Well, as a student of history: when a country's fourth-largest city becomes a ruin, it is not an effect without a cause. People argue all the time about the fall of the Roman Empire. But nobody argues that it was an effect without a cause - a random event, a black swan, not correlated to any other event.Cow-eyed intellectual observers staring dimwittedly at the destruction of one of the Glories of the Republic. The cause? Whatever.
The fall of Detroit is an objective observation. Most people (even on Fox News) do not really connect it with the history of the 20th century, the FDR administration, the tradition of progressive government, the Great Society, John Lindsay, etc, etc. In fact, they try not think about it at all. Why would they? Their history is made of cardboard.
If you were as cynical as I, you might think that they don't look too closely because they fear that their pet policy prescriptions are in fact the cause of the destruction.
Man, you are such a cynic.
This is simply an outstanding post. Go RTWT. I don't agree with a lot of it, but it sure made me think. It'll make you think, too. This in particular is simply outstanding:
There are three basic attitudes toward government in America today. There are people who believe government is there to serve them; there are people who believe government is there to serve others; there are people who believe government is there to subsidize them. In our medieval metaphor, these correspond to peasants, gentlemen, and varlets respectively. The last is the caste Marx called the "lumpenproletariat" - and he was no fan of this group, or of political movements that exploited it. Respectable people say "underclass."(via)
When gentlemen look at progressivism, they see a movement whose purpose is to help the underclass, those whose plight is no fault of their own. When peasants look at progressivism, they see a movement whose purpose is to employ gentlemen in the business of public policy, by using the peasants' money to buy votes from varlets. Who, in the peasants' perception, abuse the patience and generosity of both peasants and gentlemen in almost every imaginable way, and are constantly caressed by every imaginable authority for doing so.
2 comments:
No cause like the root cause, man! If poverty and joblessness didn't cause it they have no explanation. It's not like welfare dependency was ever *really* connected to anything - you racist!
The comments are more thought provoking than the actual post.
What is his angle (other than snob / elitist)?
There really does seem to be an inability in the post and comments to understand that a grass roots movement can be independent of any central organisation.
Sarah Palin is a good communicator and a pretty face (Adolph Hitler was also a good communicator - and played the "ordinary man" card too) but, where German National Socialism was a Hitler personality cult, Taxed enough already would exist pretty much the same with or without Sarah.
Spontanaeous organization just leaves the Brahmin class desperately grasping for a role.
Therefore in the post, the collapse of Detroit requires a conspiracy or a policy failure. a simple series of unconnected mistakes by many individuals would give a much simpler explanation that does not require the brahmin class, but that would be unthinkable...
What side of the idea that being guided by the constitution will prevent the tea party et al from succeeding are they referring to?
Do they regard the constitution as too rigid and binding - not living enough?
Or too decent, and therefore not allowing for sufficiently radical dismantling of entrenched elites and their administrative fiefdoms?
Do they think that being smart, having studied history at a "good" university enables them to predict the future?
When I was a child, there were weather forecasts for three months ahead. now the realistic limit is about 3 days and even then, the pressure gradient in an Atlantic low can increase locally in a few hours to go from gale force to hurricane force winds - all nicely unpredictable.
What makes people think that political events or economics can be predicted? Sure, we can make plans, they might come off, but extrapolated graphs just belong on the wall of a post modernist art gallery.
Post a Comment