So, Brad. Pretty scary. . . but also accurate. You are the first, at least in my experience, to sound an alarm about the Post-modern Right, which I never worried about until you mentioned it somewhere else. I will turn 80 soon and am tempted to be past caring. I was a practicing lawyer for 40 years, almost all of which I spent in the Courthouse arguing with stupid people, fighting without cease for one thing or another, but I can say, immodestly, that I kept my eye on the ball, never forgot that Truth is always the most effective weapon, stuck to principles we seem to share and left feeling clean and that my career was all of a piece and worth something. Now, I am reduced to the status of bystander, seemingly without power to make anything happen, so I give money to people who, in my estimation, may. I appreciate your analysis of the so-called Deep State and would like to hear more about why the Left is so much more effective at getting results than the Better Angels.
Sounds like you have the subject matter for your next book! I would love to read more on each domain of the deep state. Not because I have any doubts about your thesis but because it needs to be written and shared with open minded readers. Thank you as always for your important work.
P.S. Your thesis makes me think of Dr. Peikoff’s book: The Ominous Parallels.
Creating sane enclaves in higher education won't do the job. We need to build an entirely new system. Defund the old system one piece at a time and use the money to build anew.
Your companion policy about home schooling really does replace the existing system, one child at a time. Infrastructure is needed. Universal vouchers are the most important. More curricular support in terms of study guides and help lines for parents (AI?). Lab sciences are probably the trickiest. Even if parents have the expertise, they don't have the facilities. Community colleges can be a resource here especially in states with dual credit systems for K12 and postsecondary. We also need to move athletics and other extracurricular activities off campus and into community centers or churches. Such activities exist for adults and could be expanded to serve children.
Great article, as usual. Regarding the second to last paragraph, I have been following the Lyceum Institute for years and love what you are doing there. My friends' son recently attended. While it's true there has been "no other program like it", there is a new college that promotes the values of reason, individualism and a free society and in which Socratic discussions play a significant role in the curriculum. It is called Reliance College and it is in Chicago. It gives me great hope for the future to see not only Lyceum Institute but other institutions doing exactly what you said needs to be done, reinventing higher education. And the move to school choice and homeschooling will prepare younger students to fully take advantage of such higher education opportunities.
“for every law passed by Congress, the Deep State issues an average of 19 rules and regulations that often have the effect of broadening and deepening and even changing the law well beyond its original intention. Congress passed 175 new laws last year, which the Swamp converted into 3,248 new rules and regulations.”
If you are going to claim that the BAP wing of the Right is the major and fastest growing wing, you need to provide proof. I for one doubt that statement entirely. Otherwise (with slurs like 'anti-American') you are just maligning the Right and all of it's members, particularly the younger and newer ones.
I remarked a decade ago that the last thing progressives should do is tell straight white people that being straight and white is the most, nay only, important thing about them. Too many of them came to believe it.
Defining Deviancy Down: The Left's establishment of the Cloward-Piven strategy within our Deep State, weakening both society and the dollar, is their tool for American Nihilism and (eventual?) Socialism.
The Post-Modern right say they want to reform the Deep State system One of their favorite lines is to point out that we are a "REPUBLIC" not a "Democracy". The definition of a republic, however, is to preserve the rights of the minority from the tyranny of the majority. The policies they propose hardly fit that description. What better fits is a quote which I unfortunately have lost the originators identity "He passionately wants the truth exploited, but it must be his truth, couched in his words, in the hands of his people and achieved by his methods."
We are now at a post-truth era where we either believe the truth is objective on one's own agenda, we make up our own truth and let the other side spin their wheels denying it, or truth is irrelevant, and the sole purpose is simply to mentally and emotionally own the liberals.
I really appreciate your willingness to put this critique of the neo-fascist, reactionary right out there. The American conservative movement, like the Left, have been participating in a Kayfabe with epic consequences, knowing that these dangers exist, yet publicly expressing complete denial, shock and horror at the suggestion.
Thanks for having the courage to openly confront it.
The post-modern right is new to me, too. I just wrote the first in a series I'm calling "Resist Evil;" the first was Money, the second will be Education. Thank you for this post. If, and that's a big "if," we can avoid a shooting war, we have generations of work ahead of us in reclaiming our inheritance. It seems to me, perhaps you disagree, that we need to reverse-engineer the gradualism of the Leftists that has brought us to this tipping point.
I do not disagree, but I am all at sea as to how to account for the Left’s successes theoretically. For example, I have investigated, prosecuted and defended some pretty elaborate criminal conspiracies and found that the the more elaborate they are, the more conspirators there are, the more likely they are to fail, to fall apart or be discovered. It seems purely a result of foibles of Human Nature. I guess it’s a question of Agency. I mean, take each of Brad’s Deep States, all of which are led by a human or humans - are they part of some cabal or just fish swimming in the same direction? If it’s the latter, why? Are we warring against “Powers and Principalities” or something older and much worse? The older I get the easier it is to accept the latter.
I think the bulk of people involved are useful idiots. I admit to having been one; as a member of the military I only now see that I was part of a machine that has had little to do with "defense" since WW II. The name should be changed back to the War Department, which is what it is actually about. I would say the same thing about most teachers in the "education" field, which is really more about schooling than it is about education. Most are ignorant of the fact they are simply pieces of the state and corporate machinery. To your last, I have come to believe that it is in fact evidence of spiritual warfare on the earthly plain. Good and evil are battling right here, right now.
