Donald Trump and his supporters

In the throes of the Presidential primary races, there is a great deal to discuss with respect to Donald Trump's behavior and that of his followers. Needless to say, there is much by which to be disturbed. Many others have noted the relevant issues that thoughtful individuals ought to have regarding Trump, his popularity, and what the whole circus means for the country, and so I do not have to really get into it here.

However, I was reading Contingencies of Reinforcement: A Theoretical Analysis (1969) early this morning and came across a wonderful passage that strikes me as relevant. In Chapter 2, "Utopia as an experimental culture," Skinner writes:

The man who insists upon judging a culture in terms of whether or not he likes it is the true immoralist. Just as he refuses to follow rules designed to maximize his own net gain because they conflict with immediate gratification, so he rejects contingencies designed to strengthen the group because they conflict with his "rights as an individual." He sets himself up as a standard of human nature, implying or insisting that the culture which produced him is the only good or natural culture. He wants the world he wants and is unwilling to ask why he wants it. He is so completely the product of his own culture that he fears the influence of any other. He is like the child who said: "I'm glad I don't like broccoli because if I liked it, I'd eat a lot of it, and I hate it."

The connections to many current political hot-button topics are clear. Those that currently stand in the way of social and political progress are as petulant and myopic as the child described above.