seem less personally relevant, not more, might be an effective way to bring people together to work toward a realistic solution.</p>
<p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take on interesting academic work.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222831/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Changing the ‘psychological distance’ someone feels toward an issue can shift their attitudes in ways that might help people on opposite sides of an issue see more eye to eye.Rebecca Dyer, Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology, Hamilton CollegeKeelah Williams, Associate Professor of Psychology, Hamilton CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1879602022-08-23T12:24:55Z2022-08-23T12:24:55ZYoga versus democracy? What survey data says about spiritual Americans’ political behavior<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480136/original/file-20220819-2830-wsaywk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C29%2C3870%2C2563&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For some, yoga is a spiritual practice that may substitute for religion.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/group-of-people-participate-in-a-yoga-session-taught-by-news-photo/1231905854?adppopup=true">CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the United States gets less religious, is it also getting more selfish? </p>
<p>Historically, religious Americans have been civically engaged. Through <a href="http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/1468-5906.00175">churches and other faith-based organizations</a>, congregants volunteer, engage in local and national civic organizations and pursue political goals. </p>
<p><a href="https://sociologicalscience.com/articles-vol1-24-423/">Today</a> – <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo3683361.html">the rise</a> of a politically potent <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo3683361.html">religious right over the past 50 years</a> notwithstanding – fewer Americans identify with formal religions. Gallup <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/341963/church-membership-falls-below-majority-first-time.aspx">found</a> that 47% of Americans reported church membership in 2020, down from 70% in the 1990s; <a href="https://www.prri.org/research/2020-census-of-american-religion/">nearly a quarter of Americans have no religious affiliation</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, other kinds of meaningful practice are on the rise, from meditation and yoga to new <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/05/ritual-design-lab-secular-atheist/559535/">secular rituals</a> like <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0242546">Sunday assemblies “without God.”</a> Between 2012 and 2017, the percentage of American adults who meditated rose from 4.1% to 14.2%, according to <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2018/201811_Yoga_Meditation.htm">a 2018 CDC report</a>. The number of those who practiced yoga jumped from 9.5% to 14.3%. Not everyone considers these practices “spiritual,” but many do pursue them as an alternative to religious engagement. </p>
<p><a href="https://sociologicalscience.com/articles-vol1-24-423/">Some critics</a> question whether this new focus on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2019/jul/08/the-mindfulness-conspiracy-podcast">mindfulness and self-care</a> is <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/beyond-mcmindfulness_b_3519289">making Americans more self-centered</a>. They suggest religiously disengaged Americans are channeling their energies into <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14766086.2018.1438038">themselves and their careers</a> rather than into civic pursuits that may benefit the public.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AEb-z9IAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">sociologists</a> who study <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=I_z924QAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">religion and public life</a>, we wanted to answer that question. We used survey data to compare how these two groups of spiritual and religious Americans vote, volunteer and otherwise get involved in their communities.</p>
<h2>Spiritually selfish or religiously alienated?</h2>
<p>Our research began with the assumption that moving from organized religious practices to spiritual practices could have one of two effects on greater American society. </p>
<p>Spiritual practice could lead people to focus on more selfish or self-interested pursuits, such as their own personal development and career progress, to the detriment of U.S. society and democracy. </p>
<p>This is the argument sociologist <a href="https://ethnicstudies.berkeley.edu/people/carolyn-chen-1/">Carolyn Chen</a> pursues in her book “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691219080/work-pray-code">Work, Pray, Code</a>,” about how meditators in Silicon Valley are re-imagining Buddhist practices as productivity tools. As one employee described a company mindfulness program, it helped her “self-manage” and “not get triggered.” While these skills made her happier and gave her “the clarity to handle the complex problems of the company,” Chen shows how they also teach employees to put work first, sacrificing other kinds of social connection. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2019/jul/08/the-mindfulness-conspiracy-podcast">Bringing spiritual practice into the office</a> may give workers deeper purpose and meaning, but Chen says it can have some unintended consequences. </p>
<p>When workplaces fulfill workers’ most personal needs – providing not only meals and laundry but also recreational activities, spiritual coaches and mindfulness sessions – skilled workers end up spending most of their time at work. They invest in their company’s social capital rather than building ties with their neighbors, religious congregations and other civic groups. They are less likely to frequent local businesses. </p>
<p>Chen suggests that this disinvestment in community can ultimately lead to cuts in public services and weaken democracy. </p>
<p>Alternatively, our research posited, spiritual practices may serve as a substitute for religion. This explanation may hold especially true among Americans <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912918771526">disaffected by the rightward lurch that now divides many congregations</a>, exacerbating <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soab134">cultural fissures around race</a>, gender and sexual orientation. </p>
<p>“They loved to tell me my sexuality doesn’t define me,” one 25-year-old former evangelical, Christian Ethan Stalker, told the <a href="https://religionnews.com/2021/08/06/young-evangelicals-are-leaving-church-resistance-to-lgbtq-equality-is-driving-them-away/">Religion News Service</a> in 2021 in describing his former church. “But they shoved a handful of verses down my throat that completely sexualize me as a gay person and … dismissed who I am as a complex human being. That was a huge problem for me.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480139/original/file-20220819-22-kth4oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A sign reads 'Catholics vote pro-life', written in red, white and blue." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480139/original/file-20220819-22-kth4oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480139/original/file-20220819-22-kth4oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480139/original/file-20220819-22-kth4oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480139/original/file-20220819-22-kth4oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480139/original/file-20220819-22-kth4oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480139/original/file-20220819-22-kth4oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480139/original/file-20220819-22-kth4oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An anti-abortion message outside St. Anthony Church, in Brooksville, Fla., in 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/florida-brooksville-st-anthony-church-catholics-vote-pro-news-photo/1280323701?adppopup=true">Jeffrey Greenberg/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Engaged on all fronts</h2>
<p>To answer our research question about spirituality and civic engagement, we used <a href="https://www.thearda.com/Archive/Files/Descriptions/NRSS2019.asp">a nationally representative survey</a> of Americans in 2020. </p>
<p>We examined the political behaviors of people who engaged in activities such as yoga, meditation, making art, walking in nature, praying and attending religious services. The political activities we measured included voting, volunteering, contacting representatives, protesting and donating to political campaigns. </p>
<p>We then compared those behaviors, distinguishing between people who see these activities as spiritual and those who see the same activities as religious. </p>
<p>Our new study, published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224221108196">American Sociological Review</a>, finds that spiritual practitioners are just as likely to engage in political activities as the religious. </p>
<p>After we controlled for demographic factors such as age, race and gender, frequent spiritual practitioners were about 30% more likely than nonpractitioners to report doing at least one political activity in the past year. Likewise, devoted religious practitioners were also about 30% more likely to report one of these political behaviors than respondents who do not practice religion. </p>
<p>In other words, we found heightened political engagement among both the religious and spiritual, compared with other people.</p>
<p>Our findings bolster similar conclusions made recently by sociologist <a href="https://briansteensland.com/">Brian Steensland</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12788">his colleagues in another study</a> on spiritual people and civic involvement.</p>
<h2>Uncovering the spiritual as a political force</h2>
<p>The spiritual practitioners we identified seemed particularly likely to be disaffected by the rightward turn in some congregations in recent years. On average, Democrats, women and people who identified as lesbian, gay and bisexual reported more frequent spiritual practices.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480137/original/file-20220819-16-7e7g9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman wearing a headset microphone leads a class of women, all holding their palms in front of their chests. The instructor has her eyes closed." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480137/original/file-20220819-16-7e7g9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480137/original/file-20220819-16-7e7g9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480137/original/file-20220819-16-7e7g9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480137/original/file-20220819-16-7e7g9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480137/original/file-20220819-16-7e7g9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480137/original/file-20220819-16-7e7g9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480137/original/file-20220819-16-7e7g9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A mindfulness-focused weekly dance class at a recreation center in Littleton, Colo., in 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/loelle-poneleit-center-leads-her-students-during-a-nia-news-photo/635565412?adppopup=true">Seth McConnell/The Denver Post via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>We suspect these groups are engaging in American politics in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23254823.2022.2086596">innovative ways</a>, such as through online groups and retreats that <a href="https://www.offthematintotheworld.org/">re-imagine spiritual community and democratic engagement</a>. </p>
<p>Our research recognizes progressive spiritual practitioners as a growing but largely <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/01/spiritual-but-not-religious-a-rising-misunderstood-voting-bloc/283000/">unrecognized, underestimated and misunderstood political force</a>. </p>
<p>In his influential book “<a href="http://bowlingalone.com/">Bowling Alone</a>,” Harvard political scientist <a href="http://robertdputnam.com/">Robert Putnam</a> suggests American religious disaffiliation is part of a larger trend of overall civic decline. Americans have been disengaging for decades from all kinds of civic groups, from bowling leagues and unions to parent-teacher organizations. </p>
<p>Our study gives good reason to reassess what being an “engaged citizen” means in the 21st century. People may change what they do on a Sunday morning, but checking out of church doesn’t necessarily imply checking out of the political process.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187960/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Evan Stewart is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at University of Massachusetts Boston and a 2021-2022 Fellow with the Public Religion Research Institute. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jaime Kucinskas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As the US gets less religious, some thinkers warn that it may get more selfish as people engage less with their communities. A team of scholars decided to investigate that concern.Evan Stewart, Assistant Professor of Sociology, UMass BostonJaime Kucinskas, Associate Professor of Sociology, Hamilton CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1522222020-12-18T13:26:31Z2020-12-18T13:26:31ZHere’s why Christmas movies are so appealing this holiday season<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375700/original/file-20201217-15-12v4730.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C5%2C560%2C425&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A still from the 1946 classic 'It's A Wonderful Life.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-actors-james-stewart-and-donna-reed-star-in-the-news-photo/98609029?adppopup=true">RKO Pictures/Archive Photos/Moviepix/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With the pandemic limiting travel over the holiday season, many Americans will be settling in front of the television to watch their favorite holiday movies, along with their favorite drink – a cup of hot apple cider or a glass of wine – to add some cheer.</p>
<p>Holiday movies have become an essential part of the American winter celebrations and are likely to be more so for those quarantining this year. The entertainment site Vulture <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2020/11/2020-christmas-movies-on-netflix-lifetime-hallmark-and-more.html">reports 82 new holiday movie</a> releases in 2020. But, even before the lockdown, production of annual Christmas movies was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/30/movies/christmas-movies-television.html">reported to be up by at least 20%</a> since 2017 on a single cable network.</p>
<p>Holiday movies are popular not simply because they are “escapes,” as my <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/religion-and-film/9780231176750">research</a> on the relation between religion and cinema argues. Rather, these films offer viewers a glimpse into the world as it could be.</p>
<h2>Christmas movies as reflection</h2>
<p>This is particularly true with Christmas movies.</p>
<p>In his 2016 book “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/christmas-as-religion-9780198754565?cc=us&lang=en&">Christmas as Religion</a>,” the religious studies scholar <a href="https://www.kent.ac.uk/european-culture-languages/people/1618/deacy-chris">Christopher Deacy</a> states that Christmas movies act as a “barometer of how we might want to live and how we might see and measure ourselves.”</p>
<p>These movies offer a variety of portraits of everyday life while affirming ethical values and social mores along the way.</p>
<p>The 1946 classic “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038650/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">It’s a Wonderful Life</a>” – a fantasy film about a man named George Bailey, who has touched the lives of many, despite all his problems – represents visions of a community in which every citizen is a vital component. </p>
<p>Another movie commonly replayed this time of year is 2005’s “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0356680/">The Family Stone</a>,” which portrays the clashes of a mostly average family but shows viewers that quarrels can be worked through and harmony is possible.</p>
<p>The 2003 British holiday film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314331/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Love Actually</a>,” which follows the lives of eight couples in London, brings to viewers the perennial theme of romance and the trials of relationships.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A couple on a couch watching a movie." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305276/original/file-20191204-70122-1lu7ba7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305276/original/file-20191204-70122-1lu7ba7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305276/original/file-20191204-70122-1lu7ba7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305276/original/file-20191204-70122-1lu7ba7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305276/original/file-20191204-70122-1lu7ba7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305276/original/file-20191204-70122-1lu7ba7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305276/original/file-20191204-70122-1lu7ba7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Holiday films create alternate realities that provide us solace.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/editor/image/young-couple-home-their-pet-dog-525526351">DGLimages/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Movie-watching as ritual practice</h2>
<p>As holiday movies bring viewers into a fictional world, people are able to work through their own fears and desires about self-worth and relationships. Such movies can provide solace, reaffirmation and sometimes even courage to continue working through difficult situations. The movies offer hope in believing it all might turn out all right in the end.</p>
