Are the People Stupid?

I have discussed many times the relationship between social activism and peace activism, most recently here. Hannah Kim often raises this point in her articles in Ha’aretz. Her commentary on why Labor will lose the elections tomorrow, rings true:

“The lower classes, who have been stripped of their sense of security and control over their own lives, derive a sense of compensation for their own low stature from a xenophobia against the foreign and different. In the reality of impoverishment, it’s convenient to feel a sense of superiority over someone, and it’s easy to crawl into the warmth of nationalism, which apparently makes up for the daily sense of impotence.”