George Monbiot (right-wing populists will continue to win until we grasp this truth about human nature, April 13) creates a very important point about the psychology of people following the demagogue and right-wing populist leaders. However, this knowledge is not new. After the horrors of the rise of the Nazis and their persecution by Jews and other minority groups around the time of World War II, many Jewish psychologists began systematically studying the origins of such hatred. It was one Henri TajfellA Jew, born in Poland, has his family murdered by the Nazis.
Tajfel was primarily interested in group identity and popularized the term intragroup and group group. To understand our time, Tajfell’s work helped show that he not only worked in success within the group (familiar with supporters of football clubs), but also experienced rewards in more sinister ways, but also within the group that meant deterrence within the group.
I think this is the psychology that underpins the difficult rise of populism around the world. We strive to our people who want to counter it to better understand the psychology that drives it.
Barry Greatrex
Derby
George Monbiott is right to emphasize the corrosive nature of inequality and how it undermines democracy and promotes the rise of populists. However, he overlooks two important aspects.
First, he concentrates on income inequality and disparities between the rich and poor, but inequality is a more complicated phenomenon. In reality, there are many intersecting inequality. Gender, health, disability, and ethnicity are important in determining happiness. Second, surprisingly, he does not mention the causal relationship between inequality and the nature and climate crisis. Without addressing inequality, we cannot find effective, sustainable and mere solutions to these crises.
As Monbiott points out, the current political system does not address inequality either systematically or from its roots. Many of those actions exacerbate the problem. Fortunately, the new political party Equality Partywhich of This year, it was opened for membershipseeks to stand up to this rising inequality. Its vision is a more inclusive and equitable society with diverse voices in decision-making at all levels.
Katrina Brown
Exeter
On the same day, the juxtaposition of George Monbiot and Polly Toynbee (labor did the right thing with British steel – now we need to speed up the radical strategies of all industries, April 13) had a tough but persuasive reading. A recent speech by US Bernie Sanders rings out with a list of issues that are clearly too painful for centralist politicians to mention. He reveals this is because politics was poisoned with a lot of money.
In this country, growth is the only way to do this, as labor government strategies have been doomed from the start by assuming that redistributable cannot be considered. This fails for two reasons. Growth is not happening, but growth revenue is covered by very rich people, and the rest of us (as Monbiot explains) look out.
Jeremy Cushing
Wiveliscombe, Somerset
