Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Politics and Religion
Politics in the biggest “hinge moment” since the industrial revolution?

Politics in the biggest “hinge moment” since the industrial revolution?

Last updated on: March 31, 2015 at 5:45 am by Gene Veith

0 Comments

Politics in the biggest “hinge moment” since the industrial revolution? 2015-03-30T15:08:27-04:00 Gene Veith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Political thinkers are pondering recent claims that we are in the midst of an epic transition that will rival the industrial revolution, wondering what difference these changes will make politically. The projections deal with technology but also demographics, as whites will soon become an aged minority in the United States.

So far the political implications being heralded are that the midwest will fade in political clout in favor of growing ethnically-diverse states. And that Republicans need to reach out to immigrants. But if we are going through a change bigger than the industrial revolution, there is surely more to it than that!

After the jump, an excerpt and a link to a much-talked about article in Politico, followed by an excerpt and a link to Peter Wehner’s discussion of what this needs to mean for Republicans. But then I will weigh in on what these political analyses are missing.

From Doug Sosnik, America’s Hinge Moment –POLITICO Magazine:

The country is going through the most significant period of change since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Across the United States, we are seeing a convergence of economic, technological and demographic forces that is transforming every aspect of our lives. These changes are all reinforcing each other, adding to the pace and the scale of the disruption. . .

Years from now we are going to look back at this period of time and see it as a “hinge” moment, a term Princeton Physicist Freeman Dyson used to describe a connection point that ties two historical periods in time, one before and one afterwards.

The University of Virginia historian Philip Zelikow has observed that “for only the third time since the founding of the United States we are in the early or transition phase of a new era in American and global history.” He goes on to say that “from the narrower point of view of economic and social history, however, we are in the early stages of a transition phase faster than anything we have encountered in more than 100 years, the largest since the economic and industrial revolutions of the late 19th and early 20th century.”

As the Industrial Revolution made clear, these kinds of moments don’t happen overnight; they build over time. Like then, a series of factors are now contributing to the tipping point we are rapidly approaching—most notably the economic uncertainty, global instability and technological advances that the country is experiencing. On top of these drivers, there is a demographic transformation taking place that is literally changing who we are as a country. . . .

[Keep reading. . .]

Peter Wehner in a Commentary article entitled Politics in an Age of Epic Transition, gives a Republican response:

The Republican Party, particularly if it hopes to be successful at the presidential level, needs to take these shifts into account. Some on the right seem to want to ignore these changes, or deny them, or undo them. None of these options are wise, and if pursued, each of them will fail.

For Republicans to succeed, they need to produce political leaders, and most especially a presidential nominee, who understands how our nation is changing; who can explain what these changes mean; and who can convince voters who are not now voting for the Republican Party why it’s best able to harness the forces that have been unleashed.

The Republican nominee needs to explain to voters why this transformative moment shouldn’t be feared but grasped; why it presents us not only with tremendous challenges but also with extraordinary opportunities.

This will require putting forward a modern, creative 21st century agenda that addresses middle-class concerns like higher education and health-care costs, wage stagnation and stalled social mobility. It means nominating a conservative standard-bearer who is a reformer and change agent, who voters believe can lead America to a new era of prosperity and renewal. And it means choosing a person to represent the party who, when saying our best days are ahead of us, is actually believable–and who inspires confidence in skeptics rather than simply inciting passion in supporters.

If we are, indeed, going through a new era equivalent to the Industrial Revolution, it strikes me that both the Democrats and Republicans are responding to it in old-era terms.

Candidates need to address “middle-class concerns like higher education and health-care costs, wage stagnation and stalled social mobility”? These are New Deal issues. This is not going to be a revolution of the “middle class.” That would be the social class and the priorities of white midwesterners who are going to be marginalized. The ethnic groups that are crowding them out are not typically middle-class. As Robert Putnam shows, we need to attend to the poorer class.

But even such breakdowns may not apply in any new era. The Industrial Revolution did divide people into the “middle class” property owners and the “working class” proletariat, a division exploited by Marxism and still a category used by contemporary liberals.

But if we aren’t in that era any more, might there be something different? The new technology puts incredible computing and information power in the hands of virtually anyone. Might that not erase some of the class distinctions? The Industrial Revolution finished off the “upper class” as conceived of in the medieval hierarchies, putting the bourgeoisie in charge. Might not the new technology eliminate the bourgeoisie, making us all proletariat bohemians? Or make it more possible for a member of the proletariat to become wealthy? And might the new information technology make geographical factors, which these political analyses emphasize, less relevant?

And what would be the cultural implications of the demographic changes? If whites become a minority, that will not be because of black people, whose numbers aren’t growing much either. Instead, the population will become more and more Hispanic.

So what would the Hispanicization of American culture look like? We might have stronger families. That would be a plus. The country would become more Catholic than Protestant. Maybe even more pro-life. We might actually have stronger moral values than we do now. Democrats who are giddy about all of the Hispanic votes they are likely to get need to consider that Hispanics are typically more pro-life, less feminist, and less pro-gay than the current Democratic party is today.

Asians are another growing demographic. Their influence will surely be positive, with their culture of hard work, strong families, and entrepreneurship.

The futurists are adding together all of the ethnic groups and counting them as one, against the dwindling number of whites, who will still constitute 44% of the population. But the individual ethnic groups will probably remain less than that. To lump them all together is to assume that they are all the same, but they are not. If the Hispanics bolster the Democrats–perhaps making them pro-life?–the Asians might bolster the Republicans.

On the other hand, important political values such as Democracy and individual liberty and the rule of law have historically been rather hard to find in Hispanic nations. India, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea are democracies, but many other Asian countries have tended towards authoritarian regimes. Many immigrants are fleeing authoritarian regimes, which means they might react against them in the direction of political liberty, though they might fall back into the only patterns they know.

The point is, no one knows if we are really entering such a new era. And if we are, what the consequences will be.

What do you think might happen if these changes materialize?

American demographics

ethnic diversity

Industrial revolution

political change

social change

Previous Post

March 31, 2015

Watch people experiencing color for the first time

Next Post

March 31, 2015 A scholarly study of anti-Christian bigotry

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"While she worked for Trump she was a tool's tool!"

reg

Luther on Tools

"I know wired earbuds are making a comeback (I never stopped using them as I ..."

reg

Luther on Tools

"VCRs, tape decks, and cassette players are all having a revival among a segment of ..."

Tom Hering

Luther on Tools

"As a (retired) lawyer I see potential liability from sharing things like power or sharp ..."

reg

Luther on Tools

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category America Apologetics Art baseball Bible Blog Christ Church crime Culture Economics Education Ethics Family Food Football Government History Holidays Holy Week Humor International Islam Language Law Life Issues Literature Media Medicine Movies Music Nature News Personal Philosophy Politics psychology Reformation Religions Sacraments Science sex Social Science Sports technology television terrorism Theology Uncategorized Vocation war

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: James says that if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is blessed in what he does.

Select your answer to see how you score.

TRUE FALSE

Books by This Author Books by Gene Veith

See All Titles »