The Glass Bead Game

I suspect many of us don’t realize how truly lucky we are. First, we are living in extremely interesting times. I could say ‘perilous’ but that would attach subjectivity and skew what I’m trying to say. Second, we enjoy this space to air our views which are then read by a good many people. This puts us in the high upper percentile of the world’s millions who, for the most part, do not possess the means even to access a daily newspaper. They react to the vagaries of their rulers in predictable but ineffective ways even as they must watch the inevitable tragedy unfold before their very eyes. We are pretty much in a similar position, but we are able to shout (as the ancient sad tale, Antigone, teaches us to do). It is still uncertain whether or not our shouting will actually change the course of history. Experience tells us it won’t. But we are blessed to be shouting nonetheless. It is the only thing left to us.

I was brought face to face with this dilemma when my computer crashed last week. Suddenly, my shouting days were over. I felt as one with a noose already around my neck and tightening - unable to make myself heard. The network news no longer interested me. I had no desire to open a newspaper or listened to the radio. What good was any of that if I could not respond? I might as well have been living in a grass hut on some distant seashore, counting the waves crashing on the beach; or, in the shadow of some great impenetrable mountain.

Don’t assume for a moment that this shadow play we are witnessing - much of which, by its very nature, remains hidden - is composed of random coincidences. America has entered a political era in which it has likewise left behind a tradition and a certain skill. The battle ground has up until now been in academe, the various university outposts of which, in times of war and barbarization, have become little islands of rationality where the better minds of the opposing parties cautiously seek each other out and grope their way toward reconciliation. We, at ground level, only sense the fallout of what has been decided to date.

Whereas we feel unjustly excluded from this elite world, where it seems decisions are taken without regard to us, we must nevertheless conclude that the Left has won the struggle against conservatism - and by a decisive margin. How it will ultimately translate into our lives is still anybody’s guess.

Pitchfork Solutions

The success of America has always been relative. This means, it could have been better. Instead, we chose worse. The genesis of our decline began with higher education and spread from there. At first it was largely well-intended. Americans took an interest in the world around them. They wanted to know about other cultures and such. America is a big country and also somewhat geographically isolated. Unlike Europeans, they never traveled much to see for themselves what was actually out there. Many with Jewish names were barred from traveling to certain places or were treated shabbily once they got there. In order to sate their curiosity they turned to universities and colleges. And academia set out to fill this need.

They imported foreign scholars. What better way to teach about other countries and cultures than to have a native do it! The foreign professors were eager to accept. It was their chance to strike a blow for the home team. Their areas of expertise were rapidly elevated to the same status that traditional academic disciplines enjoyed. (The new courses were popular and brought in the money.) But their envy-spawned hatred of America followed them like a dark shadow. They were articulate and relentless in their criticism of their new world. They were often flamboyantly colorful and charismatic. Thus they succeeded in persuading many young, formative minds to believe that Utopia was just around the corner and that America wasn’t it; that, in fact, America hindered any possible progress elsewhere. They brought foreign concepts to the fore which sounded intriguing: Islam; communism; Buddhism; Hinduism; tribalism; Zen; etc.

Revolt had been brewing since the early sixties. The young needed a way to distinguish themselves – to find new, exotic ways in which to express themselves. All the new subjects – many under the aegis of ‘critical theory’ - turned students away from serious consideration of old hat subjects that their parents knew, excelled in and, in some cases, fought for.

These were the privileged among us - those who could afford higher education – who would eventually assume prominent positions in government, media, finance, education and industry.

It is often heard that in order to move ahead a college education is indispensable. It’s become a hard and fast rule, like the Indian caste system. The elite graduates from their ivy-covered cocoons would seldom come in contact with ordinary people. They were well compensated and could well afford to isolate themselves from the unschooled. Elitism came in vogue and without any real understanding of how life unfolds at ground level, they devised ways to dictate compliance as they felt was their right.

Now that the failures of their theories are staring them full in the face, they have responded by circling the wagons. They will be turned out at the first opportunity, hopefully to be replaced by people with real-world experience. They can thank God that the rank and file is comprised mostly of decent, principled individuals who would never resort to entertain pitchfork solutions.

The Tables Are Turning

We’ve come full circle. The various struggles here in America as well as around the world all have a common denominator. At first blush it appears to center on the Tea Parties vs. the Washington establishment; or Palestinians vs. the Jews; or Islamists vs. the West. But that’s only seeing individual trees in the forest. The overall theme of the forest is consistent: The masses are rising up against the elites and the elites are fighting back trying desperately to protect the status quo.

Elites can be found on both the right and the left of the political spectrum. The Jews have been the world’s foremost elites. They have traditionally defined themselves as God’s chosen people.

For most of their history - having been denied their own soil to cultivate - they have doggedly tilled their own domain: the mind. As such, they have succeeded in defining the narrative of ‘success’ for the rest of us. Jews are hard working and disciplined. They have become highly influential within the ruling structure of numerous (particularly western) nations. They have become instrumental to the advancement of the arts, science, technology and finance. They have (perhaps) disproportionally reaped the rewards of their forward thinking under the guise of academic accolades and material success.

While there is no doubt that Jews have contributed greatly to our modern standard as we have come to accept it, this has also sown the seeds of resentment among the rest of us. While it is commonly said that those who align with the Jews will never be wanting, and those who abandon them will be assigned their own special ring in Dante’s hell; with each passing day, this particular paradigm becomes increasingly less relevant. Jews, in effect, have become the target of a predictable world-wide push-back against elitism.

Ironically, the seeds of animus against Jews may have been sown by Jews themselves. Marx’s dialectical materialism (which includes the core idea that "the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles") stood Moses’ law (“thou shalt not covet, steal…”) on its head. It codified what had always been quite obvious (the have-nots wanting what the haves have) and made it inevitable, sanctifying the revolution (or cleansing) by which excess and inequity are tempered. But Marx focused only on the economic aspect. He evidently did not realize that there are other hierarchies, some based on birth, others on skin color, and still others on degrees of brutality.

The mullahs of Iran also represent an elite. The same tide set to sweep the high and mighty from their pedestals applies there as well (minus the economic aspect). It is only by brutality, fear and oppression by which they can continue to rule. And, again, in America, we are finally waking up and seeing that the ruling elites have become far too big for their britches. A political re-alignment has been long overdue. The proletariat is preparing to reclaim their nation.

World unrest stems from a push-back against the ruling elite by whatever ‘isms’ they choose to identify themselves. Left or right, elites are elites. The tables are turning. The last shall be first and the first shall be last.