<p>When people see some part of their own lives unfold on screen, the act of viewing operates in a fashion that’s strikingly similar to how a religious ritual works.</p>
<p>As anthropologist <a href="https://profiles.utdallas.edu/bobby.alexander">Bobby Alexander</a> explains, rituals are actions that transform people’s everyday lives. Rituals can open up “ordinary life to ultimate reality or some transcendent being or force,” he writes in the collection “<a href="https://www.abc-clio.com/ABC-CLIOCorporate/product.aspx?pc=B1485C">Anthropology of Religion</a>.”</p>
<p>For example, for Jews and Christians, ritually observing the Sabbath day by sharing meals with family and not working connects them with the creation of the world. Prayer rituals in the Muslim, Christian and Jewish traditions connect those praying with their God, as well as with their fellow believers.</p>
<p>Holiday movies do something similar, except that the “transcendent force” they make viewers feel is not about God or another supreme being. Instead, this force is more secular: It’s the power of family, true love, the meaning of home or the reconciliation of relationships.</p>
<h2>Movies create an idealized world</h2>
<p>Take the case of the 1942 musical “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034862/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Holiday Inn</a>.” It was one of the first movies – after the silent era’s various <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0001544/?ref_=kw_li_tt">versions</a> of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” – where the plot used Christmas as a backdrop, telling the story of a group of entertainers who have gathered at a country inn.</p>
<p>In reality, it was a deeply secular film about romantic interests, couched in a desire to sing and dance. When it was released, the United States had been fully involved in World War II for a year and national spirits were not high.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The cast of 'White Christmas' in front of a Christmas tree." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305278/original/file-20191204-70105-yg1ooe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305278/original/file-20191204-70105-yg1ooe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305278/original/file-20191204-70105-yg1ooe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305278/original/file-20191204-70105-yg1ooe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305278/original/file-20191204-70105-yg1ooe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305278/original/file-20191204-70105-yg1ooe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305278/original/file-20191204-70105-yg1ooe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A still from the film ‘White Christmas’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/29069717@N02/39192674012">Classic Film/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>The movie hasn’t endured as a classic. But Bing Crosby’s song “White Christmas,” which appeared in it, quickly became etched in the holiday consciousness of many Americans, and a 1954 film called “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047673/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">White Christmas</a>” became better known.</p>
<p>As historian <a href="https://experts.utexas.edu/penne_restad">Penne Restad</a> puts it in <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/christmas-in-america-9780195109801?cc=us&amp;lang=en&amp;">her 1995 book</a> “Christmas in America,” Crosby’s crooning offers the “quintessential expression” of the holidays, a world which “has no dark side” – one in which “war is forgotten.”</p>
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<p>In subsequent Christmas movies, the main plots have not been set in the context of war, yet there is nonetheless often a battle: that of overcoming a materialistic, gift-buying and gift-giving kind of holiday.</p>
<p>Movies like “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116705/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Jingle all the Way</a>,” “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0790604/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Deck the Halls</a>” and “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060345/?ref_=fn_al_tt_4">How the Grinch Stole Christmas!</a>” center around the idea that the true meaning of Christmas is not in rampant consumerism but in goodwill and family love.</p>
<p>Dr. Seuss’ famously grouchy Grinch thinks he can ruin Christmas by taking all the gifts away. But as the people gather together, giftless, they join hands and sing while the narrator tells viewers, “Christmas came anyway.”</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gfGNqTuaZ6k?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A scene from the 1966 TV movie ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas!’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘All’s right with the world’</h2>
<p>Though Christmas is a Christian holiday, most holiday films are not religious in the traditional sense. There is hardly ever a mention of Jesus or the biblical setting of his birth.</p>
<p>As media studies scholar John Mundy <a href="https://edinburgh.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.3366/edinburgh/9780748628087.001.0001/upso-9780748628087-chapter-11">writes</a> in a 2008 essay “Christmas and the Movies,” “Hollywood movies continue to construct Christmas as an alternative reality.”</p>
<p>These movies create on-screen worlds that kindle positive emotions while offering a few laughs.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085334/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">A Christmas Story</a>,” from 1983, waxes nostalgic for childhood holidays when life seemed simpler and the desire for a Red Ryder air rifle was the most important thing in the world. The plot of 2003’s “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319343/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Elf</a>” centers on the quest to reunite with a lost father.</p>
<p>In the end, as the narrator says late in “A Christmas Story” – after the family has overcome a serious of risible mishaps, the presents have been unwrapped and they’ve gathered for Christmas goose – these are times when “all’s right with the world.”</p>
<p>At the end of a troubled 2020, and as so many families are physically isolated from their loved ones, people need to believe in worlds in which all’s right. Holiday movies allow a glimpse of such a place.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-makes-christmas-movies-so-popular-127972">first published</a> on Dec. 6, 2019.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152222/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Holiday movies have been an essential part of the American winter celebrations. They offer a glimpse into how the world is could be, often in sharp contrast to reality.S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate, Professor of Religious Studies and Cinema and Media Studies, by special appointment, Hamilton CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1375542020-06-01T12:31:55Z2020-06-01T12:31:55ZBlack Americans homeschool for different reasons than whites<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338354/original/file-20200528-51496-1eh2h3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C5109%2C3398&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Black children face harsher discipline in public schools.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/african-boy-doing-homework-next-mother-on-computer-royalty-free-image/87416735?adppopup=true">JGI/Tom Grill/Getty</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Michelle, a white stay-at-home mom, decided to homeschool her 8-year-old daughter, Emily, the decision was driven by what she saw as the lack of individualized attention at school.</p>
<p>“We wound up feeling frustrated that the school wasn’t following the child,” Michelle, a former communications specialist, explained of the decision by she and her husband, a software engineer, to homeschool their daughter.</p>
<p>She described her daughter as “exceptionally gifted” and said after repeated attempts to get her daughter’s school to provide advanced coursework, “it just felt like so much energy that I might as well do this thing myself.”</p>
<p>Michelle’s decision to homeschool stands in stark contrast to that of Lynette, a black mother who told me her son, Trevor, was seven when he started having a hard time in school.</p>
<p>“I don’t want to say that it was bullying but that’s what it kind of ended up being and it wasn’t from students,” Lynette explained. “It was from teachers.”</p>
<p>“He’s seven but he looks like he’s 10,” Lynette continued. “And they kind of acted like they were afraid of him. He’s never acted out violently but they made it sound like he was going to.”</p>
<p>Like Michelle, Lynette grew tired of making visits to her child’s school, but for a different reason.</p>
<p>“I just didn’t want to have to keep going to the principal’s office,” Lynette recalled during an interview at a cafe in the suburbs of a Northeastern city. “I’m like ‘you’re really targeting my kid for no reason because he’s the second biggest kid in the school.’”</p>
<h2>Motives differ</h2>
<p>The sharp contrast between Michelle and Lynette’s reason for homeschooling their children is common.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=x2MaD1wAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&gmla=AJsN-F5ksHYx2Jf9aEWYsWR-EC_Sv3o0Qfu-qeWoFe7KGBw9ymOS2LtvKW3wujDY3Z-IB9FF8HAs7gPDihtAJWYVsRk2iGVPA7Gk0rtcENxUTaNgm-_CS3c">sociologist</a> who has interviewed dozens of homeschooling parents, I’ve <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2332649219901130">found</a> that whereas most white parents homeschool to make sure their children get an education more tailored to their needs and talents, most black parents homeschool to remove their children from what they see as a racially hostile environment.</p>
<p>Now that schools are closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, families of all racial, ethnic and class backgrounds have been forced to spend more time educating their children at home, or at least making sure their children do whatever work the school has assigned. </p>
<p>It is unclear as to <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/2020/5/12/21256193/reopen-schools-in-fall-fauci-testifies-answer-will-vary">whether schools will reopen</a> in the fall. It is also unclear how homeschooling – or at least the ability to oversee at-home learning – will be impacted by the pandemic. Based on <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0021934712457042">existing research</a> and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0013124504274190?journalCode=eusa">data</a>, I don’t see why reasons that parents previously decided to homeschool – whether they are black or white – will change or disappear. However, concerns about sending their children back to school amid the pandemic could become an additional reason.</p>
<h2>Black students disciplined more</h2>
<p>There is no shortage of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0038040714555434?casa_token=ZS_LJ6NyEvoAAAAA%3AEdKfR0uO08U1ZfyhsYprMfjdDQgN08oKVL6J2FrGXSNtgjdyl0rSnu9VBMeIT1--CiIYRuYmctGx">research</a> to support the view that America’s public schools <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/003804070407700401">treat black students</a> <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/16797/bad_boys">more harshly</a> than their white peers.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/socpro/article-abstract/63/1/68/1844875">a study</a> by sociologists Edward Morris and Brea Perry found black boys are twice as likely as white boys to receive disciplinary action such as office referral, detention, suspension or expulsion. The same study found black girls are three times as likely as white girls to be disciplined for less serious and arguably more ambiguous behavior, such as disruptive behavior, dress code violations or disobedience.</p>
<p>The middle-class black mothers I interviewed say that despite their college education, salaries and advocacy on behalf of their children, they were unable to protect their children from the racial hostilities at school. The black families I spoke with told me they chose to homeschool only after they tried in vain to address discriminatory discipline practices at their children’s schools.</p>
<h2>Money matters</h2>
<p>Though the reasons why families chose to homeschool varies by race, other researchers and I have found that homeschooling is <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/tables/dt18_206.10.asp">more common</a> among two-parent households where one parent is the breadwinner and the other – <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814752517/home-is-where-the-school-is/">most often the mother</a> – educates the children. Homeschooling parents are also most often college-educated. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0161956X.2013.796823?journalCode=hpje20">One 2013 study</a> found that among the 54 black homeschooling families interviewed, 42 of the families had one parent with at least a college degree, while many (19) also had graduate degrees. </p>
<p>If the ability to work from home makes it possible to homeschool, although <a href="https://theconversation.com/without-child-care-work-and-family-are-impossible-137340">incredibly challenging</a>, data also suggest that homeschooling is more likely among families with higher incomes. That’s because the ability to work from home is largely tied to income. <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/flex2.pdf">Federal labor data</a> show that in 2017 and 2018, 61.5% of workers in the top income quartile could work from home. For workers in the second highest quartile, 37.3% could work from home. But for those in third and fourth highest income quartiles, only 20.1% and 9.1%, respectively, could work from home.</p>
<iframe title="The connection between income and telework" aria-label="Bar Chart" id="datawrapper-chart-0Rcw3" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/0Rcw3/2/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none;" width="100%" height="225"></iframe>
<p>If reducing the risk of exposing their children to COVID-19 becomes a reason to homeschool this fall, these data would suggest that more well-to-do families are in a better position to see that their children are educated at home. By contrast, low-wage workers are less likely to easily exercise this choice. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerrymcdonald/2020/03/11/the-worlds-homeschooling-moment/#6d3a5478550c">Some scholars</a> <a href="https://www.redefinedonline.org/2020/03/how-covid-19-could-fuel-school-choice/">speculate</a> that this will lead to more well-off families deciding to continue their children’s learning at-home as a way to avoid virus exposure.</p>
<h2>Future growth?</h2>
<p>The percentage of U.S. children who are homeschooled rather than attending public and private schools was <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/blogs/nces/post/a-fresh-look-at-homeschooling-in-the-u-s">rising before the pandemic</a>. <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/tables/dt18_206.10.asp">Between 1999 and 2016</a>, the percentage of the school age population who were homeschooled doubled from 1.7% to 3.3%, or close to 1.7 million students.</p>
<p><iframe id="vThO3" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/vThO3/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Black homeschoolers account for roughly 8% of this population, up from an estimated <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/tables/dt18_206.10.asp">4% in 2007</a>. The 8% in 2016 represents 132,000 black homeschooling kids, according to the NCES data.</p>
<p>In 2017, black kids made up 15% of public school students, or <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/pdf/coe_cge.pdf">7.7 million kids</a> of the roughly 50.7 million public school kids that year. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2020/2020001.pdf">2019 federal report</a> shows parents homeschool for a variety of reasons. Just 16% of homeschool families report moral or religious instruction as the primary reason for homeschooling, while 34% report their primary reason is concern with school environment. This report does not document how reasons vary by race. Yet my study would suggest that black parents, like Lynette, may be dissatisfied with school environment in very different ways than white parents, like Michelle.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mahala Dyer Stewart does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When white parents decide to homeschool, usually it’s to provide individualized education to their child. Research shows black parents homeschool for an entirely different reason.Mahala Dyer Stewart, Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology, Hamilton CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1279722019-12-06T13:05:15Z2019-12-06T13:05:15ZWhat makes Christmas movies so popular<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305448/original/file-20191205-38997-1655lw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A still from the 1946 classic 'It's A Wonderful Life.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ab/It%27s_A_Wonderful_Life.jpg/2048px-It%27s_A_Wonderful_Life.jpg">National Telefilm Associates</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you are one of those people who will settle in this evening with a hot cup of apple cider to watch a holiday movie, you are not alone. Holiday movies have become firmly embedded in Americans’ winter celebrations. </p>
<p>The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/30/movies/christmas-movies-television.html">reports</a> a massive increase in new holiday movies this year. Disney, Netflix, Lifetime and Hallmark are now in direct <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year-netflix-and-disney-battle-hallmark-for-christmas-viewers-11574017200">competition</a> for viewers’ attention, with both new releases and reruns of the classics.</p>
