Let’s think about where we are, and where we go from here, in the good old USA.
Where we are, I think, is the utter failure of the rule of the educated class.
I understand our modern age as the Age of the Educated Class, and I see it coming to political power in two stages.
The first stage we may call the Stage of Revolution, when educated commoners created an ideology that delegitimized the rule of the nobles. In Britain with its Civil War and Glorious Revolution, in the US with our Declaration of Independence and Constitution, in France with its Revolution, the old noble order was set aside and the new rule of the non-noble classes established.
I interpret this Stage as a mere admission of the fact of the rising merchant class and business class. European society was becoming something more than noble landowners dominating and defending their agricultural peasants. Clearly the rising educated class was better qualified to set the parameters of a post-feudal society than the noble descendants of the old feudal barons. Yes, it was all done with talk of natural rights, but the bottom line was the class transition.
The second stage we may call the Stage of Administration, when the educated elite began to implement the idea that educated, evolved administrators should direct traffic in modern society. The idea was that government by educated administrator was clearly better than government by mere supporters of the government according to the old spoils system.
I interpret this Stage as a general response in the mid 19th century among educated people that experienced society and the economy changing almost out of control and something had to be done — by people like them — to prevent everything from flying apart.
In my view, it is by no means certain that educated class thinkers could or would establish a new social and political order that was clearly better than the old order. And science has established in the last century that the administrative state doesn’t work as advertised, any more than the other wizard wheeze of the educated class: socialism.
Let us look at the current moment through this lens.
The Supreme Court’s recent decision cutting back on affirmation action / quotas / diversity on race has provoked rage among our liberal friends. I interpret this response as a natural human inability among our liberal friends to understand the consequence of their policies. I would say that if you wanted to stunt the social and economic progress of any group you couldn’t do better than welfare policies to discourage women from marrying the fathers of their children, quota programs to boost unqualified candidates because of their race or sex, and an education system totally unresponsive to the input of parents. But if you were the people that created all these policies the last thing you would do is admit that they all failed.
But from the political point of view, things look different. If you get welfare then you think that it is a good thing, and you would vote for people that increase it, especially in these inflationary times. If you are likely to be a beneficiary of racial quotas, such as Justice Jackson, you would think diversity programs are the best thing since sliced bread. If you are an administrator in the school system, you would think it is a good thing, as it certainly is: for you. If you are a politician that supports welfare, quotas, and public education then these are good things that create political support. Thus both recipients and providers of gubmint programs are unlikely to be able to see the other side: the damage done.
Let us look at this through the lens of Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt and his Concept of the Political as friends and enemies. Of course a politicians looks after the folks that vote for him. And of course the folks that get stuff from the government like the politicians who dish it out. That is the nature of politics. But, you may ask, should politicians be taking other peoples’ money to win votes, and should people be willing to support politicians that buy their votes with other peoples’ money?
So, is the Stage of Administration with its educated administrators any different than the days of the old spoils system? I declare that any politics will descend into a spoils system, sooner rather than later.
Then there is the science, that administrative government cannot work because it does not have the bandwidth to deal with the complexity of the human, market economy, that economic regulation cannot work because it always ends up being “captured” by the folks being regulated.
But imagine you are a liberal, and you believe in the regime narrative that educated, evolved people are the answer to injustice and racism and sexism and white supremacy. Clearly, if we haven’t yet turned the corner on the arc of history towards justice then it can’t be because the whole program of the administrative state is flawed form the start. No it’s got to be those racist sexist white supremacists.
That explains the politics of the last five years. Our liberal friends haven’t even begun to grapple with the idea that maybe they and their ideas are the problem. Do you see how impossible it is for them to get their brains around such an idea?
I think that what we need to do is grasp the idea that, unless we are dealing with a real enemy, politics and government are not the answer.
If we are dealing with with migrants to France from North Africa or blacks in America that have not assimilated to the market economy, then we need to think about how we — ordinary citizens — help these people adapt their culture so that they can thrive in the modern economy. If we treat them like victims and shovel money at them then we are making things worse. Note that the frustration of the lower class, that explodes into ruling-class sponsored riots, are the fault of the ruling class that has not thought about and not provided a road to the middle class.
If we are dealing with ordinary middle class people we need to think about how to make sure that the economy helps them go about their lives of work and marriage and children. When we create inflation that boosts housing prices, and expensive colleges and credentialing that makes it hard to get jobs, and regulations that make it hard for small businesses to thrive, then we are not helping ordinary middle class people.
If we are dealing with the educated class, then we need to be clear that the purpose of society is not to give them meaningful jobs in government and the non-profit sector that help them “make a difference.” Our upper classes need to do all that on their own dime, and not use taxes from corporations and the rich to give their lives meaning. The life of the creative is hard, and likely to fail. The travails of an educated person are not to be blamed on racism and deplorables. We are living in the world the educated people created; if there is a problem, they did it.
Of course, the bottom line is that our current ruing class of the educated has failed, and really doesn’t have a clue what went wrong and what to do. It is time for it to give up the public square to new people and new ideas.
Imagine that!