Information: the Great American Inversion
By: Michael Harris
Tags: Politics, Rural America, Democratic Party, Economy

I have a theory…

Throughout human history, as advancements have been made, practices and skills that have been made obsolete are replaced with new ones. Those modern practices and skills bring prosperity to the practitioners, and people shift to the new paradigm of how things are done. Some won’t adapt, but things move, generally, slowly enough that they can continue to exist in the halo of what will soon be bygone.

Regardless of the social, economic, or political system in which you exist, this has always been the case. Those that participate in the new system are ascendant, while those who don’t (or aren’t permitted to) become the under-class. But the primary drivers of life are engrained into the new system, so there’s generally sufficient demand to allow for upward mobility. Along with that mobility came social value and respect.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, agriculture and craftsmanship were prime drivers of economic activity. In the 20th century, we entered the industrial age, where manufacturing and engineering became central to society at large. Scarcity was engineered out of modern economies as automation and machinery was able to overtake much of the manual labor required to produce goods. People who were engaged in these professions, even with rudimentary skills, were respected and well-paid.

The late 20th and early 21st century have been dubbed the “information age.” The information economy and information workers have become ascendant. They drive much of the innovation and activity, and the pace has only accelerated in the last 20 years. Advances we only dreamed of in my childhood are commonplace today.

There’s just one problem: you can’t eat information.

For perhaps the first time in human history, we have created an ascendant class that cannot subsume or replace that of the previous age. We still need food, fuel, manufacturing, and industrial engineering every bit as much as we ever did. The information economy can augment these sectors, but never replace them. Our material needs remain.

Yet, information is ascendant. And, as we have ever done, the old practices are in decline. As are, I’m afraid, the practitioners. We value them less, we support them less, we pay them less, but we cannot live without them or the essential goods they produce and provide. We haven’t built them a bridge because we need them where they are.

This has led to what I call “the great inversion.”

The middle class backbone that brought America through the 20th century has nowhere to go. They’re trapped, left behind, unappreciated, and in decline. Understandably, there is a growing, seething resentment building.

I believe that this is one of the core drivers of the partisan urban/rural split, and the source of much of the anger coming from red rural districts across the nation. The status signals of just 40 years ago are now under-class signals. The backlash, as it takes form and substance, is against information and knowledge itself. Computers, smart phones, the internet, and social media are frivolous and immaterial. The digital information cloud that permeates and drives much of our lives is an affront. As I said, you can’t eat information.

How do you win the war of ideas when the ideas themselves are seen as the enemy? This is a pretty deep chasm to cross for your average 2020 Democrat. But it doesn’t have to be. Once upon a time, farm labor was reliably Democrat. We’ve lost that connection. And we’ll continue to as long as our rural communities feel disrespected, disregarded, and under existential threat from an information age that is bypassing them.

Farm and rural labor security needs to become a primary platform item for Democrats. And that has to happen right now. Our rural communities need to be offered respect and for their predicaments to be seen. We need to offer real solutions in their existing context, rather than admonish them to “get on board.”

Democrats have spent the last 50 years fighting to lift up the under-classes of American life. It’s at the core of who we are as a Party. It’s time to include farm and rural labor in that group.