<p>Holiday movies are so popular not simply because they are “escapes,” as my <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/religion-and-film/9780231176750">research</a> on the relation between religion and cinema argues. Rather, these films offer viewers a glimpse into the world as it is could be. </p>
<h2>Christmas movies as reflection</h2>
<p>This is particularly true with Christmas movies.</p>
<p>In his 2016 book “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/christmas-as-religion-9780198754565?cc=us&lang=en&">Christmas as Religion</a>,” the religious studies scholar <a href="https://www.kent.ac.uk/european-culture-languages/people/1618/deacy-chris">Christopher Deacy</a> states that Christmas movies act as a “barometer of how we might want to live and how we might see and measure ourselves.” </p>
<p>These movies offer a variety of portraits of everyday life while affirming ethical values and social mores along the way. </p>
<p>The 1946 classic “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038650/">It’s a Wonderful Life</a>” – about a man who longs to travel but remains stuck in his childhood town – represents visions of a community in which every citizen is a vital component. </p>
<p>Another movie commonly replayed this time of year is 2005’s “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0356680/">The Family Stone</a>” which portrays the clashes of a mostly average family but shows viewers that quarrels can be worked through and harmony is possible.</p>
<p>The 2003 British holiday film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314331/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Love Actually</a>,” which follows the lives of eight couples in London, brings to viewers the perennial theme of romance and the trials of relationships. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305276/original/file-20191204-70122-1lu7ba7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305276/original/file-20191204-70122-1lu7ba7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305276/original/file-20191204-70122-1lu7ba7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305276/original/file-20191204-70122-1lu7ba7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305276/original/file-20191204-70122-1lu7ba7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305276/original/file-20191204-70122-1lu7ba7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305276/original/file-20191204-70122-1lu7ba7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Holiday films create alternate realities that provide us solace.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/editor/image/young-couple-home-their-pet-dog-525526351">DGLimages/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Movie watching as ritual practice</h2>
<p>As holiday movies bring viewers into a fictional world, people are able to work through their own fears and desires about self-worth and relationships. Such movies can provide solace, reaffirmation and sometimes even courage to continue working through difficult situations. The movies offer hope in believing it all might turn out alright in the end. </p>
<p>When people see some part of their own lives unfold on screen, the act of viewing operates in a fashion that’s strikingly similar to how a religious ritual works. </p>
<p>As anthropologist <a href="https://profiles.utdallas.edu/bobby.alexander">Bobby Alexander</a> explains, rituals are actions that transform people’s everyday lives. Rituals can open up “ordinary life to ultimate reality or some transcendent being or force,” he writes in the collection “<a href="https://www.abc-clio.com/ABC-CLIOCorporate/product.aspx?pc=B1485C">Anthropology of Religion</a>.” </p>
<p>For example, for Jews and Christians, ritually observing the Sabbath day by sharing meals with family and not working connects them with the creation of the world. Prayer rituals in the Muslim, Christian and Jewish traditions connect those praying with their God, as well as with their fellow believers. </p>
<p>Holiday movies do something similar, except that the “transcendent force” they make viewers feel is not about God or another supreme being. Instead, this force is more secular: It’s the power of family, true love, the meaning of home or the reconciliation of relationships. </p>
<h2>Movies create an idealized world</h2>
<p>Take the case of the 1942 musical “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034862/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Holiday Inn</a>.” It was one of the first movies – after the silent era’s various <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0001544/?ref_=kw_li_tt">versions</a> of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” – where the plot used Christmas as a backdrop, telling the story of a group of entertainers who have gathered at a country inn.</p>
<p>In reality, it was a deeply secular film about romantic interests, couched in a desire to sing and dance. When it was released, the United States had been fully involved in the World War II for a year and national spirits were not high.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305278/original/file-20191204-70105-yg1ooe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305278/original/file-20191204-70105-yg1ooe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305278/original/file-20191204-70105-yg1ooe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305278/original/file-20191204-70105-yg1ooe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305278/original/file-20191204-70105-yg1ooe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305278/original/file-20191204-70105-yg1ooe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305278/original/file-20191204-70105-yg1ooe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A still from the film, ‘White Christmas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/29069717@N02/39192674012">Classic Film/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The movie hasn’t endured as a classic. But Bing Crosby’s song “White Christmas,” which appeared in it, quickly became etched in the holiday consciousness of many Americans, and a 1954 film called “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047673/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">White Christmas</a>” became better known. </p>
<p>As historian <a href="https://experts.utexas.edu/penne_restad">Penne Restad</a> puts it in <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/christmas-in-america-9780195109801?cc=us&lang=en&">her 1995 book</a> “Christmas in America,” Crosby’s crooning offers the “quintessential expression” of the holidays, a world which “has no dark side” – one in which “war is forgotten.” </p>
<p>In subsequent Christmas movies, the main plots have not been set in the context of war, yet there is nonetheless often a battle: that of overcoming a materialistic, gift-buying and gift-giving kind of holiday.</p>
<p>Movies like “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116705/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Jingle all the Way</a>,” “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0790604/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Deck the Halls</a>” and “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060345/?ref_=fn_al_tt_4">How the Grinch Stole Christmas</a>” center around the idea that the true meaning of Christmas is not in rampant consumerism but in goodwill and family love. </p>
<p>Dr. Seuss’s famously grouchy Grinch thinks he can ruin Christmas by taking all the gifts away. But as the people gather together, giftless, they join hands and sing while the narrator tells viewers, “Christmas came anyway.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gfGNqTuaZ6k?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A scene from the 1966 TV movie “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!”</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>“All’s right with the world”</h2>
<p>Though Christmas is a Christian holiday, most holiday films are not religious in the traditional sense. There is hardly ever a mention of Jesus or the biblical setting of his birth. </p>
<p>As media studies scholar John Mundy <a href="https://edinburgh.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.3366/edinburgh/9780748628087.001.0001/upso-9780748628087-chapter-11">writes</a> in a 2008 essay, “Christmas and the Movies,” “Hollywood movies continue to construct Christmas as an alternative reality.” </p>
<p>These movies create on-screen worlds that kindle positive emotions while offering a few laughs. </p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085334/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">A Christmas Story</a>,” from 1983, waxes nostalgic for childhood holidays when life seemed simpler and the desire for a Red Ryder air rifle was the most important thing in the world. The plot of 2003’s “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319343/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Elf</a>” centers on the quest to reunite with a lost father. </p>
<p>In the end, as the narrator says late in “A Christmas Story” – after the family has overcome a serious of risible mishaps, the presents have been unwrapped and they’ve gathered for Christmas goose – these are times when “all’s right with the world.” </p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127972/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Holiday movies offer us a glimpse into how the world is could be, often in sharp contrast to our lives as they are. In that way, the annual act of viewing them is like a religious ritual.S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Cinema and Media Studies, by special appointment, Hamilton CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1106912019-02-28T11:41:16Z2019-02-28T11:41:16ZWhat drives the appeal of ‘Passion of the Christ’ and other films on the life of Jesus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261100/original/file-20190226-150712-1kfq6or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A still from Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy 20th Century Fox.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Church isn’t the only place people go to learn about Jesus.</p>
<p>At the beginning of Lent, 15 years ago, devout evangelical Christians did not go to church to have ashes marked on their foreheads. Rather, they thronged to theaters to <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/march/100.100.html">watch</a> a decidedly Catholic film to begin the Lenten season.</p>
<p>That film was Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” which would go on to gross over US$600 million globally. It brought to screen a vivid portrayal of the last few hours of the life of Jesus and even today many can readily recall the brutality of those depictions. The film also stirred up a number of <a href="https://www.firstthings.com/article/2004/06/the-passions-passionate-despisers">cultural clashes</a> and raised questions about Christian anti-Semitism and what seemed to be a <a href="https://www.chron.com/g00/entertainment/movies/article/Will-a-recut-Passion-still-stir-debate-1568750.php?i10c.ua=1&i10c.encReferrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8%3d&i10c.dv=22">glorification</a> of violence. </p>
<p>This wasn’t the only film to bring Jesus to cinema in such a powerful way. There have, in fact, been hundreds of films about Jesus produced around the world for over 100 years. </p>
<p>These films have prompted devotion and missionary outreach, just as they have challenged viewers’ assumptions of who the figure of Jesus really was.</p>
<h2>From still images to moving images</h2>
<p>For the last two decades, I have researched the <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/religion-and-film/9780231176750">portrayal of religious figures on screen</a>. I have also looked at the ways in which <a href="http://theconversation.com/when-do-moviegoers-become-pilgrims-81016">audiences</a> make their own spiritual meanings through the images of film. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520286955/the-forge-of-vision">Images of Jesus</a>, or the Virgin Mary, have long been part of the <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Image_as_Insight.html?id=lrpLAwAAQBAJ">Christian tradition</a>. From amulets to icons, paintings to sculptures, Christianity incorporates a rich visual history, so perhaps it is not surprising that cinema has become a vital medium to display the life of Jesus. </p>
<p>Inventors of cinematic technologies, such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151913/">Thomas Edison</a> and the <a href="http://www.acinemahistory.com/2016/04/la-passion-1898-passion.html">Lumière brothers</a>, were among the first to bring Jesus’s life to the big screen at the end of the 19th century. Hollywood continued to cash in on Christian audiences all through the 20th century. </p>
<p>In 1912, Sidney Olcott’s <a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6aaafe24">“From the Manger to the Cross”</a> became the first feature length film to offer a full account of the life of Christ. </p>
<p>Fifteen years later, crowds flocked to see Cecil B. DeMille’s <a href="https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/10078">“The King of Kings”</a>, demonstrating the power of a big budget and a well-known director. Writing about DeMille’s film some years later, film historian Charles Musser <a href="https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/900-the-king-of-kings">commented</a> how the film evoked “Christ’s charisma” through “a mesmerizing repertoire of special effects, lighting and editing.” </p>
<p>In Hollywood’s portrayal, Jesus was a white, European man. In Nicholas Ray’s 1961 film, <a href="https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20301-KING-OF-KINGS?sid=b96a394a-6a48-4f41-b7a4-6d05b5042fc3&sr=3.1776974&cp=1&pos=0">“King of Kings”</a> Jeffrey Hunter made a deep impression on his audience in the role of Jesus with his piercing blue eyes. Four years later, George Stevens’s <a href="https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/22336">“The Greatest Story Ever Told”</a>, cast the white Swedish actor Max von Sydow in the lead role.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261086/original/file-20190226-150715-11xig4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261086/original/file-20190226-150715-11xig4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261086/original/file-20190226-150715-11xig4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261086/original/file-20190226-150715-11xig4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261086/original/file-20190226-150715-11xig4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261086/original/file-20190226-150715-11xig4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261086/original/file-20190226-150715-11xig4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jesus, portrayed by Swedish actor Max von Sydow, moves through a mass of people in this scene filmed on May 1, 1963, at Pyramid Lake, Nevada, for</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-AP-A-ENT-NV-USA-APHS235600-Von-Sydow-Gre-/7512ad76f6cf4dbc9fa68cce3071aa97/155/0">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In all these films, evidence of Jesus’s <a href="https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1853&context=jrf">Jewish identity</a> was toned down. Social or political messages found in the gospels – such as the political charge of a “kingdom of God” – were smoothed over. Jesus was portrayed as a spiritual savior figure while avoiding many of the socio-political controversies.</p>
<p>This was, as Biblical studies scholar Adele Reinhartz <a href="http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195146967.001.0001/acprof-9780195146967">put it</a>, not Jesus of Nazareth, but the creation of a “Jesus of Hollywood.” </p>
<h2>Global moral instruction</h2>
<p>Many of these films were useful for Christian <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/exch/33/4/article-p310_2.xml">missionary work</a>.</p>
<p>An <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=k-KOCMRN1yYC&pg=PA116&lpg=PA116&dq=%22destined+to+be+more+far-reaching+than+the+Bible+in+telling+the+story+of+the+Saviour%22&source=bl&ots=qfNYKdafRF&sig=ACfU3U1thBDr3oVzabJSRUbpLHjMhCtMZA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiZ">advertisement for Olcott’s film</a>, for example, stated how it was “destined to be more far-reaching than the Bible in telling the story of the Savior.” Indeed, as media scholars <a href="https://www.vwu.edu/academics/majors/communication/meet-the-faculty.php?person=tlindvall">Terry Lindvall</a> and <a href="https://www.regent.edu/faculty/m-a-andrew-c-quicke/">Andrew Quicke</a> have <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9780814753248/">noted</a>, many Christian leaders throughout the 20th century utilized the power of film for moral instruction and conversion.</p>
<p>A 1979 film, known as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/cros.12121">“The Jesus Film”</a>, went on to become the most <a href="https://religionnews.com/2017/12/20/jesus-film-project-premieres-1500th-translation-of-jesus/">watched</a> film in history. The film was a relatively straightforward depiction of the life of Jesus, taken mainly from the gospel of Luke.</p>
<p>The film was translated into 1,500 languages and shown in cities and remote villages around the world. </p>
<h2>The global Jesus</h2>
<p>But, as <a href="https://www.firstthings.com/article/2006/12/believing-in-the-global-south">majority Christian population shifted</a> from Europe and North America to Sub-Saharan Africa, South America, and South Asia, so did portrayals of Jesus: they came to reflect local cultures and ethnicities. </p>
<p>In the 2006 South African film <a href="https://www.sheffieldphoenix.com/showbook.asp?bkid=232">“Son of Man”</a>, for example, Jesus, his mother and disciples are all black, and the setting is a contemporary, though fictionalized, South Africa. The film employed traditional art forms of dance and music that retold the Jesus story in ways that would appeal to a South African audience.</p>
