Hochschild sees Mike’s attitude as a prime example of the Great Paradox and finds herself unable to understand why he rejects policies that would have saved his home she believes that an “ empathy wall” stands in the way of their mutual understanding but hopes that, over the course of her research, she can learn to overcome such walls. Although environmental regulations could have prevented the accident, Schaff opposes them-like many Tea Party voters, he wants to drastically cut the federal Environmental Protection Administration. She meets Mike Schaff, a former oil industry worker whose entire town had to evacuate after a drilling accident created a huge sinkhole in the bayou. In the first section of her book, Hochschild seeks to explain the Great Paradox by introducing some Louisianans who exemplify it. She focused on environmental pollution as a “ keyhole issue” through which to gain a broader understanding of the Great Paradox and discovered that, while white Louisianans’ overwhelming opposition to government regulation seems paradoxical from the standpoint of political self-interest, it is perfectly logical given the “deep story” of how they envision their honor, their dwindling opportunities in contemporary America, and the displacement of the traditional Southern endurance self by the liberal cosmopolitan concept of the self that increasingly dominates American culture. In order to do this, Hochschild spent five years interviewing predominantly older, white, middle- and working-class, Christian conservatives in an area of southwest Louisiana centered on the city of Lake Charles. She aims both to write a version of this story and to demonstrate how empathy for those from the other party can help heal the American political divide. In contrast, her research focuses on understanding the “ deep story” that captures how conservatives feel about themselves, their place in contemporary American society, and their relationships with other groups. Conventional analyses often conclude that conservatives’ behavior is contradictory, since red states have worse economic, health, environmental, and educational outcomes than blue states, and yet red state residents nevertheless tend to vote against public programs that would improve their quality of life (Hochschild calls this the Great Paradox). As political party affiliation has become the central dividing line in American society, Hochschild noticed that most liberal political analyses focus on people’s economic and political self-interest instead of the emotions that she argues fundamentally drive political behavior. Arlie Russell Hochschild, a renowned progressive sociologist who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote this book in an attempt to understand the emotional underpinnings of right-wing politics in the United States.
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