So, Brad. Pretty scary. . . but also accurate. You are the first, at least in my experience, to sound an alarm about the Post-modern Right, which I never worried about until you mentioned it somewhere else. I will turn 80 soon and am tempted to be past caring. I was a practicing lawyer for 40 years, almost all of which I spent in the Courthouse arguing with stupid people, fighting without cease for one thing or another, but I can say, immodestly, that I kept my eye on the ball, never forgot that Truth is always the most effective weapon, stuck to principles we seem to share and left feeling clean and that my career was all of a piece and worth something. Now, I am reduced to the status of bystander, seemingly without power to make anything happen, so I give money to people who, in my estimation, may. I appreciate your analysis of the so-called Deep State and would like to hear more about why the Left is so much more effective at getting results than the Better Angels.
Sounds like you have the subject matter for your next book! I would love to read more on each domain of the deep state. Not because I have any doubts about your thesis but because it needs to be written and shared with open minded readers. Thank you as always for your important work.
P.S. Your thesis makes me think of Dr. Peikoff’s book: The Ominous Parallels.
Creating sane enclaves in higher education won't do the job. We need to build an entirely new system. Defund the old system one piece at a time and use the money to build anew.
I'd be lying if I said I disagreed!
Your companion policy about home schooling really does replace the existing system, one child at a time. Infrastructure is needed. Universal vouchers are the most important. More curricular support in terms of study guides and help lines for parents (AI?). Lab sciences are probably the trickiest. Even if parents have the expertise, they don't have the facilities. Community colleges can be a resource here especially in states with dual credit systems for K12 and postsecondary. We also need to move athletics and other extracurricular activities off campus and into community centers or churches. Such activities exist for adults and could be expanded to serve children.
Great article, as usual. Regarding the second to last paragraph, I have been following the Lyceum Institute for years and love what you are doing there. My friends' son recently attended. While it's true there has been "no other program like it", there is a new college that promotes the values of reason, individualism and a free society and in which Socratic discussions play a significant role in the curriculum. It is called Reliance College and it is in Chicago. It gives me great hope for the future to see not only Lyceum Institute but other institutions doing exactly what you said needs to be done, reinventing higher education. And the move to school choice and homeschooling will prepare younger students to fully take advantage of such higher education opportunities.
“for every law passed by Congress, the Deep State issues an average of 19 rules and regulations that often have the effect of broadening and deepening and even changing the law well beyond its original intention. Congress passed 175 new laws last year, which the Swamp converted into 3,248 new rules and regulations.”
If you are going to claim that the BAP wing of the Right is the major and fastest growing wing, you need to provide proof. I for one doubt that statement entirely. Otherwise (with slurs like 'anti-American') you are just maligning the Right and all of it's members, particularly the younger and newer ones.
A high-quality recording of this address would be very valuable!
I remarked a decade ago that the last thing progressives should do is tell straight white people that being straight and white is the most, nay only, important thing about them. Too many of them came to believe it.
Defining Deviancy Down: The Left's establishment of the Cloward-Piven strategy within our Deep State, weakening both society and the dollar, is their tool for American Nihilism and (eventual?) Socialism.
The Post-Modern right say they want to reform the Deep State system One of their favorite lines is to point out that we are a "REPUBLIC" not a "Democracy". The definition of a republic, however, is to preserve the rights of the minority from the tyranny of the majority. The policies they propose hardly fit that description. What better fits is a quote which I unfortunately have lost the originators identity "He passionately wants the truth exploited, but it must be his truth, couched in his words, in the hands of his people and achieved by his methods."
We are now at a post-truth era where we either believe the truth is objective on one's own agenda, we make up our own truth and let the other side spin their wheels denying it, or truth is irrelevant, and the sole purpose is simply to mentally and emotionally own the liberals.
I really appreciate your willingness to put this critique of the neo-fascist, reactionary right out there. The American conservative movement, like the Left, have been participating in a Kayfabe with epic consequences, knowing that these dangers exist, yet publicly expressing complete denial, shock and horror at the suggestion.
Thanks for having the courage to openly confront it.
The post-modern right is new to me, too. I just wrote the first in a series I'm calling "Resist Evil;" the first was Money, the second will be Education. Thank you for this post. If, and that's a big "if," we can avoid a shooting war, we have generations of work ahead of us in reclaiming our inheritance. It seems to me, perhaps you disagree, that we need to reverse-engineer the gradualism of the Leftists that has brought us to this tipping point.
I do not disagree, but I am all at sea as to how to account for the Left’s successes theoretically. For example, I have investigated, prosecuted and defended some pretty elaborate criminal conspiracies and found that the the more elaborate they are, the more conspirators there are, the more likely they are to fail, to fall apart or be discovered. It seems purely a result of foibles of Human Nature. I guess it’s a question of Agency. I mean, take each of Brad’s Deep States, all of which are led by a human or humans - are they part of some cabal or just fish swimming in the same direction? If it’s the latter, why? Are we warring against “Powers and Principalities” or something older and much worse? The older I get the easier it is to accept the latter.
I think the bulk of people involved are useful idiots. I admit to having been one; as a member of the military I only now see that I was part of a machine that has had little to do with "defense" since WW II. The name should be changed back to the War Department, which is what it is actually about. I would say the same thing about most teachers in the "education" field, which is really more about schooling than it is about education. Most are ignorant of the fact they are simply pieces of the state and corporate machinery. To your last, I have come to believe that it is in fact evidence of spiritual warfare on the earthly plain. Good and evil are battling right here, right now.