<p>It was the same with a Telugu film, <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/exch/36/1/article-p41_3.xml">“Karunamayudu” (Ocean of Mercy)</a>, released in 1978. The style resembles a long tradition of Hindu devotional and mythological films and Jesus could easily be seen as part of the pantheon of Hindu deities.</p>
<p>For the past four decades in southern India and beyond, villagers have gathered in front of makeshift outdoor theaters to watch this film. With over 100 million viewers, it has become a <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/exch/41/2/article-p120_3.xml">tool for Christian evangelism</a>. </p>
<p>Other films have responded to and reflected local conditions in Latin America. The Cuban film “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1212065?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">The Last Supper</a>,” from 1976, offered a vision of a Jesus that is on the side of the enslaved and oppressed, mirroring Latin American movements in <a href="https://library.brown.edu/create/modernlatinamerica/chapters/chapter-15-culture-and-society/essays-on-culture-and-society/liberation-theology-in-latin-america/">Liberation Theology</a>. Growing out of the Cold War, and led by radical Latin American priests, Liberation Theology worked in local communities to promote socio-economic justice. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the appeal of some of these films can also be gauged from how they continue to be watched year after year. The 1986 Mexican film, “La vida de nuestro señor Jesucristo,” for example, is broadcast on the Spanish-language television station Univision during Easter week every year.</p>
<h2>The power of film</h2>
<p>Throughout history, Jesus has taken on the appearance and behavior of one cultural group after another, some claiming him as their own, others rejecting certain versions of him. </p>
<p>As the scholar of religion <a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/faculty-and-staff/faculty.cfm?pid=1003260">Richard Wightman Fox</a> puts it in his <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780060628741/jesus-in-america/">book “Jesus in America: Personal Savior, Cultural Hero, National Obsession:”</a> “His incarnation guaranteed that each later culture would grasp him anew for each would have a different view of what it means to be human.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261302/original/file-20190227-150724-tqp0oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261302/original/file-20190227-150724-tqp0oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261302/original/file-20190227-150724-tqp0oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261302/original/file-20190227-150724-tqp0oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261302/original/file-20190227-150724-tqp0oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261302/original/file-20190227-150724-tqp0oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261302/original/file-20190227-150724-tqp0oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Films about Jesus can move around the world quickly. Posters promoting ‘The Passion of the Christ’ in Bucharest, Romania.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-International-News-Romania-ROM-/b486e0efd6e0da11af9f0014c2589dfb/1/0">AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cinema allows people in new places and times to grasp Jesus “anew,” and create what I have <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Representing_Religion_in_World_Cinema.html?id=tQGc8oHH5fkC">called</a> a “georeligious aesthetic.” Films, especially those about Jesus, in their movement across the globe, can alter the religious practices and beliefs of people they come into contact with. </p>
<p>While the church and the Bible provide particular versions of Jesus, films provide even more – new images that can prompt controversy, but also devotion.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110691/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When it was released 15 years ago, Mel Gibson’s ‘Passion of the Christ,’ was a box-office success. The theme of Jesus has been a successful one that many filmmakers around the globe have cashed in on.S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Cinema and Media Studies, by special appointment, Hamilton CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1024662018-09-13T10:46:51Z2018-09-13T10:46:51ZWhy we love robotic dogs, puppets and dolls<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235426/original/file-20180907-90574-1obkomk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Why are we drawn to tech toys?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/arselectronica/36739648920">Ars Electronica</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There’s a <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sony-announces-limited-first-litter-edition-release-of-aibo-in-us-300701503.html">lot of hype around the release of Sony’s latest robotic dog</a>. It’s called “aibo,” and is promoted as using artificial intelligence to respond to people looking at it, talking to it and touching it. </p>
<p>Japanese customers have already bought over 20,000 units, and it is expected to come to the U.S. before the holiday gift-buying season – at a price nearing US$3,000. </p>
<p>Why would anyone pay so much for a robotic dog?</p>
<p>My ongoing research suggests part of the attraction might be explained through humanity’s longstanding connection with various forms of puppets, religious icons, and other figurines, that I collectively call “dolls.” </p>
<p>These dolls, I argue, are embedded deep in our social and religious lives. </p>
<h2>Spiritual and social dolls</h2>
<p>As part of the process of writing a “spiritual history of dolls,” I’ve returned to that ancient mythology of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions where God <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+2%3A4-3%3A24&version=CJB">formed</a> the first human from the dirt of the earth, and then breathed life into the mud-creature.</p>
<p>Since that time, humans have attempted to do the same – metaphorically, mystically and scientifically – by fashioning raw materials into forms and figures that look like people. </p>
<p>As folklorist <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Mayor.html">Adrienne Mayor</a> explains in a recent study, “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/14162.html">Gods and Robots</a>,” such artificial creatures find their ways into the myths of several ancient cultures, in various ways.</p>
<p>Beyond the stories, people have made these figures part of their religious lives in the form of <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/463984">icons</a> of the Virgin Mary and human-shaped <a href="https://www.bgc.bard.edu/gallery/exhibitions/81/agents-of-faith-votive-objects">votive objects</a>. </p>
<p>In the late 19th century, dolls with a gramophone disc that could recite the Lord’s Prayer were produced on a mass scale. That was considered a <a href="http://forums.ssrc.org/ndsp/2014/01/29/prayers-of-a-phonographic-doll/">playful way of teaching a child</a> to be pious. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, <a href="https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/mavungu.html">certain spirits are believed to reside</a> in figurines created by humans. </p>
<p>Across time and place, dolls have played a role in human affairs. In South Asia, dolls of various forms <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Tiruchirapalli/celebrating-navaratri-with-display-of-dolls/article19767269.ece">become ritually important</a> during the great goddess festival Navaratri. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/35924051_Carving_self-identity_Hopi_Katsina_dolls_as_contemporary_cultural_expression">Katsina</a> dolls of the Hopi people allow them to create their own self-identity. And in the famed Javanese and Balinese Wayang – shadow puppet <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Javanese_Shadow_Puppets.html?id=ZshkAAAAMAAJ">performances</a> – mass audiences learn about a mythical past and its bearing on the present. </p>
<h2>Making us human</h2>
<p>In the modern Western context, <a href="http://www.mudec.it/eng/barbie/">Barbie dolls</a> and <a href="http://www.toyhalloffame.org/toys/gi-joe">G.I. Joes</a> have come to play an important role in children’s development. Barbie has been <a href="https://orca.cf.ac.uk/48291/1/PhDJ.Whitney2013.pdf">shown</a> to have a negative impact on girls’ body images, while G.I. Joe has made <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0022-3840.2004.00099.x">many boys believe</a> that they are important, powerful and that they can do great things.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235440/original/file-20180907-90553-1655lmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235440/original/file-20180907-90553-1655lmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235440/original/file-20180907-90553-1655lmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235440/original/file-20180907-90553-1655lmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235440/original/file-20180907-90553-1655lmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235440/original/file-20180907-90553-1655lmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235440/original/file-20180907-90553-1655lmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Barbie dolls.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tinker-tailor/6383911765/in/photolist-aJ8dye-dJ4wnb-9FExaM-r8Ye5m-egen9a-kPSwsc-nNZCAQ-anZhzQ-5a7doe-mKc79t-oMfPax-jqLz9H-nuEaZ7-cuHwvy-nt31xr-pD2dXr-qzBhff-ns5JLY-9hMYPY-ajEPsU-dGjzYR-f8uidJ-L3qP3d-272wyHN-b7hvwM-fHBuxJ-oWMjJZ-mj5LK8-sU6cfg-fQHWny-dwCasm-er5Bbz-8bPDUK-os9cNx-mWFRvA-oZZJXZ-FcUGpa-fqdaVS-e8u1gw-gdKFtL-c3cbqQ-aJ77m8-pRmsoL-e3w4Cv-oWvQiB-pqzdXc-oTztVo-qPqKuf-exfgUf-qgoz47">Tinker Tailor loves Lalka</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What is at the root of our connection with dolls? </p>
<p>As I have argued in my <a href="http://www.beacon.org/A-History-of-Religion-in-5-Objects-P997.aspx">earlier research</a>, humans share a deep and ancient relationship with ordinary objects. When people create forms, they are participating in the ancient hominid practice of <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/becoming-human-the-origin-of-stone-tools-55335180/">toolmaking</a>. Tools have agricultural, domestic and communication uses, but they also help people think, feel, act and pray. </p>
<p>Dolls are a primary tool that humans have used for the spiritual and social dimensions of their lives. </p>
<p>They come to have a profound influence on humans. They help build religious connections, such as teaching children to pray, serving as a medium for answering prayers, providing protection and prompting healing. </p>
<p>They also model gender roles and teach people how to behave in society. </p>
<h2>Tech toys and messages</h2>
<p>Aibo and other such technologies, I argue, play a similar role. </p>
<p>Part of aibo’s enchantment is that he appears to see, hear and respond to touch. In other words, the mechanical dog has an embodied intelligence, not unlike humans. One can quickly find <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/11/16876086/sony-aibo-hands-on-video-ces-2018">videos</a> of people being emotionally captivated by aibo because he has big eyes that “look” back at people, he cocks his head, seeming to hear, and he wags his tail when “petted” the right way. </p>
<p>Another such robot, <a href="http://www.parorobots.com/index.asp">PARO</a>, a furry, seal-shaped machine that purrs and vibrates as it is stroked, has been <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130624075748.htm">shown</a> to have a number of positive effects on elderly people, such as <a href="http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/summer-house-residential-memory-care-communities-introduce-paro-robot-therapy-2108672.htm">reducing anxiety</a>, increasing social behaviors and counteracting loneliness.</p>
<p>Dolls can have a deep and lasting psychological impact on young people. Psychotherapist <a href="https://mommikin.com/laurel-wider-is-a-psychotherapist-turned-toy-inventor/">Laurel Wider</a>, for example, became concerned about the gendered messages that her son was receiving in social settings about how boys were not supposed to cry or really show many feelings at all. </p>
<p>She then <a href="https://www.wondercrew.com/pages/about-us">founded</a> a new toy company to create dolls that could help nurture <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/14/well/family/wonder-crew-dolls-boys-empathy.html">empathy in boys</a>. As Wider <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/14/well/family/wonder-crew-dolls-boys-empathy.html">says</a>, these dolls are “like a peer, an equal, but also small enough, vulnerable enough, to where a child could also want to take care of him.”</p>
<h2>Outsourcing social life?</h2>
<p>Not everyone welcomes the influence these dolls have come to have on our lives. Critics of these dolls argue they outsource some of humanity’s most basic social skills. Humans, they argue, need other humans to teach them about gender norms, and provide companionship – not dolls and robots.</p>
<p>MIT’s <a href="http://www.mit.edu/%7Esturkle/">Sherry Turkle</a>, for example, somewhat famously dissents from the praise given to these mechanical imitations. Turkle has long been working at the human-machine interface. Over the years, she has become more skeptical about the roles we assign these mechanical tools. </p>
<p>When confronted with patients using PARO, she found herself “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2013/08/16/172988165/are-we-plugged-in-connected-but-alone">profoundly depressed</a>” at society’s resort to machines as companions, when humans should be spending more time with other humans.</p>
<h2>Teaching us to be humans?</h2>
<p>It’s hard to disagree with Turkle’s concerns, but that’s not the point. What I argue is that as humans, we share a deep connection with such dolls. The new wave of dolls and robots are instrumental in motivating further questions about who we are as humans.</p>
<p>Given the technological advances, people are asking whether robots “<a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hot-thought/201712/will-robots-ever-have-emotions">can have feelings</a>,” “<a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/248774/can-robots-be-jewish">be Jewish</a>” or “<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-04989-2">make art</a>.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235441/original/file-20180907-90565-1yesxoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235441/original/file-20180907-90565-1yesxoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235441/original/file-20180907-90565-1yesxoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235441/original/file-20180907-90565-1yesxoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235441/original/file-20180907-90565-1yesxoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235441/original/file-20180907-90565-1yesxoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235441/original/file-20180907-90565-1yesxoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A question being asked is, can robots have feelings?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ellenm1/6340377633/in/photolist-aEh6nK-dtAV6J-88ajiy-aErGvC-szMPe-28aU3K5-6sffsJ-arYhVS-h4UrTE-d3Raw9-bnX4Ja-4njGV-9kMSgS-e4tzo4-bHviTD-qNVJPV-tKVxX-7gnVhi-5ddYsr-2TdX9-m15Rki-m16F3U-2RwW1W-2bCK6R-3hTjfG-5mAcY1-3hSmPj-3hSX87-dfYmeN-4gBusR-dYPfBj-LwZTq-3hQUaz-5PS1E9-pxDtVq-3hQQ16-61oLTo-SsR43-7SS1Cq-3hQFJB-oH1MY-6RojjC-Ejwu4-5PSmS1-ae8Lgr-4KUiyX-gJDZz-7pwjx5-nxPg1-5NtP6">ellenm1</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When people attempt to answer these questions, they must first reflect on what it means for humans to have feelings, be Jewish and make art.</p>
<p>Some academics go so far as to argue that humans have always been cyborgs, always a mixture of human biological bodies and technological parts. </p>
<p>As philosophers like <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/andy-clark">Andy Clark</a> have <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/natural-born-cyborgs-9780195177510?cc=us&lang=en&">argued</a>, “our tools are not just external props and aids, but they are deep and integral parts of the problem-solving systems we now identify as human intelligence.”</p>
<p>Technologies are not in competition with humans. In fact, technology is the divine breath, the animating, ensouling force of Homo sapiens. And, in my view, dolls are vital technological tools that find their way into devotional lives, workplaces and social spaces. </p>
<p>As we create, we are simultaneously being created.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102466/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An expert argues our connection with these figures is longstanding. They are embedded in our myths and help us explore deeper questions about being human.S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate, Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Hamilton CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/943682018-04-23T10:40:07Z2018-04-23T10:40:07ZHow images change our race bias<p>Images are not static. They grab our attention, incite desire, alter our relations to others, and tweak our beliefs, as they usher us into new worlds. </p>
<p>When “Black Panther” was released, Baye McNeil, a former Brooklynite now living in Japan, was thrilled. As he told The Japan Times, he <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2018/03/18/our-lives/black-panther-change-japanese-view-people-color/#.Wq_FaZPwbdQ">joined</a> “a group of palpably positive brothers and sisters” at a Tokyo theater. Collectively they were transported to the land of Wakanda. As an exile in Japan and a black man in a country with very few people of African descent, he and his friends entered, as he described, “a bountiful realm of invigorating messages and restorative images” that provided him with a sense of connection and belonging. </p>
