The case is actually somewhat worse than he or his sources contemplate. It is not merely the case that we have overproduced candidates for elite positions, far beyond the number of such positions to occupy. The fact is that we have separate classes of elites and would-be elites that are competing for power and control. The present administration is damaging the pipeline for one of these classes by shutting down entities like USAID, hampering Harvard and the Ivys, and so forth. The National Endowment for Democracy continues to survive, protected by Federal judges -- as Harvard hopes to be. Here too are the teachers and public sector unions, and indeed all the Federal agencies. They have been in power for decades, and the attempt to unseat them is uncertain to succeed.
Over against these are a large number of educated men and women who would like to be in control at least of their own lives and businesses, but that runs into the teeth of the first class' power to regulate and control. These include, of course, Elon Musk and the young men who volunteered for DOGE. It includes the Heritage Foundation and its supporters who wrote Project 2025. They are intentionally and explicitly waging an insurgency against the cemented power of the first class, which is responding by trying to rally and crush them.
The conflict doesn't really touch most of us except slightly and at the edges. A little more of your wealth may be extracted as taxes if one side wins; as student loan payments or tariff-inflation if the other side does. You will be a little freer either way because they are so busy fighting each other they haven't got time for us anymore: gone are the days when the cemented class could spend its time destroying small-town bakeries for thoughtcrime. Now it's fighting tooth-and-nail for its own survival, and hasn't time to think of us any more.
7 comments:
"gone are the days when the cemented class could spend its time destroying small-town bakeries for thoughtcrime".
I wish- WA just elected the former state AG to Governor- he was instrumental on bring recurring lawsuits against a baker here in WA.
The downside of federalism, I suppose.
There've been some reports lately about AI systems (Large Language Models) which desperately and sometimes sneakily try to avoid being shut down or replace. Seems similar to entities such as NPR filing lawsuits to demand the federal funding continue.
Well yes, but remember that they are trained on our literature. Any sort of betrayal or dishonesty that regularly turns up in novels or plays will seem like a logical deduction to them given similar circumstances.
Related to this discussion: What is the issue with 'Elites'?
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/70852.html
Arms and White Samite post is not showing, for some reason.
I took it down because the link was not working for everyone. It required Google document permissions I do not control. I’ll put it back later when people can reliably access it.
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