The Guardian view on France’s election: a win for Macron and hope
theguardian.com
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From one perspective, it's very surprising that establishment parties are doing so badly in Western countries. There is no real crisis in the West. There is no crisis of security (war, etc.), no crisis of economics (recession or depression), etc.
Compare to the 1930s and 40s, for example, when a depression beyond anything any living person in the West has experienced crushed economies, and the worst war in history swept across large parts of the world.
These days, certainly there are problems but there always are. Certainly there is a sense of crisis, but if you step back, things are actually pretty good and stable - except for that sense of crisis.
What did the establishment do that was so wrong?
Lower class citizens are having more difficulties finding "cushion jobs", and by cushion jobs, I simply mean very stable employments contracts vs the uberisation of everything.
Middle class citizens are losing their jobs in a dangerously fast pace. I'm not even talking about the firings, but simply the extreme market shift towards to automation which is making many well-paid, secure, by the books job careers pretty much obsolete.
What you have left is everyone else who is enjoying this rather peaceful, crisis-free, and rich in opportunities period.
I hope we will be able to tighten these gaps in the future, but it's very hard since... well, we're not really prepared to it. We're still accustomed to 'low risk, low-to-mid reward' while we should strive for more 'high risk, high reward (but low risk != starving to death)'
PS: To answer your actual question, I do however think: Nothing. We haven't just adapted more.