<p>Baye McNeil was not alone. Back in the U.S., the writer <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/12/magazine/why-black-panther-is-a-defining-moment-for-black-america.html">Carvell Wallace explained</a> how the movie’s fictional nation of Wakanda operated in very real ways to provide a world that African-Americans could aspire to, both as a place rooted in the past, as well as the future.</p>
<p>Whether it’s a blockbuster movie or <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/03/politics/michelle-obama-portrait-girl-parker-curry/index.html">2-year-old Parker Curry</a> looking up at Amy Sherald’s portrait of Michelle Obama, the images we all see matter.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf1tL5bgf5w","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Seeing is not just believing. Seeing changes what we believe, about ourselves and about other people, including constructions of race.</p>
<h2>Learning to see</h2>
<p>In his <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1993/05/10/to-see-and-not-see">essay</a>, “To See and Not See,” the late writer and neurologist <a href="https://www.oliversacks.com/about-oliver-sacks/">Oliver Sacks</a> describes how seeing is not as easy as lifting our eyelids. Instead, as he said,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“When we open our eyes each morning, it is upon a world we have spent a lifetime learning to see. We are not given the world: we make our world through incessant experience, categorization, memory, reconnection.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, to have vision is one thing; to see is another.</p>
<p>My <a href="http://www.sbrentplate.net/books">research</a> investigates how we learn to see. <a href="https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=xEze9gQAAAAJ&hl=en">I’m interested</a> in the ways people use images, but equally interested in the ways images use people and change their perception.</p>
<p>We begin to imagine other people and how they appear, before we shake their hands, and well before any relationship might occur. We create mental models of others based on our past experiences, and these models influence any new encounters, whether we are conscious of them or not.</p>
<p>Cognitive psychologist <a href="http://pages.wustl.edu/dcl/jeff-zacks">Jeffrey Zacks</a>, in his book <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/flicker-9780199982875?cc=us&lang=en&">“Flicker: Your Brain on Movies,”</a> offers this fascinating idea that can be either disturbing or offer positive feelings:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Whether we experience events in real life, watch them in a movie, or hear about them in a story, we build perceptual and memory representations in the same format.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Indeed, studies in cognitive sciences show that our neural system does not easily differentiate between images we see on screen and images we see in “real life.” Baye McNeil and Carvell Wallace were under no illusion that Wakanda was not a real place, but the power of images is such that people can feel things in the world of cinema. Those feelings can transfer back into life outside the theater.</p>
<h2>Change our images, change our seeing</h2>
<p>It is precisely because our ability to see is largely learned and heavily influenced by media images, that we can also relearn how to see. A number of studies in cognitive sciences in recent years have shown how people can, for example, reduce racial biases through practices of seeing. </p>
<p>Psychologists have long <a href="https://digitalcommons.utep.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=http://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1004&context=christian_meissner">documented</a> the “own-race bias,” also known as “other-race effect,” the inability of humans to recognize and distinguish faces of people from races other than their own. </p>
<p>Indeed, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022096509000228">studies</a> have shown that already by nine months, infants demonstrate such perceptual narrowing. This occurs because babies in their first year are exposed primarily to close family members who tend to be of the same ethnic and racial background. For evolutionary reasons, this narrowing allows for quicker processing of relevant sensations by eliminating other competing neural processes. Our ancestors needed to distinguish their own kin more than they needed to recognize people from other places.</p>
<p>Today, a number of researchers are exploring the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15943669">reversibility</a> of the own-race bias, pointing out again the plasticity of our neural system.</p>
<p>One research group <a href="http://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/fulltext/S1364-6613(14)00234-4">used bodily illusions</a>, such as setting white people in front of a computer screen that generates an image of that person, but makes light-skinned people appear darker-skinned. When tested later for racial biases, the biases diminished.</p>
<p>Another group <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0019858">used picture books</a> to forestall the emergence of own race biases by showing images of Chinese people’s faces to Caucasian infants. After seeing more images of people from another race, the infants could continue to distinguish the other race faces better than a control group. </p>
<p>Still another study <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2012-23868-001">used clips from the movie</a> “The Joy Luck Club,” asking a group of white Americans to put themselves in the place of the main Chinese-American character, June. Subsequent tests found a reduction in implicit prejudice toward “outgroups” in general. </p>
<h2>Representation matters</h2>
<p>Because images matter, the types of images we see matter even more. Flat, two-dimensional images change our perception in the world <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/religion-and-film/9780231176750">beyond the movie theater</a>, outside the picture books.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"979167860978204672"}"></div></p>
<p>Of course, we can’t hook up a general population to computers and virtual reality environments that change our racial appearance or set up control environments for our children to have such experiences. But we can choose the images we see on a regular basis.</p>
<p>And that is why critiques such as <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/03/oscarssowhite-is-still-relevant-this-year">#OscarsSoWhite</a> matter so much. It’s not only that it would be more equitable to have more actors of color on the big screen, it’s that having more actors of color might actually change the racist presumptions of our culture at large.</p>
<p>Readers might recall Jessica Curry, the mother of the red-coated Parker Curry whose image is now firmly in the public eye as she stares at a portrait of Michelle Obama. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/12/opinion/michelle-obama-portrait-sherald-parker.html">As she wrote for The New York Times,</a> “Representation matters. … Only by being exposed to brilliant, intelligent, kind black women can my girls and other girls of color really understand that their goals and dreams are within reach.”</p>
<p>The creation of a less racist social system does not have a simple guidebook, and it would be naive to suggest that if we all started looking at better images, the world would be a better place. But then again, in its own small way, it might.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94368/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Seeing is not just believing. Seeing changes what we believe, about ourselves and about other people.S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate, Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Hamilton CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/810162017-08-01T00:17:17Z2017-08-01T00:17:17ZWhen do moviegoers become pilgrims?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179872/original/file-20170726-2676-1ixwc34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pilgrims at Lourdes.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pelegrino/90704656/in/photolist-91Tko-fJrz9g-fJrAkF-fJryBB-fJCAry-fJJ6fW-6Tcuor-fJJRnk-fJJ6vN-58PF8e-fJrKqg-fK2psY-fJJbuC-fJJ7ZE-hpgX8e-5d3LDn-5d3LKP-5cQtQA-5cLvSH-pMyak-6TcutX-fJJRMB-fK2obm-6TcukM-91TdN-fJrAL8-91Tn3-fJrAwa-fJrG8Z-fJrwu4-ai9sYg-fJJ6UL-fJrA8v-fJJeuN-oEUnUW-fJqUcj-cokFnG-fJJeLY-fJqUVj-fJrD8x-fJrC9K-fK2pVu-fJrGY2-4vLzcQ-fJJ96q-fJHt63-fJrEux-3u85DU-fJrxYn-fK3NVL">Nick Thompson</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Among the millions of travelers heading out for the summer holidays, some are choosing an unlikely <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mvkagv/into-the-wild-bus-chris-mccandless">destination</a>: a rusted bus on the edge of the Alaskan wilderness.</p>
<p>Fairbanks Bus 142 (aka the “magic bus”) is where the <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-chris-mccandless-died">24-year old Chris McCandless died</a> in 1992. Well-educated and economically secure, McCandless rejected the materialism he saw in contemporary U.S. society. He set out to explore with only what he could carry, and ended up living off the Alaskan land for a few months before dying of <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/chris-mccandless-died-update">starvation</a>. His story was first told by writer and mountaineer <a href="http://www.jonkrakauer.com/">Jon Krakauer</a> in the book <a href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/95440/into-the-wild-by-jon-krakauer/9780385486804/">“Into the Wild,”</a> and later made into a <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758758/">film</a> directed by Sean Penn.</p>
<p>Since then, dozens of people every year seek to follow in McCandless’ <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pete-mason/remembering-christopher-mccandless_b_1777825.html">footsteps</a>. Finding inspiration in his mode of self-sufficiency, many head out to Alaska like secular <a href="https://www.outsideonline.com/1920626/chris-mccandless-obsession-problem">pilgrims</a> seeking to <a href="http://www.christophermccandless.info/into-the-wild-essays/david-korn-intothewild1.html">imitate</a> a great saint from long ago, and to live more simply.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179396/original/file-20170724-19173-1kk4ur9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179396/original/file-20170724-19173-1kk4ur9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179396/original/file-20170724-19173-1kk4ur9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179396/original/file-20170724-19173-1kk4ur9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179396/original/file-20170724-19173-1kk4ur9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179396/original/file-20170724-19173-1kk4ur9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179396/original/file-20170724-19173-1kk4ur9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fairbanks Bus 142.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/paxson_woelber/6795743938">Paxson Woelber</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“Into the Wild” is not the only film to affect people in such a way. I have found many ways in which films around the world have motivated people to get up and travel to locations previously unknown – what I call <a href="http://www.multilingual-matters.com/display.asp?K=9781845415839">“film-induced pilgrimage.”</a> In these travels, tourists begin to look a lot like spiritual seekers. </p>
<h2>Films and pilgrimage</h2>
<p>Since the 1990s, researchers in tourism studies have been documenting the impact of cinema on travel decisions. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sue_Beeton">Sue Beeton</a> and <a href="http://www.filmquest.co/b2b/">Stefan Roesch,</a> for example, have examined the work of tourist boards and conducted interviews with tourists motivated by films. The travelers’ reflections, they found, often contain deep-seated spiritual inklings. Tourists feel they’ve been somewhere important, “<a href="http://www.multilingual-matters.com/display.asp?K=9781845411206">breathing the same air</a>” as their cinematic heroes. They often bring back “<a href="http://www.multilingual-matters.com/display.asp?K=9781845411206">relics</a>” from their travels to show a place has made an impact – not unlike what occurs in more traditional religious pilgrimages, such as the Catholic shrine in Lourdes, France.</p>
<p>The uptick in travel to New Zealand after the release of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy may be the most famous example of film-induced tourism. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2012/12/14/the-impact-economic-and-otherwise-of-lord-of-the-ringsthe-hobbit-on-new-zealand/#215d9bbf31b6">Reports</a> suggest tourism increased as much as 50 percent since the original film was released in 2001. And until recently the landing page of the New Zealand tourist board promoted the country itself as “Home of Middle-earth,” and continues to offer <a href="http://www.newzealand.com/int/feature/the-ultimate-middle-earth-itinerary/">Middle-earth itineraries</a> for visitors.</p>
<p>Yet it doesn’t take a mega-blockbuster to induce travelers. Many areas of the American Midwest <a href="https://www.economist.com/node/254736">were transformed</a> by films such as “Field of Dreams,” “The Bridges of Madison County” and “Dances with Wolves.” Tens of thousands of tourists began traveling to small towns that previously saw no tourists at all. <a href="http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2079">Reports</a> show that places like Dyersville, Iowa, which was never anything more than a small farming town, was <a href="https://www.economist.com/node/254736">seeing over 50,000 people</a> a year visit after the release of “Field of Dreams” in 1989. </p>
<h2>Parallels with spiritual pilgrimage</h2>
<p>As I describe in my book, “<a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/a/9780231176743">Religion and Film: Cinema and the Re-Creation of the World</a>,” these film-induced travels can turn into something more than merely tourism: Distinctions between tourism and pilgrimage, on-screen reality and off-screen reality, and the secular and sacred grow blurry.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/ell/People_Faculty_GOHBH.html">Robbie B.H. Goh</a>, scholar at the National University of Singapore, too has found parallels between film tourism and spiritual pilgrimage. He calls it the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2013.866781">“global fantasy industry,”</a> a loose affiliation of the tourist industry, mass media (video games, television, film) and merchandising that motivates audiences to simulate fantasy narratives.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179873/original/file-20170726-28585-18l24pz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179873/original/file-20170726-28585-18l24pz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179873/original/file-20170726-28585-18l24pz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179873/original/file-20170726-28585-18l24pz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179873/original/file-20170726-28585-18l24pz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179873/original/file-20170726-28585-18l24pz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179873/original/file-20170726-28585-18l24pz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Lord of the Rings’ site sign at Kaitoke Regional Park.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/yortw/5140121315/in/photolist-s7ztVP-6Mh3KT-7Qfuon-nE1Wo-cSFg-jECEu6-GbVRsh-ef3aPY-eeWqik-zomWP-jEErnQ-ef3bBu-6hHeVm-jECuWP-kwa5y-jECmE8-jEDqRv-9DXRDw-jEF9Ch-JKo8mb-JKoB95-HS5LdB-HS7MEb-rJnWkX-JnDN61-QF8h4o-HS6ybP-rL7qS7-JDkM7Q-HS7R57-HS69hg-r6UthK-rL8zrb-s3z7eE-r6GEXU-rLfv5F-rJnUbB-8QdsZi">Yortw</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even so, as Goh comes to understand tourists at “Lord of the Rings” sites, he finds that they do act like pilgrims with their ritualized acting out of movie scenes, heightened emotional states and buying of souvenirs that allow the pilgrims to bring part of the place back home.</p>
<p>Just as importantly, according to Goh, the difficulty of traveling through New Zealand’s rugged landscapes allows tourists to imaginatively imitate the ordeals of Frodo and the Hobbits in the story. Tourists become immersed in these spaces, which allows them to be immersed, in turn, in the heroic fantasy story itself.</p>
<p>There are <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/a/9780231176743">stories of other films</a>, other locations and other journeys as well: Tourists, for example, go to Rosslyn chapel in Scotland after “The Da Vinci Code,” visit Devil’s Tower, Wyoming after “Close Encounters” or imitate “Rocky” on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Travelers to these various places have similar moods, motivations and spiritual and emotional experiences. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179876/original/file-20170726-27705-1x6eojs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179876/original/file-20170726-27705-1x6eojs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179876/original/file-20170726-27705-1x6eojs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179876/original/file-20170726-27705-1x6eojs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179876/original/file-20170726-27705-1x6eojs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179876/original/file-20170726-27705-1x6eojs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179876/original/file-20170726-27705-1x6eojs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tourists on the Rocky steps, Philadelphia Museum of Art.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenlund/2521833783/in/photolist-4QR4jP-o4y7ZF-oyRZZc-6NdWAA-o6HVKL-c5MEjQ-omg8u6-fAq1gB-okAwyY-9GyyoU-WUf1cs-dYmrnE-o3wtGf-954zqe-5YGx5n-o4Y1fb-2hZ8W5-4EjRfx-djErVy-rXHj61-a1PWP-atRXrE-bWPGcc-qzvvks-ahzSMC-qi1DA5-i14Jzv-69aWGE-bWPG28-oNaqMp-4iM7k1-m6QGuA-dW4ZKm-nNXo2V-qYh6C9-Wv3Egk-4iH2Zx-bbe6dH-VbXWFw-ooZNnQ-8TBjma-4iH33t-aqdSCa-6qDDT6-avBpga-fBgr7E-6m3TMa-aqpjHP-rRgmax-5mBHY8">Ken Lund</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Rethinking pilgrimage</h2>
