Chapter Nine: A Model Leader

Abstract

Reinforced by the previous ethnography-driven discussion, the theory turns to the political systems in US and Europe. Why have these systems rather accelerated than prevented the rise of simplex society, as epitomized in Trump’s post-truth presidency. Don Handelman’s pair of model and mirror in rituals comes in handy.The dwindling mediation between progressives and conservatives testifies to sedimented simplication. Politics has become ritual. Democrats distend their experiential frame toward the globe, so the best leader would be the one mirroring all. Republicans have their sphere contracted, so they elect a model they want to become. The so-called culture wars, science wars, the rise of post-fact, conspiracy and antivax theories, and the anti-conformist distrust of elites point to a divergence between ‘Stick to the facts, no belief’ and ‘Only belief, distrust facts’. It follows generations of simplication that left intuition untrained.The chapter counteracts the tendency by demonstrating that Democrats and Republicans complement each other as halves after the split. Each misses what the other has. The interrelation and dynamic of mutual learning are obvious in a tensorial and matrixial world, but no longer in a vectorial one. To rehumanize is to speciate.