RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://amgreatness.com/2020/12/16/what-is-to-be-done/

Over the course of several decades, the managerial ruling class has taken over. Republicans and Democrats each had their share of formal power, but the Left proceeded apace, regardless of who was technically in command, slowly capturing universities, large corporations, the media, and government bureaucracies. It now has power that is largely immune from elections.

My last essay explained why there has been so little resistance to a ruling class that has cruelly tightened the screws during the coronavirus pandemic and likely stolen a national election. As explained in that piece, economic insecurity and social isolation are the key structural foundations of the managerial class’ power. Insecurity and isolation are obstacles to an effective resistance by what is left of Middle America. 

In the comments section, some said, roughly, “OK, you explain why. But what should we do?” This is a reasonable question. Much of what follows is personal and economic, as the power of the system is personal and economic. 

To the extent political activity can succeed, it must be intertwined with these economic and personal reforms. Any purely political efforts should be local and issue-specific, rather than channeling our energies into a doomed bid for national power. 

Economic Independence

As so much of the system depends upon individuals’ embeddedness within it, separating oneself from that system is a large part of the answer. This requires a radical program of individual self-improvement. 

Various habits render one fragile and insecure, not least debt. Thus, avoiding debt and getting out of debt has to be one of the bedrock habits of any dissident. This is particularly true for young people, who are sold a siren song of credentials funded by student loans, when state colleges, learning a trade, or investing money in a business would earn a larger return.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-president-should-sign-the-bill-outlawing-female-genital-mutilation/

A rare worthwhile bipartisan bill has passed Congress that will outlaw female genital mutilation as a matter of federal law. From HR 6100, The STOP FGM Act of 2020”:

“(a) Except as provided in subsection (b), whoever, in any circumstance described in subsection (d), knowingly—

“(1) performs, attempts to perform, or conspires to perform female genital mutilation on another person who has not attained the age of 18 years;

“(2) being the parent, guardian, or caretaker of a person who has not attained the age of 18 years facilitates or consents to the female genital mutilation of such person; or

“(3) transports a person who has not attained the age of 18 years for the purpose of the performance of female genital mutilation on such person,

shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both.”

A word about religious freedom and FGM. The bill provides:

It shall not be a defense to a prosecution under this section that female genital mutilation is required as a matter of religion, custom, tradition, ritual, or standard practice.

That is right and good.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/12/omar-tlaib-and-aoc-demand-facebook-remove-100-anti-daniel-greenfield/

Two of the most notorious bigots in the House of Representatives signed a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg demanding that he “eradicate anti-Muslim bigotry from Facebook”.

The three-page letter signed by Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, as well as 28 other left-wing House members, spends a great deal of time demanding the removal of what it calls “anti-Muslim content” without ever specifically defining it. That’s convenient considering Omar and Tlaib’s own history of racism and antisemitism, and support for the sorts of Islamic bigotry and violence that groups like CAIR, which supports the letter, have become known for.

The letter spotlights one violent incident, but then goes on to call for a ban on “anti-Muslim content”, “anti-Muslim animus”, “anti-Muslim bigotry”, and finally, “anti-Muslim content and organizing” on the platform, without ever explaining what exactly they want to ban.

Considering the letter’s call for, “100 percent proactive detection and removal of anti-Muslim content”, the safe assumption would be that they want to ban everything critical of Islam.

That’s a disturbing attack on the First Amendment coming from 30 House members.

https://www.aier.org/article/the-rescue-from-madness

In his memoirs, written in the 1940s but not published until after his death, the great economist Ludwig von Mises wrote, “I set out to be a reformer, but only became the historian of decline.” Most people contemplating the political and economic climate of 2020 can probably relate. 

Many of us, frustrated at the loss of liberty and overreach by governments in the single-minded battle to eradicate a virus they don’t understand, have reached for George Orwell or Aldous Huxley. In their novels, 1984 and Brave New World, they explored incredibly dystopian worlds. Real-world events that resemble anything in those books invite the fear that we’re destined for the same tyrannical lives. 

While literature captures something deeply real about what it means to be human ‒ particularly during the first half of the despicable 20th century in which these authors lived ‒ they ultimately depict something unreal. The superstate of 1984’s Oceania hasn’t quite emerged anywhere, except perhaps North Korea; the foolish quest for unstructured and uninhibited pleasure in the World State has so far restricted itself to communes and sections of woke university campuses. 

Instead, I find Mises, or his contemporary, the novelist and poet Stefan Zweig, much more revealing. Both came of age in fin de siècle Vienna with its coffee houses, intellectual advancements, literary achievements, famed circles and aura of learning for learning’s sake that posteriority much envied. Both witnessed the prolonged and enduring collapse of their civilizations. 

In contrast to Orwell and Huxley’s unreal worlds, the demise that Mises and Zweig discuss actually happened, and just a few generations ago. In our times, in our worlds, with roughly our civic institutions and social structures and values. 

We are watching, in real time, the destruction of our own civilization.