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Unions Fight Against Two Trends: Cultural AND Political Trends

July 2, 2018

Two articles illustrate the uphill battle unions will face in the coming years… a struggle that may well ultimately decide the well-being of workers across the entire country.

Umair Haque’s article “How American Collapse Was a Choice“, published in mid-June, postulated that five myths– myths about our culture— led our country to make bad choices when they formulated their policies. Those myths were:

  1. The myth of anarchy — ”that a society doesn’t need a government or a social contract or anything at all to bind it together, structure it, and connect it.
  2. The myth of self-reliance— Americans belief that they should be able to do it alone or they were worthless.
  3. The myth of competition. As Haque writes: “If it’s every person for themselves, if I cannot rely on you, then what is the only thing left that we can do? Compete. Outdo the next little atom. Grind him into dust. Batter him until he’s defeated.”
  4. The myth of punishment. Hague links competition and punishment, noting that like the Spartans and Romans, Americans believe that by “mercilessly punishing” those who fail to adhere to the standards set by the ruling class, they’d “end up virtuous”.
  5. The myth of the predator. Haque writes: “The great myth Americans are taught today is that human beings are born to be predators — and the biggest predator is the best thing of all to be.”

When these five myths undergird the cultural norms, organizations like unions face an uphill battle because they contradict each. And, as an article by Colleen Wilson of the LoHud.com website notes, the political forces are seizing on this cultural disconnect and the direction of the political winds after the Janus case to promote a flight from the union. The think tanks funded by predators create a death spiral for unions… a death spiral that will not be stopped until our cultural norms change.

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