<p>Some may hesitate here and ask whether these are “authentic” pilgrimages.</p>
<p>In the 1970s, anthropologists <a href="https://anthropology.virginia.edu/faculty/profile/elt9w">Edith</a> and <a href="http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199766567/obo-9780199766567-0074.xml">Victor Turner</a> spearheaded the contemporary study of pilgrimage through publication of “<a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/image-and-pilgrimage-in-christian-culture/9780231157919">Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture</a>.” Since then, <a href="http://practicalmattersjournal.org/2016/05/04/notes-on-pilgrimage/">other scholars</a> have questioned whether there really are useful distinctions between tourism and pilgrimage, and between the purely economic and the purely spiritual.</p>
<p>The thing is, pilgrimage and tourism are not really that far apart. </p>
<p>One of the defining evolutionary adaptations of early hominids was the emergence of strong foot bones and nonopposable big toes that enabled them to get up on two legs and walk great distances: out of Africa and into Europe, Asia and lands beyond.</p>
<p>Perhaps travel is hardwired into our species.</p>
<p>And maybe this is part of the renewed attraction of travel as we moderns grow restless with our always-online cultures, experiencing the world through tiny screens.</p>
<p>Film-induced pilgrimage takes the pixelized representation of being in a far-off land and makes it real again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81016/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Films motivate people to travel to locations previously unknown. In the process, tourists become a lot like spiritual seekers.S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate, Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Hamilton CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/810582017-07-17T00:38:21Z2017-07-17T00:38:21ZDigital database captures voices from inside America’s prisons<p>Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently announced a return to a pre-Obama policy of seeking maximum penalties for all drug crimes, including low-level, nonviolent offenses. Criticism from politicians, criminologists, lawyers and others was swift and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2017/05/12/reactions-to-sessionss-call-for-tougher-sentencing/?utm_term=.f958b9cc10b2">unambiguous</a>. </p>
<p>Based on a <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/sp/DimRet.pdf">discredited belief</a> in a zero-sum relationship between crime and incarceration rates, the thinking behind this policy was called “one-dimensional,” “archaic,” “misguided” and “dumb.” America’s unprecedented attempt to jail its way out of crime long ago passed <a href="https://theconversation.com/americas-mass-incarceration-problem-in-5-charts-or-why-sessions-shouldnt-bring-back-mandatory-minimums-78019">the point of diminishing returns</a>. Drug trafficking in particular sees a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/c/currie-crime.html">replacement effect</a>: Removing one drug seller simply makes room for another (often accompanied by a violent reshuffling of territories). Excessive incarceration <a href="http://myweb.fsu.edu/bstults/ccj5625/readings/clear-cj-2008.pdf">can also damage communities</a> and can actually make an individual <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1477370809341128">more</a>, not less, likely to reoffend.</p>
<p>I have been facilitating a writing workshop inside Attica Correctional Facility since 2006. For the past eight years, I have solicited, collected, helped publish and digitally disseminated the first-person writing of incarcerated Americans. Those on the receiving end of the attorney general’s misguided policy will naturally feel his words more deeply than others. The writers among them will be burdened with responsibility to make those feelings known. </p>
<h2>Who is listening?</h2>
<p>Sessions’ statement no doubt sang to the prison servicing industries, prison guard unions, the private prison industry and everyone else who profits from the salaries, pensions and lucrative contracts generated by the largest prison system on Earth. Despite a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/31/bipartisan-drug-war_n_4183221.html">bipartisan</a> quieting of the drums of the drug war, if Sessions and Trump make good on their promise to return to the “law and order” politics that made the U.S. the world’s master jailer, more mothers, fathers, sons, daughters and brothers will be removed from their homes and suffer the debilitation that comes from a felony conviction.</p>
<p>What few of this war’s partisans are likely to think about is the psychological damage the announcement may have already done to the men and women awaiting release and those awaiting the release of a loved one. </p>
<p>The vast majority of the writers I have encountered hope for a life of work and family and wish to make an active contribution to the communities they damaged. Face-to-face meetings and hundreds of reports from the front lines of America’s mass incarceration experiment offer invaluable insight into our archipelago of over 5,000 prisons and jails. Yet for every man and woman attending a workshop or the few college classrooms that remain since Bill Clinton <a href="https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2015/jul/31/pell-grants-prisoners-new-bill-restores-hope-reinstating-college-programs/">cut funding</a> for higher education in prisons, for every person who is able and courageous enough to write about their experience, there are thousands of Americans who have given up hope of changing or even documenting their condition.</p>
<h2>Whose voices can we hear?</h2>
<p>In 2009 I sent out a call for essays, asking incarcerated people to describe their experience inside prisons and jails. The final deadline passed in the fall of 2012. Seventy-one of the initial pool of 154 essays would become <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.14321/j.ctt7zt7dt">“Fourth City: Essays from the Prison in America</a>,” published in 2014. </p>
<p>But essays never stopped coming. The call had opened a vein that would not be stanched. Writers documented the lives that led them to prison, a broken judicial system and staff cultures committed to humiliation and dehumanization, as well as the labor of living among damaged and broken men and women. The resulting digital American Prison Writing Archive now holds more than 1,300 essays in its paper files – the equivalent of 18 volumes the size of “Fourth City,” with 739 essays now <a href="http://www.dhinitiative.org/projects/apwa">posted online</a>. </p>
<p>As important as these courageous writers are, we must understand that they are exceptions inside a system that metes out debilitating pain, that incubates what an incarcerated writer in Illinois calls “phantom souls,” writers in California call “forgotten” and “lost souls,” and from Ohio, “surplus souls.” The voices one hears in “Fourth City” and the APWA are those that have emerged from the silence of masses of men and woman bereft of hope.</p>
<p><a href="http://apw.dhinitiative.org/islandora/object/apw%3A12345282?solr_nav%5Bid%5D=fddf1cc8b7a588dac580&solr_nav%5Bpage%5D=0&solr_nav%5Boffset%5D=4">Imprisoned writer Willie Johnson</a> of Georgia writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Is there a correlation between the increase in [prison] violence and the mandatory minimum sentence?….In Dante’s ‘Inferno,’ the opening line upon entering the realms of hell was first ‘abandon all hope.’ The delusion of…false hope will never be a controlling mechanism… for this generation; they have no hope. In attempting to control negative/violent tendencies the traditional B.F. Skinner reward and punishment principle is not working. Why? The incentive for compliance, the hope of parole…was removed from the equation. Their current mindset is I have nothing to lose, but most paramount: I have nothing to gain. Nietzsche said ‘He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.’ With this generation there is no why to live for, so they choose the how and this how is very disturbing.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When incarcerated people’s objections are echoed by <a href="http://nwnewsnetwork.org/post/former-federal-prosecutors-challenge-attorney-general-sentencing-policy">prosecutors</a>, you know you have a bad policy. Sessions’ announcement will resume fomenting despair even among nonviolent drug offenders betting on a national shift toward more rational sentencing. I have seen this despair in the eyes of men inside.</p>
<p>“It was like I woke up in a zombie movie.”</p>
<p>These were the words of a man serving time inside Attica. He was referring to the morning of March 10, 2008 and news of the sex scandal that would end the political career of Eliot Spitzer. The then-governor had announced the creation of a <a href="https://www.cov.com/%7E/media/files/corporate/publications/2007/05/new-yorks-new-commission-on-sentencing-reform.">commission</a> to reform sentencing and reduce prison populations. “Guys was walking around light as Macy balloons,” another man recalled of the afternoon of Spitzer’s announcement. Then the governor was revealed as the regular client of a high-end call girl. “It was like the G-forces doubled,” another man recalled, his face recounting that sensation. “My cellie couldn’t get off his bunk.”</p>
<p>Rising out of a population whose hopes are crushed, ephemeral or struggling, the voices that do reach out exhibit a resilience that is humbling. Sessions’ doing what he calls “the right and moral thing” is bound to further challenge such resilience. But we’ll know that only from what some incarcerated people write about others. Dead souls tell no tales.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81058/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Doran Larson directs The American Prison Writing Archive (APWA). The APWA has received funding from The Andrew Mellon Foundation (through the Digital Humanities Initiative at Hamilton College), Hamilton's Office of the Dean of Faculty, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. </span></em></p>Those on the receiving end of Jeff Sessions’ ‘tough on crime’ policies are speaking out from behind bars.Doran Larson, Wolcott-Bartlett Professor of Literature & Creative Writing; Director of the Program in Jurisprudence, Law, and Justice Studies, Hamilton CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/766862017-05-30T01:39:52Z2017-05-30T01:39:52ZThe US and Mexico: Education and understanding<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171146/original/file-20170526-6402-1eubcmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The University of California-Mexico Initiative Education Working Group created Project SOL, an online curriculum program that teaches students in their native language.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/30308/teacheredithissakhanian-helps-bryanlima">University of California, Riverside</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last week, officials from the U.S. and Mexico revitalized their commitment to fight cross-border smuggling of drugs, arms and money. U.S. officials recognized America’s demand for drugs as “<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/18/politics/tillerson-mexico-drug-trade/">the magnet</a>” that feeds drug smuggling, and Mexico committed to tackle jointly the elements of the cartels’ business model.</p>
<p>While illegal immigration and drugs dominate much of the public discourse around U.S.-Mexico relations, the partnership between these countries is vital and dynamic in many other ways. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/growing-together-economic-ties-between-the-united-states-and-mexico">two neighbors</a> trade over US$1 million a minute, employ many millions in good jobs on both sides of the border, have over a million legal border crossings each day and have over 35 million citizens of shared heritage.</p>
<p>We have devoted years of our professional lives (in government, academic and social sectors) to developing and implementing strategies for improving our countries’ relationship. As such, we’ve been taken aback by the sharply critical U.S. rhetoric about Mexico in recent months and the anti-American sentiment that quickly rekindled in Mexico.</p>
<p>Our most recent work, however, shows that educational and research exchanges can bridge the widening divide, while also building workforces that can help the two nations thrive in the technological revolutions ahead.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171046/original/file-20170525-23251-1hxzabl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171046/original/file-20170525-23251-1hxzabl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171046/original/file-20170525-23251-1hxzabl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171046/original/file-20170525-23251-1hxzabl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171046/original/file-20170525-23251-1hxzabl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171046/original/file-20170525-23251-1hxzabl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171046/original/file-20170525-23251-1hxzabl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Attendees of the Anaheim Convention Center rally in 2016 show support for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/anaheim-california-may-25-2016-thousands-426989245?src=1lXnivognR_nJxudfQwQJg-1-2">Mike Ledray/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Academic exchanges as long-term bridges</h2>
<p>We have seen firsthand the impact of programs on young Mexicans who returned from U.S. stays with pride, enthusiasm and improved English. We’ve also witnessed how American students interacting with their counterparts in Mexico enhance the appreciation and respect for each others’ countries.</p>
<p>Yet, <a href="https://www.iie.org/en/Research-and-Insights/Project-Atlas/Explore-Data/United-States">student exchange numbers</a> are not encouraging. Mexico ranks 10th for the number of full-time students studying in the U.S., placing it far behind China and India, and also trailing Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Vietnam, and northern neighbor Canada. The story is worse in <a href="http://www.iie.org/Research-and-Publications/Open-Doors/Data/US-Study-Abroad/Leading-Destinations/2013-15">the other direction</a>: Only 4,712 U.S. students were studying in Mexico in 2014-15, 12th among destinations for U.S. students.</p>
<p>There are many reasons for the low numbers, but here is the bottom line: Two such interconnected neighbors should be doing better.</p>
<p><iframe id="OFTy7" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/OFTy7/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>In 2013, we were a part of launching an initiative aimed at tackling this problem. The <a href="https://mx.usembassy.gov/education-culture/education/the-u-s-mexico-bilateral-forum-on-higher-education-innovation-and-research/">Bilateral Forum on Higher Education, Innovation and Research</a> (known by its Spanish acronym, FOBESII) gathers educators, private citizens, companies and officials from universities and government. Their aim is to expand long-term investments in education and research partnerships between the U.S. and Mexico.</p>
<p>In the <a href="https://mex-eua.sre.gob.mx/images/stories/PDF/AchievementsUSMexicoBilateralForumonHigherEducationInnovationandResearchFOBESII.pdf">past four years</a>, FOBESII has fostered more than 115 new agreements between Mexican and U.S. universities.</p>
<p>Mexico’s federal government allocated an unprecedented $42.9 million for these programs during 2014-16. More than 100,000 Mexican students – many of them from low income families – came to the U.S. as full-time graduate students, as single-semester researchers or in summer programs designed to improve English proficiency. These experiences changed the way students (and their families) viewed <a href="https://comexusfulbright-garciarobles.tumblr.com/">their future potential</a> and, importantly these days, their opinion about the United States was greatly improved.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the U.S. public funds to support these exchanges were more limited than the investments made by Mexico. Private sector sponsors, however, have worked with the U.S. government to develop <a href="http://www.100kstrongamericas.org/">32 academic projects with Mexican universities</a>, ranging from engineering, physics, geology and health to environmental sciences.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171037/original/file-20170525-23245-1nw93ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171037/original/file-20170525-23245-1nw93ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171037/original/file-20170525-23245-1nw93ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171037/original/file-20170525-23245-1nw93ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171037/original/file-20170525-23245-1nw93ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171037/original/file-20170525-23245-1nw93ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171037/original/file-20170525-23245-1nw93ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In 2015, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Earl Anthony Wayne visits students, who participated in the Fulbright-Garcia Robles program in the U.S., from The Technological University Retoño.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/USCGGuadalajara/photos/pcb.10153205193770129/10153205192465129/?type=3&theater">Consulate General of the United States Guadalajara</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Building things together</h2>
<p>While targeting such exchanges provides opportunities to young scholars and promotes cultural understanding, it can also produce better educated workforces.</p>
