Cable networks, Fox included, fill up with images of people rescuing or helping one another, a media sea change from last week’s pictures of political hate and discord.
How will such a psychic shift affect Tuesday’s voting? Will Romney gain as poor people are cut off from voting access or Obama benefit from being seen as more dedicated to people than politicking?
The Christie crossover offers a clue. As pundits parse his motives, the Governor’s change of heart is nonetheless a reminder that, when it counts, the contingency of human life can trump politics.
It also calls to mind the wisdom of psychoanalyst-philosopher Erich Fromm who in the turbulent 1960s was preoccupied with what he called “The Myth of Care.” Amid comparable social upheaval and rage about Vietnam back then, the author of “The Art of Loving” and “The Sane Society” kept searching newspapers and TV screens for images of people reaching out, helping and comforting one another.
His thesis was that such impulses are deeply ingrained in all humans and waiting to come to the surface when circumstances call them up, that they are their true feelings below a surface of selfish discord.
This week’s storm has brought with it to the surface of American life a new surge of caring. Will it be enough to overwhelm the Tea Party tides of selfishness and Romney-Ryan appeals to class division that have brought America to a turning point?
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