The Great Recession and the Populace Backlash

A new Darwinian left should embrace patriotism, as opposed to nationalism. We suspect that the upsurge of populism on the right and of rage against inequality on the left have much to do with the financial crisis. After the crash, when so many ordinary people lost so much, including their jobs in their homes, the bankers continued to be rewarded and went unpunished. Capitalism began to look more like a racket for redistributing upward than an engine of general prosperity. The Great Recession did not bring deaths of despair in the way that the Great Depression brought epidemics of suicide in the US and Britain.