My Political Identity - Essay Example

My Political Identity In choosing five aspects of my identity in order to create a rationale for the way in which I see the world in its political context and why I vote that the way that I do, I chose socio-economic status, personality, socialization processes, perceptions of leadership, and my perceptions of social movements. In these criteria are the essential influences to the way in which I vote and the way in which I perceive the world. Through an examination of the relevant theories of political psychology as measured against these five aspects of my personal development, the reasons why I choose to have the belief systems that I possess will become clear. In the examination of my personal beliefs, as measured against my socio-economic status, personality, socialization, perceptions of leadership and perception of various social movements, a portrait of a political belief system will begin to emerge. One of the central sets of theories that can be considered when considering the reasons for developing a political ideology can be seen through motive theories of personality. Those motives considered the Big Three are the need for power, the need for affiliation intimacy, and the need for achievement (Cottam, Ditz-Uhler, Masters, and Preston 21). The five aspects of my personality that I have chosen to identify the origins of my political ideologies against can be discussed concerning these three motivational paradigms. When considering these five aspects through the need for power, my need to control my world and define it under my terms is one of the driving forces towards my beliefs systems about the environment and the responsibility of business towards the world as a whole. While my socio-economic class places me in the upper middle class, my rebellion against the wealth of my parents coupled with my need to control my personal environment extends to me believing that corporations need to spend more money on social responsibility to the expense of their bottom lines in order to live in a world where breathing and eating are safer activities. As much as my beliefs would be considered liberal, they are based on selfish beliefs that the world is slowly poisoning all of us and that without more money spent towards environmental responsibility we are all going to end up as overweight, asthmatic, sterile imitations of human beings by the time my children are grown. The need for power is also the need for control and it is frustrating to not be in control of the toxins that I breathe in and the pollutants in my food. Through the need of affiliation, the causes the support social responsibility are more tightly woven and provide a more comfortable group setting in which to complain about the way in which the corporate powers are polluting the world. The challenge of living through green practices and becoming an example for my personal beliefs about how to promote the best possible methods for protecting the environment satisfy my need for achievement. As a bonus, when I sway someone towards my way of thinking I feel both powerful and like I have achieved something valuable. Through swaying more members towards my green way of thinking, I have created affiliation. This leads directly into social identity theory in which I have created a self-perception of the type of group that I belong in within the social context and what this means for my own personal identity (Hogg and Terry 3). Although I was born into a more privileged state of wealth, I have positioned myself as one who spends money through a more conservative set of beliefs in the context of preserving our natural resources through recycling and using reusable items as opposed to disposable items. My status allows me to buy vehicles that are more gas conscious and to use a high-end mountain bike in order to save on fuel, but these actions mean that I belong to a group of people that wants to preserve the environment through whatever means are available to them. I was socialized to believe that with money comes power and privilege, but because the environmental issues that I have recognized in the world have to lead me to believe that I am essentially powerless and that money only fools people into thinking that they have power over the world, I tend to rebel against this theory and work towards appearing as if I do not have those kinds of resources. This helps me to belong to a diverse group that has common beliefs rather than to be absorbed by those who share an equal socio-economic status. My beliefs were developed in my socialization not because I adhere to the beliefs of my parents, but because of my recognition of matters outside of their traditions, I reject their excess in order to follow my own path. Although my parents are good people, they tend to be more materialistic than I can be at this point in my life. The one way in which I was socialized that I will follow is that it is important to dedicate one's career towards success. With success comes material wealth, and with that kind of wealth, there is the potential for waste. In my life, I would like to eliminate the waste that is harmful to the world and dedicate what I can to creating a healthier world as a whole. While it is possible that this is an idealized belief system, the potential for creating a better world does exist and I believe that through success, social responsibility is more possible to pursue. Those without resources have more difficulties in thinking outside of their immediate needs, but when food and shelter are not as difficult to maintain, larger causes can take precedence. My intention for my social identity is that it will be defined by my contribution to the world in order to make it a more balanced place where social issues are involved and to create a world in which hunger and homelessness are addressed through means that are effective. My perceptions of current leadership