<p>Mexico and the United States literally and figuratively <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/growing_together_economic_ties_between_the_united_states_and_mexico.pdf">build things together</a>, with pieces crossing the border many times before a finished product emerges. American parts and products make up, on average, about <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/growing_together_economic_ties_between_the_united_states_and_mexico.pdf">40 percent of the value</a> of a finished manufactured product from Mexico. That’s much more than the U.S. contributes to other countries’ manufacturing and positively impacts U.S. jobs and profits.</p>
<p>The “<a href="https://theoutline.com/post/1316/fourth-industrial-revolution-developing-economies">fourth industrial revolution</a>” is unfolding: digital technologies are leading to faster and more complex advances in practically all facets of life. Both countries are going to need better equipped labor forces to maintain this highly integrated production network and to compete with others in the world.</p>
<p><iframe id="lRaMG" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/lRaMG/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Several ongoing initiatives within the framework of FOBESII will support the goal of better-equipped labor forces. The University of California has raised around $15 million to support <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-uc-napolitano-mexico-20170323-story.html">programs linking their universities with Mexican institutions</a>. Universities in <a href="http://www.contex.utsystem.edu/">Texas</a> and <a href="https://global.arizona.edu/unam-ua">Arizona</a> have developed similar programs, focusing on research in energy, the environment and other common topics in science and technology. The U.S. <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/">National Science Foundation</a> and Mexico’s <a href="http://www.conacyt.mx/">National Council of Science and Technology</a> have created 12 more joint projects.</p>
<p>Michael M. Crow, President of Arizona State University, described the rationale behind <a href="https://mexico.asu.edu/">his school’s partnerships</a> this way:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We share a border and many common interests with Mexico. It’s natural that we seek stronger ties through education, research and innovation so we can help each other prepare for the challenges and the changing nature of the advanced workforce of the 21st century.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Every year, we’ve seen many more students and universities who want to participate than the current funding allows.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171045/original/file-20170525-23241-far5e6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171045/original/file-20170525-23241-far5e6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171045/original/file-20170525-23241-far5e6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171045/original/file-20170525-23241-far5e6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171045/original/file-20170525-23241-far5e6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171045/original/file-20170525-23241-far5e6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171045/original/file-20170525-23241-far5e6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In 2016, The University of Texas and Mexico’s National Council of Science and Technology launched ConTex as a collaborative effort to foster scientific training and research between the U.S. and Mexico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/university-texas-ut-against-blue-sky-221247628?src=Zs_09zwewWXn9z1ZcvH_ww-1-14">f11photo/shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Investing in the future of North America</h2>
<p>Historically, other neighbors in the world have made similar strategic decisions to invest in educational partnerships. The <a href="http://www.erasmusprogramme.com/">European Erasmus</a> program, for instance, has been supported by billions of dollars of funding since it was established in 1987. Over <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-1110_en.htm">three million students</a> have studied in other countries at over 4,000 post-secondary institutions. Aside from the academic value of the program, it has contributed to crafting <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09571736.2016.1210911">a more robust European vision</a> among the youth.</p>
<p>As with European cooperation, the comparatively modest U.S.-Mexico efforts are not about charity – or even just education. They concern the strategic interests of neighbors in the face of global competition, technological revolutions, and persistent prejudices that strain relations between neighbors.</p>
<p>Mexico and the United States will remain neighbors. Their shared challenges will not disappear, but shared opportunities could be missed. We should double down on overcoming our misunderstandings and solving concrete problems together. Learning and researching together will definitely help.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76686/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Earl Anthony Wayne is affiliated with the Wilson Center, the Atlantic Council, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the American Foreign Service Association. He is an advisor to HSBC bank on countering illicit finance.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sergio M. Alcocer is affiliated with the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), México Exponencial, the Mexican Council for International Affairs (COMEXI), the US National Academy of Engineering and the Mexican Academy of Engineering. </span></em></p>Despite hard work by both governments to overcome mistrust, more is needed to build mutual understanding between Americans and Mexicans. Educational partnerships may hold the answer.Earl Anthony Wayne, Visiting Professor of International Affairs, Hamilton CollegeSergio M. Alcocer, Research Professor, Institute of Engineering, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/751092017-03-24T09:59:01Z2017-03-24T09:59:01ZAmerica can’t be first without Europe<p>On March 25, European Union leaders celebrate the 60th anniversary of their founding treaty, a central pillar of the structure set up in the aftermath of World War II to solidify peace, prosperity and partnership in Europe.</p>
<p>Over the last 60 years, the EU (and its predecessors) has served as an essential U.S. partner: for example, by enhancing economic opportunity for U.S. companies in Europe and <a href="https://2001-2009.state.gov/p/eur/rls/fs/48475.htm">increasingly supplying vital foreign assistance</a> and diplomatic support to help solve international problems. Indeed, if the EU did not already exist, the United States would be looking to invent something like it to help preserve peace and generate prosperity on a continent that suffered through two devastating world wars.</p>
<p>More recently, however, the EU has faced a variety of existential threats as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/15-economic-milestones-which-have-led-to-the-current-eurozone-crisis-53503">euro crisis</a> rattled its members’ financial well-being, economic growth slowed, <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-explains-britains-brexit-shocker-61620">U.K. voters opted</a> to leave the union and “<a href="http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-eu-wonderful-european-union-brexit-euroskeptic-560200">euroskeptics</a>” in countries like <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-marine-le-pen-could-become-the-next-french-president-68765">France</a> and the Netherlands use criticism of Brussels to contest elections. And even in the U.S., <a href="http://www.the-american-interest.com/2016/06/15/brexit-good-for-the-united-states/">some reacted to Brexit</a> with cheers.</p>
<p>The bottom line – based on our many year of experience as diplomats, policymakers and researchers on transatlantic issues – is that the U.S. needs a strong economic and political partnership with Europe to advance its own economic well-being and address vexing international and regional issues. Such a partnership would be <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization/article/div-classtitlewhat-single-voice-european-institutions-and-euus-trade-negotiationsdiv/13091C901403ADB37A006BA31F51C913">enormously more difficult</a> to maintain without the EU’s single voice, something Washington would be wise to remember.</p>
<h2>Ensuring peace and prosperity</h2>
<p>As it happens, the EU <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Recovery-Europe-Richard-Mayne/dp/B00D1FGXPW">might not even exist</a> today if it wasn’t for the United States and its efforts to rebuild Europe – via the Marshall Plan – and stop the spread of Communism following World War II. </p>
<p>Seventy years ago, U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall, U.S. President Harry Truman and members of Congress – Republicans and Democrats alike – <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/table-of-contents_-the-marshall-plan-and-the-shaping-of-american-strategy.pdf">agreed</a> that the way to ensure peace and prosperity in Europe was for Europeans to develop interdependent, competitive economies. What we now know as the European Union emerged from these American efforts.</p>
<p>And it has worked. The EU – whether through the <a href="http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/european-council/">European Council</a> of heads of state, the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu">European Commission</a> or the <a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/portal">European Parliament</a> – has helped underpin prosperity and economic competition among democratic nations on the continent. </p>
<p>The EU’s <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcms.12175/abstract">single market in particular has led to unprecedented wealth</a>, as it established rules and norms for doing business across the member states. The EU has also served as the vehicle for embracing Central Europe into that market and community of members after the fall of the Iron Curtain and still remains a pole of attraction for others hoping to join the EU. </p>
<p>Since the signing of the <a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv%3Axy0023">Treaty of Rome</a>, the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/10/is-europe-outperforming-the-us/">EU has grown</a> from six countries with 186 million citizens to 28 countries with 515 million citizens and a GDP seven times larger than in 1957. The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/charts-eu-economy-is-bigger-than-the-us-2015-6">combined EU economy</a>, in fact, is larger than that of the United States, making it the <a href="https://www.thebalance.com/world-s-largest-economy-3306044">second-biggest</a> in the world behind China.</p>
<h2>The economic ties that bind</h2>
<p>Even from an “<a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-america-first-echoes-from-1940s-59579">America first</a>” perspective, it is important to recognize how much value has been created by the European Union’s single market and other initiatives that have made Europe’s economy more integrated and open to U.S. businesses. </p>
<p>For example, today the transatlantic economy <a href="https://transatlanticrelations.org/publication/transatlantic-economy-2017/">generates US$5.5 trillion</a> in total commercial sales a year and employs up to 15 million workers on both sides of the Atlantic. Combined, they represent the largest and wealthiest market in the world, driven by investment in both directions. </p>
<p>Roughly 60 percent of America’s total foreign assets are in Europe. Sales in Europe by EU units of U.S. companies topped $3.1 trillion in 2015, and their assets in the region are valued at an estimated $15.7 trillion. Europe accounted for over 70 percent of the $3.1 trillion invested in the U.S. in 2015, while European assets in the U.S. are estimated to be worth $8.4 trillion. Trade in goods across the Atlantic has almost doubled since 2000, totaling $686 billion in 2016, and 45 states export more to Europe than to China. </p>
<p>With a deeply integrated economic relationship of this size and nature, the U.S. should take steps to increase the ease of mutually beneficial economic activities, and urge the EU to take <a href="http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/publications/reports/charting-the-future-now">steps needed to spark economic growth</a>. </p>
<p>If the Trump administration wants to address the U.S. trade deficit with the EU, for example, let’s negotiate a new economic agreement that takes better advantage of the massive transatlantic market place described above. The U.S. and the EU were trying to forge such an agreement via the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-ttip-will-live-on-but-not-for-the-eu-61718">Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership</a> before the U.S. elections. While that <a href="http://www.politico.eu/article/trumps-pick-for-trade-envoy-open-to-continued-eu-trade-talks/">agreement remains on hold</a>, we believe a strong trade deal between the partners could open up job opportunities for new generations on both sides of the Atlantic.</p>
<h2>Tackling troubles together</h2>
<p>EU is also a partner for the United States in tackling international problems and vital as a source of funds to meet humanitarian and development needs <a href="https://euaidexplorer.ec.europa.eu/DevelopmentAtlas.do">in almost every corner of the world</a>. This role is even more important if the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/28/politics/trump-budget-foreign-aid/">U.S. wants to reduce</a> its own aid spending. </p>
<p>The EU and its members <a href="http://www.oecd.org/dac/stats/statisticsonresourceflowstodevelopingcountries.htm">together provided</a> over $87 billion in official development assistance in 2015. That is 55.7 percent of the global total. The comparable number for the United States is <a href="https://euaidexplorer.ec.europa.eu/AidOverview.do">just $31 billion, or 23.6 percent</a>.</p>
<p>On the diplomatic front, it is true, the complicated institutional makeup of the EU often means slow decision-making, and it becomes very hard when competencies and authorities at the EU conflict with those of the member states: for example, in fighting terrorism or dealing with refugees. The EU has taken major strides to improve this, such as by establishing a high representative to speak for members in a range of regional situations. The EU has been <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcms.12175/abstract">an active partner</a> on Ukraine, Iran, the Middle East and Afghanistan, for example.</p>
<p>Despite the remaining shortcomings, in other words, the EU is <a href="http://www.ecfr.eu/scorecard/2016">still a much stronger foreign policy partner</a> for the U.S. today than in the past. If the EU were not there to contribute significant resources to help deal with major humanitarian crises, handle the fallout of conflicts and terror and bolster the prospects for peace and stability in countries like Ukraine, a much greater burden would fall on the United States.</p>
<h2>Winning with a strong Europe</h2>
<p>The EU currently <a href="http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/images/publications/Charting_the_Future_Now_0316.pdf">faces serious challenges</a>: low economic growth, massive immigration flows, euro-skepticism among its citizens and a complicated structure necessary to fashion decisions among 28 member states. </p>
<p>The U.K. vote to leave the EU in June, which <a href="http://transatlanticrelations.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/TE2017_Chapter1.pdf">will surely leave the British poorer</a> economically, only adds to the aging union’s woes as the two sides negotiate their future relationship. </p>
<p>Russia, meanwhile, is <a href="https://theconversation.com/war-of-words-how-europe-is-fighting-back-against-russian-disinformation-65444">trying to divide and weaken Europe</a>. And some in the U.S. are likely tempted to leave Europe to the Europeans and to tend to our own concerns.</p>
<p>The United States, however, remains an integral part of the European equation through bilateral ties, NATO and relations with the EU. We have learned, often to our sorrow, that whenever we ignore European problems, we end up paying a higher price later, as was the case when we pulled inward in the decade before World War II.</p>
<p>American interest in a strong EU, then, derives from a steely-eyed appreciation of fundamental U.S. national interests: a Europe that is at peace and open to U.S. goods, ideas and cooperation.</p>
<p>While the U.S. would be wise to let Europeans sort out their political differences and options for integration, America will pay enormously if the process of European cooperation or prosperity goes badly off track. We should be clear-eyed about potential costs and work to deepen transatlantic cooperation.</p>
<p>The U.S. will not be better off with a divided and weak Europe. We win with a strong European partner.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75109/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Earl Anthony Wayne advises HSBC's Mexico and Latin American operations on combating illicit finance and is paid for that advisory work. He is a public policy fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a non-resident Fellow at the Atlantic Council, and a senior non-resident advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel S. Hamilton served for 15 years as Executive Director of the American Consortium for EU Studies, has been a consultant to Microsoft, the Business Roundtable and Transatlantic Business Dialogue, and a member of advisory boards and committees for the Robert Bosch Foundation, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Heinrich Böll Foundation, the German Institute for International Security Affairs (SWP), and the Körber Foundation. In 2008 he served as the first Robert Bosch Foundation Senior Diplomatic Fellow in the German Foreign Office.</span></em></p>The Treaty of Rome, which eventually led to the European Union, is turning 60 at a time when many inside and outside Europe are questioning the union’s value. For the U.S., much is at stake.Earl Anthony Wayne, Visiting Professor of International Affairs, Hamilton CollegeDaniel S. Hamilton, Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation Professor, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/723502017-02-08T04:17:06Z2017-02-08T04:17:06ZWhy US should treat Mexico as a vital partner, not a punching bag<p>Mexico is one of the most important countries in the world for the United States. It’s the <a href="https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/americas/mexico">second-largest buyer of U.S. goods</a>, the third-biggest consumer of U.S. agricultural products and America’s third-most-important trading partner, after China and Canada. We trade over a million dollars of stuff every minute. </p>
