When confronted by things we don’t like, such as brussel sprouts, loud music coming from the car next to us while stuck in traffic, and frequent ads interrupting our TV programs, we seek to avoid these annoyances, usually by ignoring them.

There isn’t much we can do about brussel sprouts or TV ads except ignore them.

However, a small subset of us react differently. These people commit road rage against other drivers due to a perceived offense. Sometimes this anger escalates into violence and even the death of the offending driver.

Only a few people perform this behavior, but many celebrate it. The idea is that if you don’t like something, it is okay to destroy it. This attitude is more prevalent among younger men. Still, the idea of destroying what you don’t like or think might be a danger to you has spread to a larger number of people across America and even into Europe.

This danger often affects a group’s identity or social status and is not necessarily a physical threat to its members. Understanding these fears may help us to understand the political shift to the right and the desire for a strong man to run a country. The idea that a strong leader can roll back the clock on social change and bring back the idea of a wonderful past has captured many young men who feel displaced and disrespected. These ideas are easy to accept, but the reality is that the past can never be resurrected.

In his book Future Shock, Alvin Toffler wrote about how life changes so quickly that many of us have become crazy due to new information and cultural changes. This upheaval is similar to a sickness that comes from too much change in too short a time. Nothing seems to be permanent anymore.

In the past, many young men could get jobs in the same manufacturing companies that employed their fathers. For the most part, this is no longer possible because those jobs do not exist anymore. Most of these jobs were physically demanding, and workers were prone to serious injury and death in coal mining and automobile assembly line jobs. Those jobs have been sent overseas, and the ones still here have been replaced by automation. These changes have mostly been good for people who now live longer and have healthier lives. Some downsides are that the newer jobs pay less and require different skillsets rather than physical strength.

Many of these newer jobs have been taken by women, and this change in employment demographics has negatively impacted the mental images held by some men. The old idea of men being the breadwinner and women the homemakers has been replaced with women being equal partners and sometimes earning more money than their male partners. These changes, among others like birth control pills, have served to change the image many men had of their place in the world. They are no longer in control, which is very unsettling to many men.

These employment changes and cultural shifts, such as the acknowledgement of the gay community, the rise of femenism, and influx of immigrants speaking different languages with different cultural values have all led to the large number of young, white miles voting for an authoritarian figure who has promised to bring back the “old days” - MAGA movement.

“THE GOOD OLD DAYS” never existed, and what they represented isn’t returning. What many of these men fail to realize is the desire to return to the past means, shorter life spans, no internet or smart phones, and no computers for them to watch their porn shows.

The present administration in Washington, which many young men voted for, is a temporary blip in the forward march of our culture. Many people in America are focused on our country. Still, the larger world is continuing to advance, continuing with medical advances, continuing with efforts to combat climate change, and continuing to find new social norms.

By the time we rid ourselves of this reactionary administration, the world will have made significant advances without us. The big question is, “Will we be able to catch up, or are we doomed to be a second-rate player on the world stage?”

As the song goes, “Don’t lose tomorrow looking back at yesterday.”