I can’t dispute this analysis, but would make one observation. Woke-ism seems to be the philosophy of the mediocre. They may have attended elite institutions but seem incapable of making a logical case for their views and merely resort to ad hominem arguments.
By contrast there is a small cadre of articulate, penetrating thinkers with a classical liberal or conservative viewpoint. As pointed out STEM professors are more balanced (politicised subjects climate modelling excepted). So, perhaps the real hope for the future lies in the more balanced view of truly competent thinkers.
This essay is very suggestive that we are headed for a dark age when the wokerati politic our civilisation into collapse.
Perhaps the small cadre of the competent need to establish a Foundation ready to rebuild (echoing Isaac Asimov). Or perhaps they will withdraw to a Galt’s Gulch (Atlas Shugged by Ayn Rand) until the wokerati, unable to repair anything, scream for help.
M
Miguelito
3 years ago
I think the first direction I would comment from is the failing of the conservatives. Would anyone in the US mention Socialism if modern Capitalism didn’t seem like not just a failure, but also immoral. Besides the absurdity of the medical system, housing, etc. costs are so high that many consider trying to raise a family as impossible. That’s a failed society and might just cause … angst. The Left is weak though. They have idealism and something of a system in Socialism, but they have huge problems down that path. What if the Left had more than idealism? What if there was a way to make it work? I mean the Conservatives have that, their system tends to work. It’s really not much different than the tribal societies based on endless competition and last man standing, but someone is left standing. I’m not sure that is a given now though. It’s not just that the cooperative win-win strategies are overall more efficient than the competitive win-lose strategies, but also while technology has enriched the ownership class it has also empowered the rest that are able to use it… and they are many. What if they were given a realistic path and goal? Conservatism is or is getting morally bankrupt. Could you imagine if it hit a real viable moral alternative? Ugggg… I should finish writing it instead of nattering on here out of boredom. Transition To A New Human Ecology
MA
Martin Adams
3 years ago
Like David Barnett, I cannot dispute this analysis. It had never occurred to me that the seemingly irresistible spread of left-liberalism was connected to prestige and fashion; but maybe that’s because I have one of the worst dress-senses of any man I know. Just ask my wife of 41 years. I have never been interested in following the crowd. That’s why I’m here.
I would, however, question the equivalence that Mr West repeatedly makes between the Conservative Party and conservatism. As the late Roger Scruton put it, conservatism has far less to do with creed or dogma than it does with disposition. Instinctively, a conservative knows that good things are easy to destroy and hard to create.
The current Tory Party (I’ll evade its formal title, for obvious reasons) keeps destroying institutions, policies and long-standing social values because it keeps passing legislation that paddles in the shallows of left-liberal policy. And it passes that legislation simply to keep itself in office. Within the Tory Party there are honourable exceptions ” men and women who consistently have campaigned and voted in the interests of true conservatism. But most have not, either because they have no truly conservative principles, or they do not understand the implications of what they are doing, or they toe the party line like Sir Joseph Porter in HMS Pinafore.
What is almost entirely lacking in this country ” most obviously in England, but also in Wales and, in a different way in Scotland ” is a party that combines the fiscal policies of classic liberalism (entirely different from modern left-liberalism) with social conservatism. One can argue about the extent to which any government of the last hundred years or more demonstrates the workability of that combination. But that’s another subject, albeit a fascinating one.
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I can’t dispute this analysis, but would make one observation. Woke-ism seems to be the philosophy of the mediocre. They may have attended elite institutions but seem incapable of making a logical case for their views and merely resort to ad hominem arguments.
By contrast there is a small cadre of articulate, penetrating thinkers with a classical liberal or conservative viewpoint. As pointed out STEM professors are more balanced (politicised subjects climate modelling excepted). So, perhaps the real hope for the future lies in the more balanced view of truly competent thinkers.
This essay is very suggestive that we are headed for a dark age when the wokerati politic our civilisation into collapse.
Perhaps the small cadre of the competent need to establish a Foundation ready to rebuild (echoing Isaac Asimov). Or perhaps they will withdraw to a Galt’s Gulch (Atlas Shugged by Ayn Rand) until the wokerati, unable to repair anything, scream for help.
I think the first direction I would comment from is the failing of the conservatives. Would anyone in the US mention Socialism if modern Capitalism didn’t seem like not just a failure, but also immoral. Besides the absurdity of the medical system, housing, etc. costs are so high that many consider trying to raise a family as impossible. That’s a failed society and might just cause … angst.
The Left is weak though. They have idealism and something of a system in Socialism, but they have huge problems down that path. What if the Left had more than idealism? What if there was a way to make it work? I mean the Conservatives have that, their system tends to work. It’s really not much different than the tribal societies based on endless competition and last man standing, but someone is left standing. I’m not sure that is a given now though. It’s not just that the cooperative win-win strategies are overall more efficient than the competitive win-lose strategies, but also while technology has enriched the ownership class it has also empowered the rest that are able to use it… and they are many. What if they were given a realistic path and goal? Conservatism is or is getting morally bankrupt. Could you imagine if it hit a real viable moral alternative? Ugggg… I should finish writing it instead of nattering on here out of boredom. Transition To A New Human Ecology
Like David Barnett, I cannot dispute this analysis. It had never occurred to me that the seemingly irresistible spread of left-liberalism was connected to prestige and fashion; but maybe that’s because I have one of the worst dress-senses of any man I know. Just ask my wife of 41 years. I have never been interested in following the crowd. That’s why I’m here.
I would, however, question the equivalence that Mr West repeatedly makes between the Conservative Party and conservatism. As the late Roger Scruton put it, conservatism has far less to do with creed or dogma than it does with disposition. Instinctively, a conservative knows that good things are easy to destroy and hard to create.
The current Tory Party (I’ll evade its formal title, for obvious reasons) keeps destroying institutions, policies and long-standing social values because it keeps passing legislation that paddles in the shallows of left-liberal policy. And it passes that legislation simply to keep itself in office. Within the Tory Party there are honourable exceptions ” men and women who consistently have campaigned and voted in the interests of true conservatism. But most have not, either because they have no truly conservative principles, or they do not understand the implications of what they are doing, or they toe the party line like Sir Joseph Porter in HMS Pinafore.
What is almost entirely lacking in this country ” most obviously in England, but also in Wales and, in a different way in Scotland ” is a party that combines the fiscal policies of classic liberalism (entirely different from modern left-liberalism) with social conservatism. One can argue about the extent to which any government of the last hundred years or more demonstrates the workability of that combination. But that’s another subject, albeit a fascinating one.