Passion Isn't Enough

Many Americans feel an obligation to keep up with political news. But maybe we should be focusing our energies elsewhere. In this episode from 2020, political scientist Eitan Hersh says there's been a rise in "political hobbyism" in the United States. We treat politics like entertainment, following the latest updates like we follow our favorite sports teams. Instead, he says, we should think of politics as a way to acquire power and persuade our neighbors to back the issues we support.

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Passion Isn’t Enough

/ February 10, 2020

Many Americans feel an obligation to keep up with political news. But maybe we should be focusing our energies elsewhere. Political scientist Eitan Hersh says there’s been a rise in “political hobbyism” in the United States. We treat politics like entertainment, following the latest updates like we follow our favorite sports teams. Instead, he says, we should think of politics as a way to acquire power and persuade our neighbors to back the issues we support.

Transcript

*The transcript below may be for an earlier version of this episode.
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SHANKAR VEDANTAM, HOST: From NPR, this HIDDEN BRAIN. I'm Shankar Vedantam. When Eitan Hersh was growing up, newspapers were a central part of the family's daily routine. If you were a member of the household, you kept up with the news.EITAN HERSH: My parents raised me and my siblings in a politically engaged environment - at least I thought so. You know, we always were - we knew what was going on in the news. The newspaper was delivered to our home.VEDANTAM: After Eitan went off to college, his father kept reading, listening to the radio, staying up to speed. And then a few years ago, Eitan learned that his dad had developed a new habit. He would lie on his bed at night and watch cable news.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: "OutFront" next, breaking news - Trump's tantrum, a jaw-dropping six-page rant...VEDANTAM: Eitan, now a political scientist, found this puzzling.HERSH: I've never really personally, like, gotten into cable news. It's never been something I've enjoyed. I asked him why he was doing it, and he said, you know, it's our duty to be informed. And I said to him, yeah, but you already are informed. You know, you've already read the newspaper. You've already listened to all the radio. What possibly more could you be getting from this?(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)HERSH: I think in the end, it was pretty clear that he just likes politics. A lot of people like politics. And to decompress at night, you know, more than the Food Network, the Kardashians, whatever else is on TV, he likes watching cable news.(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)VEDANTAM: Millions of Americans are like Eitan's dad. They eagerly follow television personalities and the ups and downs of the latest scandal in Washington.(SOUNDBITE OF NEWS MONTAGE)UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: Nearly a month after the House passed two...UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #3: That is all including...UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #4: The story seems to arouse the TV star Kim Kardashian West...UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #5: Right now...UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #6: Good evening, Rachel...UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #7: CNN tonight, Don Lemon starts now...VEDANTAM: They know who testified last week on Capitol Hill.(SOUNDBITE OF NEWS MONTAGE)UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #8: Tense moments in the room between Democrats and Republicans...UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #9: How is that...UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #10: If this is not impeachable conduct...UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #11: ...Within the White House.UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #10: ...What is?UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #12: Shake is...UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #13: What you heard...VEDANTAM: And what the rumor mills are saying about who's in and who's out at the White House.(SOUNDBITE OF NEWS MONTAGE)UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #14: National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has resigned after less than a month...UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #15: Steve Bannon is officially out at the White House.UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #16: And John Bolton is out...UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #17: He wasn't in the government. He wasn't in the FBI. Gentlemen, I have to jump in here. I love this debate here, but we have to go to a short break. After that short break, we'll continue our discussion on still more Washington scandals.(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)VEDANTAM: If you ask them why they follow the news so closely, they will tell you what Eitan's father told him. It's an act of civic virtue to stay informed.(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)VEDANTAM: Eitan Hersh is skeptical, and he has the data to prove it. He argues provocatively that what his dad is doing isn't really about politics or policy or elections. It's really just about his dad, what feels right to him.HERSH: It seems to me that the way that people are doing politics is much more similar to a hobby than to what I think of with politics, which is, you know, acquiring power.(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)VEDANTAM: Today, we look at a strange twist of modern politics in the United States. We live in a 24/7 cycle of political news that saturates every corner of our culture. It seems like this has led to increased engagement in politics, but Eitan Hersh says that engagement with politics for many of us has actually become more shallow. As a result, he says, our democracy from the workings of city government to the battle for the presidency is increasingly distant from the actual needs of citizens.The paradox of our passion for politics - this week on HIDDEN BRAIN.(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)VEDANTAM: Eitan Hersh is a political scientist at Tufts University. He studies voting, elections and how we participate in politics. In his book, "Politics Is For Power," Eitan makes the case that millions of Americans are engaging in politics in ways that are emotionally satisfying but ultimately self-defeating.HERSH: They're there to serve their own emotional and intellectual needs. They're not trying to move anyone. They're not trying to empower anything. They're really just trying to learn and engage in a pretty frivolous way.VEDANTAM: So I would imagine that a lot of people listening to you would disagree with your assessment of them. I think a lot of people would say I derive no entertainment from the shenanigans of the Republicans or the intransigence of the Democrats. In fact, I feel exhausted and dispirited by the state of our politics all the time.HERSH: I think that's right. Some people probably would agree that, yeah, you know, being on Twitter all the time or sharing a meme about some silly news story is entertainment. But the feelings that they bring to politics are much deeper. They care, and they feel hurt that politics isn't going the way they want it. And they feel joy when politics does go the way they want it. The thing is that what they're actually doing is not participating themselves in any active way. They're really just following the news. They're following the ups and downs of a presidential primary cycle or the Mueller report or the impeachment hearings. And so they, themselves, are not participating.VEDANTAM: You introduce a word that I hadn't actually heard in the context of politics. You said that people are really pursuing a hobby. They're in it for the feels, the thrill of debate, scoring points. And you call these people hobbyists. What do you mean by the term?HERSH: Yeah. So, you know, I was kind of reading through some of the sociology literature on hobbies. And what are hobbies? They are things that are people doing either to - they're learning facts. They learn facts about history. They learn facts about birds, whatever they want or they're engaging in collecting materials. They're - or they're you know, engaged in kind of crafts. And it seemed to me that the way that people are doing politics is much more similar to a hobby than to what I think of with politics, which is, you know, acquiring power. So they will learn a lot of facts and talk about those facts. They will participate in a kind of craft. Like, they'll go online and share memes, have a discussion, very similar to how sports fans, you know, listen to sports radio. They'll talk about the gossip of, you know, what this quarterback or that quarterback is doing. And that's sort of the end of it.In politics, I think that's exactly what people are doing, too. If we define political participation as a form of engagement, where you are trying to move public pol

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