Literary Analysis Essay on The Three Languages of Politics

Introduction

In his book, Kling discusses three political divides which he refers to the tribes. These tribes include the conservatives, progressives, and libertarians. He sees them as the tribes speaking different languages. This denotes that the three groups or the classes of people have different behaviors and that are unique to each tribe and does not resemble that of other groups. Kling posits that three are the political landscape that defines the Americans speaking different languages and the world that does not overlap. By understanding the language and the mindset of each other, Kling believes it becomes possible to understand the policy disagreement and hence lower the barriers that impeded the politics of America.

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Kling describes libertarians as a moral superiority over progressives and conservatives, progressives as a moral superiority over conservatives and progressives while conservatives assert moral superiority over libertarian and progressives. The libertarians are opposed to the oppressors is and feel that people should be left to do as they deem fit for themselves. An example is that libertarians are inclined to the view that the government should not induce controls over people as a means of controlling the consumption of certain foods. As such, the government has no point in regulating the intake of calorie and should hence not use police to regulate and guard its intake. People should have that intrinsic motivation to control whatever they take into their bodies without being coerced or harassed. Libertarians, therefore, encourage the use of activities that are harmless to punish the offenders. As such, they find the use of recreational services, use of excessive power and being under the custody of police as denial of rights. Such people are oppressed by the police and consequently the government.

The difference between the three tribal languages can be understood well the use of an example. Kling provided several examples to help understand the dynamics an ideology of the three political tribes. In the first example, Kling interpreted the Holocaust involving the Nazis who murdered many Jews. In this example, Kling used a three axes model to explain the conservative civilization-barbarism axis where he considered Holocaust as representative of the evil acts done by the people to see the institutions come down. The defeat of the Germans during the WWI made them abandon the traditional institutions. As a result, during the Nazis era, German started killing and to subdue such acts, the government and the traditional religion were to remain legitimate to the citizens. Traditional institutions such as religion could, therefore, not be abandoned since doing so would trigger barbarism. Conversely, in his progressive oppressor-oppressed axis, Kling explains that the Holocaust is seen as the danger of ethnic prejudice. The killing done by Germans is figured out as a negative stereotyping of minority groups. The victims who endured prejudice are the oppressed individuals. Under this axis, the prevention of such injustices can be prevented by teaching people that they are human beings. Under the libertarian liberty-coercion axis, Kling considers the Holocaust to be the dangers of putting faith in the all-encompassing state. Horrors of Nazis and Communists killing people can be prevented through the preservation of liberty and ensuring that the government has less power.

The second example through which Kling looks at the issue in a three-axis model is the goals of tax reform. In the context of the conservative civilization-barbarism axis, the goal of the tax reform should promote the traditional values. Barbarism is considered to be the penalties as a result of taxation which undermines the values of the civilized, families, children, and overall citizens. Conversely, the progressive oppressor-oppressed axis opinionates that tax reform ought to be imposed to reduce inequality. The tax collected should be used to provide public services and help the poor in society. Lastly, the libertarian liberty-coercion axis, the tax reform should be used as a means to seize the size of the government and tax should be very low. People should be disposed to liberty allowing them absolute freedom to use their wealth as they deem fit. In such a situation, the tax is obtained through coercion.

Use of language for Political Division

People use languages to divide themselves politically because people have different tastes and preferences. What one person considers as appropriate is not appropriate to the other. Hence, to channel a concerted effort towards a certain direction, people who possess connatural ideologies come together as one in form of a political tribe. Additionally, people are selfish and despite the plea to be open to everyone, some tend to take everything to themselves and as such only accommodate what favors them.

Kling posits that whenever people communicate about certain issues affecting them, they appear inclined to one of the three political tribes. When people group themselves in such groups into which they address issues affecting them, they engage themselves in political tribalism. To enhance the status of the group, members reach out to others who appear to have connatural ideologies and woe them to join.

Secondly, people tend to use languages to divide themselves politically in order to gain prestige. Kling states that people always have desire and value for prestige. The prestige is so contagious that it makes people compete for it. There are some people who would like to be associated with the powerful political group. As a rule of the thumb, people are created in such a way that they admire prestigious individual. The association to a specific political class is what a person needs and this makes them do whatever it takes to be in the group. One of the examples given in the book is when students are attracted to the prestigious academia where they yearn to be professors, full professors, assistant professors, lectures among others. Although students find it prestigious, even the staff members find it prestigious being in the top ranks and will hence strive to attain those ranks.

Thirdly, the desire to please the partial spectator compels people to trust in certain social norms so as to improve their self-regard. An example of this is when people tend to behave in certain ways not to go against social norms. As concerns morality, people become inclined to moral reasoning to an extent that moral behavior governs their character.

Reflection

Book writers are encouraged by certain unique factors. No one person wakes up and starts writing a piece of writing without any extrinsic or intrinsic motivation that compels that the idea is put in writing. In this regard, there is a motivation that led Kling into writing his piece of writing. Imperatively, Kling wrote the book in order to encourage people to take the first step toward healthier political discussion. He hopes that through the book, people will resist any form of seduction into the language. According to Kling, when one understands the opponent it becomes easier to approach that opponent. Similarly, he wants people to understand when other people are in agreement with them and the instances they intend to close the mind and pull down a discussion. Such an understanding provides an individual with an opportunity to engage in a process that is more deliberative. Another key reason why Kling wrote the book was to fight against tribalism I political arena. He alludes that the political discussion is faced with tribal animosity and such animosity yield divineness. Kling dreams of seeing a society that is free of tribalism and that is guided by mutual respect for one another and discussions that are well, properly and reasoned.

Due to their differences, whenever two distinct tribes engage in a discussion, a commotion will arise since the two groups do not understand each other and because they share completely different ideologies. Hence, Kling foresees a society in which the three tribes can hold a discussion or engage in an argument and carry on without any fight but a lot of understanding of one another. It is for this reason that he posits that understanding one another and the ideology each group it will be difficult to see the other person as one who lacks substance or an enemy but cultivates a ground to exist as one. Hence, Kling wants people to see that each of them is distinct and different from the other and as such should understand them as they are rather than profiling them.

Although the three languages of politics given by Kling are representative of the existing political tribes, there might be more than three. Due to social integration and cultural advancement, the way people approach things is dynamic and never static. Additionally, the intermingling of people brings forth people of the different caliper. The politics of the 18th century cannot be the politics of the 21st century, and this makes it impossible to have people confined to only three forms of languages of politics.

Categories of Oppressor and Oppressed

By the statement, "certain groups or classes of people intrinsically fall into categories of oppressor and oppressed." In this regard, most people find themselves in the category of the oppressor-oppressed. Kling implies that there are some people who cannot adjust their ideologies to accommodate people from other political languages. Here we have two groups of people, those who consider the oppressed and those who consider oppressing the disadvantaged. Hence, we have the oppressors who considered the less fortunate and disadvantaged as bad. Such individuals lack the complexity required to understand their opponents and to live with them in harmony. They think that they are essential such that they should oppress others to find their way in. Such intrinsic outcry yields tribalism. Imperatively, it is simple to confine oneself into a single group and live intrinsically, however, to live extrinsically, is complex since it requires that people understand their opponents in order to coexist.

Conversely, there are the other groups of people under this category who consider the disadvantaged to be good. Such people treat others well and open to understanding. However, generally, the intrinsic oppressor-oppressed are inclined towards having less concern for the oppressed and see other people, libertarians and conservatives as oppressors.

Work Cited

Kling, Arnold S. The Three Languages of Politics. Cato Institute, 2017.