and social movements lead me to believe that society is not focused on those aspects of life that are most important. While my social identity is defined by my beliefs in social responsibility, my beliefs in the current leadership are wary as I do not see active movements towards real change. While I am impressed with the actions of the ‘occupy' movements, there needs to be more work towards creating higher levels of achievement in real change. The movements are making noise, but they are not influencing policy as yet. Theories on voluntary citizen participation help to frame the way in which individuals within a democracy are supposed to participate in the world around them (Borgida, Federico, and Sullivan 15). Through beliefs that rights are in jeopardy, social movements are supposed to be changing the world. The world is a precarious place right now, however, and changes seem to be more difficult to achieve but change is definitely needed so that the world is a more equitable place in which to live. That is the world that I would like to live in and be a part and that is what drives me towards the choices that I make in politics. According to Borgida, Federico, and Sullivan, the primary approach to citizenship is the rights discourse. They state that "citizenship is a strong association with the law and a view of the citizen as the bearer of rights" (Borgida, Federico and Sullivan 94). Change is the enactment of the association to the law that the citizen must engage in order to create their framework of rights. When those rights are not being honored, the citizens must engage the government in order to make the system work as it should. Currently, the division between the classes and the stresses that have been placed on the lower classes has created a system in which rights are being violated. They are being welcomed because leadership from some points of view have been convincing the lower classes that they have the potential for wealth and therefore must protect the wealth that they may have – someday. This type of thinking is placating the lower classes until they no longer understand when their rights are being violated. The citizens of the United States seem to be under the delusion that if they are not wealthy it is because they are being punished or they are in a waiting pattern for the day when they will be a part of the upper class. Because of these delusions, they are voting in ways to protect the wealthy without considering how this is affecting their ability to survive. Meanwhile, the corporations are being protected while millions are losing their jobs. Seeing the delusions of the people have led me to believe that the majority of leadership in this country is contradictory to what is best in this nation. The discourse of rights has taken on a deluded sense that to protect the rich is to the future of the masses. The memory of Joe the Plumber haunts the common sense of the American public; a man making a low-level salary under the impression that higher tax for those in the six digit income was going to affect his future. There is nothing wrong with dreaming. Dreaming to the detriment of the present, however, is futile. The rights of the average person are being violated because the economy is now structured so that the average person has a very difficult time attaining the American Dream. Exploiting the public through encouraging dreams that are beyond the income of the average person is a part of what has caused the current economic crisis as people were buying houses that were well beyond their means trying to fit into the expectations of the appearance of wealth where wealth is not a reality. The discourse of rights has become perverted, a testament to dreams rather than realities. The development of my belief system was greatly influenced by the folly of Joe the Plumber as he advocated for the upper classes when it is unlikely that he would have found his fortune from the path that he was on. It is possible that his fifteen minutes of fame has raised his level of income, but he is one within the masses whose moment in the spotlight elevated his status, but this is not the norm. Seeking the six figure income is a laudable effort, but the way in which government is structured should be to protect the weakest in the links that bind citizenry together. The cliché has it right when it states that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link and in bolstering only the strong chains, the entire nation is becoming weaker as the people are suffering on a diet with no substance, filled with dreams that are unlikely to manifest and blaming themselves for a life that is not leading down the path to wealth. Therefore, I believe that my view on leadership as being ineffective in leading the people and in the weakness of social causes that are not aiming for the right targets have contributed to the development of my point of view on the political world. I watch as the world devolves into unrealistic belief systems that do not support the realities of what it is to be a member of the average class. There was a time when strikes and protests supported the rights of the workers, increasing their humanitarian benefits and demanding that employers treat workers with dignity and with a wage that is livable. There was a time when people took to the street, and then to the voting booth in order to support those who were being oppressed, calling on the government to make right that which was terribly wrong in the world. I spent a great deal of time in my life looking at the ways that people view their world, through the different decades as the rights of the people were supported. The discourse has changed, it seems, and what is remembered through the history of the 20th century has fallen away in the 21st, people no longer protesting for the rights of the average person, but believing that the average person is in a state of shame and