<p>So as we <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/22/politics/trump-renegotiate-nafta/">prepare to sit at a negotiating table</a> across from our southern neighbor, we should recognize that treating Mexico as a respected partner would be a good start if we hope to favorably resolve serious issues over trade, immigration or fighting crime. The U.S. will be safer and stronger if we can forge even closer cooperation with Mexico while finding solutions to the problems each side wants to fix. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/67077fd8-e4a3-11e6-9645-c9357a75844a">sharp, critical rhetoric</a> coming out of the new U.S. administration, however, is undermining a mutually beneficial relationship that has taken decades to build. It’s generating intense public anger, suspicion and fear in Mexico and fueling anti-Americanism. There is a real risk of returning to the deep distrust that characterized past U.S.-Mexico ties. That would be very harmful to U.S. strategic interests.</p>
<p>As the U.S. ambassador to Mexico from 2011 to 2015, I saw firsthand the strength of the relationship and the benefits of collaboration, even as I recognize that many improvements can be made in our bilateral ties. It would be a shame to throw those benefits away, which would seriously harm the U.S.</p>
<h2>From foe to friend to foe?</h2>
<p>The United States is blessed to have two large neighbors willing to work with us to foster mutual security and prosperity. While Mexico may not be a NATO ally like Canada, it is no less vital to U.S. interests and no less willing to be a partner. To get here, the two countries have spent the past 25 years overcoming a troubled history. </p>
<p>The Mexicans still remember vividly the <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/mexican-american-war">war that began in 1846</a> that ceded much of their country to the U.S., including modern-day Texas and California. Every year, they celebrate “<a href="http://www.mexonline.com/history-ninosheroes.htm">Los Niños Héroes</a>,” referring to the teenagers who threw themselves off a cliff rather than surrender to U.S. marines invading Mexico City and those who fought the U.S. occupation of Veracruz in 1914. </p>
<p>The mistrust lingered through the 1980s, when Americans still characterized Mexicans as “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Distant-Neighbors-Portrait-Alan-Riding/dp/0679724419">distant neighbors</a>.”</p>
<p>Change began with the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Negotiating-NAFTA-Mexican-Envoys-Account/dp/027595935X">negotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement</a> (NAFTA) in the early 1990s and continued when the U.S. helped Mexico recover from a <a href="https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/9056792/12-101.pdf?sequence=1">major economic crisis in 1995</a>. </p>
<p>Especially since 2008, the <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R41349.pdf">U.S. and Mexico have formed strong cross-border collaborations</a> on security, law enforcement, migration, foreign policy and many other issues that are profoundly in the strategic interests of the United States. </p>
<p>Simultaneously, under NAFTA, the private sector was building vast interconnected networks and manufacturing production chains across North America that brought added wealth to each country and turned the region into a <a href="http://www.joc.com/international-trade-news/trade-data/mexico-trade-data/nafta-20-transformational-force-continues-evolve_20140124.html">global economic powerhouse</a> that could compete effectively with China and others in Asia. </p>
<p>Public rhetoric from the Trump administration is putting much of this in jeopardy. It has <a href="http://www.global.nationalreview.com/article/444226/mexico-trump-backlash-brewing-south-border">generated serious backlash</a> among Mexico’s public and politicians and put much pressure on the government to resist vehemently Trump’s demands, especially over who pays for a border wall. But the potential treatment of undocumented Mexican nationals in the U.S. also remains a serious and emotional concern. </p>
<p>The Mexican <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/26/news/economy/trump-mexican-peso/">peso has plunged</a> – ironically making its exports less expensive for American companies and consumers to buy. And Mexico’s <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/trump-could-really-mess-up-mexicos-economy/">economic outlook has weakened considerably</a> – a weaker economy actually increases the likelihood residents will try to find a better life north of the border at a time when net immigration flows of Mexicans are moving south. </p>
<p>The growing popular anger means a generation of Mexican politicians, officials and experts who favored promoting closer ties with the U.S. are now on the defensive. The Mexican dailies and radio programs are filled with calls for the government to get tougher with the U.S., even if it’s costly to Mexico. This limits room for serious negotiations. Worse still, this is <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-03/mexico-has-its-own-fiery-populist-trump-may-put-him-in-power">giving a lift</a> to the most anti-American presidential candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, running to replace the current president in 2018. </p>
<p>The costs to the U.S. of continuing on this path would be enormous.</p>
<h2>A closer look at NAFTA</h2>
<p>Let’s start with NAFTA, since that’s the source of some of the <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/23/trump-to-sign-executive-order-to-renegotiate-nafta-and-intent-to-leave-tpp.html">biggest complaints from both Trump</a> and politicians from the left such as Bernie Sanders. </p>
<p>First, NAFTA is not the cause of the great economic woes or job losses as portrayed. Rather, it has spurred <a href="https://piie.com/publications/briefings/piieb14-3.pdf">U.S. economic growth</a>, <a href="http://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/1/24/14363148/trade-deals-nafta-wto-china-job-loss-trump">produced millions of new jobs</a> (including <a href="http://www.bancomext.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/ceb8ingles.pdf">higher skilled ones</a>), lowered costs for consumers and helped us overcome enormous <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R42965.pdf">trade competition</a> from Asia. </p>
<p>Total U.S.-Mexico trade has surged almost 600 percent since NAFTA was negotiated in 1993 to reach <a href="https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/americas/mexico">US$584 billion</a> in 2015. That supported <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/growing-together-economic-ties-between-the-united-states-and-mexico">4.9 million U.S. jobs</a> spread across the country in 2016. Some 57,000 U.S. companies sell to Mexico. </p>
<p>Plus, Mexico is an essential partner in <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2017-trump-protectionism-alters-supply-chain/">U.S. production chains</a>, where inputs for a final product <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/growing_together_how_trade_with_mexico_impacts_employment_in_the_united_states_2.pdf">regularly cross the border</a> several times. Up to <a href="https://www.bea.gov/about/pdf/NBER%20working%20paper_1.pdf">40 percent of the final value</a> of a product manufactured in Mexico comes from U.S. suppliers. That is far more than in any other country.</p>
<p>In sum, according to a 2013 study by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the U.S. “is <a href="https://piie.com/sites/default/files/publications/briefings/piieb14-3.pdf">$127 billion</a> richer each year” because of NAFTA. </p>
<h2>Improve it, don’t rip it up</h2>
<p>Yes, there are problems with <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-dreier-roundtable-20161027-story.html">NAFTA</a>. It was the first trade deal of its kind and is 24 years old. It can, and should, be improved. And workers and communities harmed by it and other trade and industry transformations should be helped with active assistance. </p>
<p>Still, NAFTA <a href="http://conexus.cberdata.org/files/MfgReality.pdf">is not</a> the main source of U.S. job losses that <a href="https://www.donaldjtrump.com/policies/trade">President Trump</a> claims it be. The introduction of new technologies and trade with <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w21906">China</a> are much larger causes of manufacturing job losses. </p>
<p>And it is not NAFTA’s fault that the U.S. government <a href="https://theconversation.com/want-to-help-free-trades-losers-make-adjustment-assistance-more-than-just-burial-insurance-67036">did not have a sufficient strategy</a> to help those left behind find new jobs, develop new skills or attract investment to their communities. </p>
<p>Disrupting our trade with Mexico by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-nafta-tpp-trade-speech-2016-6">withdrawing from NAFTA</a> or by adding <a href="http://wpo.st/PKGY2">new taxes, tariffs or fees</a> would <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/opinion/building-a-wall-of-ignorance.html?smid=tw-share">raise prices</a> for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/01/31/the-hottest-tax-idea-in-washington-right-now-would-cost-average-families-1000-a-year/?utm_term=.9aa739af48ca&wpisrc=nl_wonk&wpmm=1">U.S. consumers</a> and could <a href="http://www.cargroup.org/?module=Publications&event=View&pubID=148">endanger many of the millions of U.S. jobs</a> tied to North America’s production chains and sales to <a href="https://insidetrade.com/daily-news/wto-could-authorize-unprecedented-trade-retaliation-border-adjustable-tax-dispute">Mexico</a>. </p>
<p>So let’s have a clear-eyed look at how <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/trump-to-announce-plans-for-renegotiation-nafta-five-ways-to-improve-the-agreement">we can improve and update NAFTA</a> to create more jobs and prosperity. </p>
<p>For example, we could add new areas like e-commerce where the U.S. is very strong. We could get better treatment for U.S. service providers. Significantly, we could change the “rules of origin” that determine if a manufactured product has enough “North American” input to be tariff-free. We could eliminate nontariff barriers that add costs at the borders and could strengthen labor standards.</p>
<p>But let’s not publicly distort NAFTA or blame it for trends whose causes and remedies are elsewhere. </p>
<h2>A wall of facts</h2>
<p>Let’s also be honest about the <a href="http://theconversation.com/who-will-pay-for-trumps-big-beautiful-wall-72321">border wall</a>, migration and public security, starting with key questions that still don’t have adequate answers from the administration.</p>
<p>Why should Mexico have to pay for a wall that it does not think is needed and when <a href="http://www.pewhispanic.org/2015/11/19/more-mexicans-leaving-than-coming-to-the-u-s/">more Mexicans are returning</a> to Mexico than heading north? Where is the cost-benefit analysis that demonstrates that a full wall is the best way to assure border security? What will the <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602494/bad-math-props-up-trumps-border-wall/">real cost</a> be? Is it <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/02/06/building-trumps-wall-6-things-to-know-about-the-u-s-mexico-border/">really needed</a> or <a href="http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2017/01/border-officers-real-security-more-complicated-building-wall/134872/">even feasible</a>?</p>
<p>I visited the border a good number of times – including during the surge in migrants from Central America – as ambassador and talked regularly with our homeland security personnel and border business and political leaders. Some certainly spoke in favor of additional walls or fences in some places and about the need for better surveillance and more rapid response capacity in others, but many also argued that walls don’t make sense along big chunks of the border. </p>
<p>Trump’s Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/10/general-john-kelly-senate-homeland-security-confirmation-hearing/96346782">at his confirmation hearings noted</a> that a physical barrier itself would not be sufficient. He argued for a layered defense with sensors and patrols and emphasized the need for cooperation with other governments. </p>
<p>Alienating the Mexicans over who pays for our wall puts that cooperation at risk. We need Mexican aid to stop <a href="http://www.pewhispanic.org/2016/09/20/overall-number-of-u-s-unauthorized-immigrants-holds-steady-since-2009/">undocumented immigrants</a>, to confront drug traffickers and other criminals and to have the best defense against any potential terrorists trying to enter via Mexico. </p>
<p>Most of my Mexican interlocutors agreed that border security could be improved and we should work better together to stop illicit trafficking of drugs, guns, money and people as well as potential terrorists – in both directions. Current U.S.-Mexico cooperation ranges from sharing names of suspicious individuals and detaining suspicious travelers far from the border to coordinating efforts against criminals, like drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/19/us/el-chapo-guzman-turned-over-to-us/">who was just extradited</a> to the U.S. </p>
<p>Mexico is also already seriously cooperating on migration. Both countries have agreed upon and implemented protocols for smoothly handling deportations from the U.S. and for avoiding border violence. The Mexicans are stopping many Central American migrants before they even reach the U.S. border. In 2015, Mexico deported over 165,000 migrants <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/27/us-mexico-mass-deportations-refugees-central-america">apprehended along its border with Guatemala</a>, more than the 135,000 that U.S. officials apprehended at <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/04/14/mexico-us-border-apprehensions/">our border</a>. Without Mexico’s help, many more migrants would have arrived in the U.S. </p>
<p>The broad opinion in Mexico, however, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/01/27/reasons-mexico-hates-border-wall/97128754">views the wall plan</a> and the accompanying rhetoric about Mexicans as affronts to Mexico’s dignity. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexican-response-backlash-to-trumps-wall-and-president-2017-1">They bridle</a> at the <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-outrageous-comments-mexicans-article-1.2773214">public characterizations of Mexicans</a> during the campaign as criminals and shudder at talk of mass deportations. </p>
<p>Mexican officials tell me that if the U.S. wants to build it on U.S. territory, that is our choice. Trying to force Mexico to pay for it, however, is rekindling resentment about past U.S. abuses of Mexican sovereignty, they argue. </p>
<h2>The real danger</h2>
<p>When Trump <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/25/politics/mexico-president-donald-trump-enrique-pena-nieto-border-wall/">publicly tweeted</a> that Mexican President Pena Nieto should not visit Washington if he will not pay for the wall, he painted his counterpart into a corner with the Mexican public, forcing him to cancel his trip.</p>
<p>Subsequently, the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/02/politics/mexico-foreign-minister-anderson-cooper/">two presidents spoke by phone</a> – with <a href="http://time.com/4657474/donald-trump-enrique-pena-nieto-mexico-bad-hombres">Trump reportedly suggesting</a> he could help by sending the U.S. military south to take on the drug cartels, setting off alarm bells in Mexico. Talks between Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his counterpart and other officials have since calmed things down. </p>
<p>But the public attacks have created a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-border-wall-announcement-builds-more-resentment-in-mexico-1485364860">strong sense</a> that Mexico must resist U.S. pressure and be prepared to respond firmly. Some social groups <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/02/news/economy/mexico-boycott-america-trump/">are already calling for boycotts of U.S. goods</a>. </p>
<p>The real danger is that U.S. words and actions will revive the old sense of hostility in a country very important to our security and prosperity. That would be very costly for U.S. workers, companies, consumers and farmers, not to mention the security of our homeland.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72350/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Earl Anthony Wayne consults for and is affiliated with the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center and with HSBC. In my biographic note, I disclose that I work for the Wilson Center as a Public Policy Fellow. That is connected with the Center's Mexico Institute. The Mexico Institute would likely have some minor reputational benefit from this article being published. I work as a part-time advisor to HSBC in Mexico and Latin America, specifically on ways to improve systems for preventing illicit finance from going through the bank. That advisory work is not tied to this article, but it is work associated with Mexico, so I wanted to specifically disclose it. </span></em></p>A former ambassador to Mexico explains how Trump’s rhetoric is sparking a backlash that could endanger U.S. economic and national security.Earl Anthony Wayne, Visiting Professor of International Affairs, Hamilton CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.