ABSTRACT
Sound in politics is part of an intricate web of social relationships and imagined causal relationships to actions and consequences. These relationships are animated by sound and its synaesthetic links to emotions and sensations. These are demonstrated through two Enlightenment theorists, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith, who tether sound and sentiment to the birth and cultivation of the modern Western nation state. These theories are then applied to the social cognitive theories of Antonio Damasio, who links social emotion to a biological drive for self-preservation. Synthesizing these theories offers insight into the ways that sound, sensation, and affect shape concrete actions in politics and the nation, and why they continue to be powerful forces in modern democracy, despite contrary notions of rational choice and enlightened self-interest.