despair, punished with the consequence of either poverty or struggle as they work to make ends meet. No one saves, no one lives within their means, and the cost has been a debt drugged public that believes that the ultimate and the best is what they are entitled to at all times. Willy Loman was a harbinger of the future, the need to succeed at a level beyond one’s reach the carrot that has been held out to keep the public in line. Currently, I don't affiliate myself specifically with either party. I think there are flaws in both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party and I find that I vote for the lesser of two evils rather than in a candidate that I believe in for his or her platform. I crave a candidate that I can get excited about, but as of yet, I have not had that opportunity to find someone in whom I can believe in as a leader. I look for a leader who understands the world for what it is and presents the people with the opportunity to rebuild their rights and to have expectations that are based on what is reasonable and accessible. This leader would be an exciting leader. A leader of the people is what I am searching for in a political representative, not one who bails out corporations over the working individual. The answers to the world's problems do not lie in feeding the corporations as they currently exist, but in finding a new way in which to base the economy that does not involve high levels of debt and unreasonable pricing or expectations. Looking to the attitudes of Henry Ford might help to recreate the world – if the average person can afford something, more of it will sell. The new mantra has been if lots of people can go into debt to get something, then more of it will sell, which may be true, but the debt will take away the potential of getting other items, stealing disposable income in exchange for monthly payments that eventually consume the debt ratio. The way in which I vote is dependent upon who is less likely to do damage to the average citizen and will work towards improving life for the majority rather than the upper 1%. What I yearn for is a political system that realizes that it has a responsibility to the public to support them towards a better life, rather than a judicious system that is bent on blaming them for their struggles, incarcerating as many as possible and creating a world in which being lower middle class is not a sin. I have given up on looking for candidates whose interests lie in supporting corporate responsibility for the environment. The environment does not seem to be a popular political point of discussion, even if it has become trendy to the public. I discovered an argument that perfectly expressed my point of view on most things within the public sphere. In a four grid argument where the rows represented the falsehood of the dangers of environmental irresponsibility and the truth of living with environmental irresponsibility in balance with columns that represent a positive active future towards curing the environment with the other column representing doing nothing towards curing the environment, the worst case scenario of doing nothing meant catastrophic collapse of the world as we know it where the worst case scenario of doing what was possible to fix the environment was high impact change to the economy, but the world survives. I believe that doing something, in this case, outweighs doing nothing as far as how bad the future can be if the environment does not find its way back into the center of the public conversation. This argument can be converted towards the economy and towards workers rights, but instead of dealing head-on with the realities of the world it seems the political world continues to keep the public in a fog of dreams, placated as if on opium into believing that the dream is a promise of bliss. Through my personality, I have developed a cynical view of the way in which the world has developed its discourse on rights. I was socialized to believe that materialism was important as much as success is important, but in materialism, I see waste wherein success I see opportunity towards a future that includes using that success to improve the lives of others. I have been motivated towards these ends through aspects of my personality which seeks to control my personal environment and in seeing the impact that the damage by others has done, I am frustrated with this set of uncontrolled circumstances. Even though I come from a high socio-economic status, I feel that most people are deluded into believing that they will get to that level of income and in believing in that future rather than a realistic future, they are placated into inaction and not protesting the state of life that has been forced upon them as slowly their rights have been eroded. I vote on who will do the least amount of damage, but I am seeking a candidate who will represent the world as it is and address the problems that matter. The kind of leadership that I see is still not approaching those issues that have the most important for the American people, and the people of the entire world. As an active member of the world, my political psychology is built upon a belief that politics should serve the people and not only its own perpetuation, and when it no longer serves, it should be challenged through protest and social action. This is the world that I seek. Works Cited Borgida, E., C. M. Federico, and J. L. Sullivan, J. L. The political psychology of democratic citizenship. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print. Cottam, Martha L., Beth Dietz-Uhler, Elena Mastors, and Thomas Preston. Introduction to Political Psychology. New York: Taylor and Francis, Inc, 2009. Print. Hogg, Michael A. and Deborah J. Terry. Social Identity Processes in Organizational Contexts. Philidelphia, PA: Psychology Press, 2001. Print. Ritzer, G. (2005). Encyclopedia of social theory. Thousand Oaks, CA.: Sage. Read More