VASSALS-NO-MORE: THE "CLASS" PROBLEM INSIDE THE GOP

Thank you for blogging; your writings reflect that your thinking has roots in history. In contrast to much of the commentary nowadays, which seems to be spastic reactions (gracefully spastic, perhaps) to today's events. Your analysis of the GOP's straits is particularly cogent. May your tribe increase.

You have, I apprehend, pinned down & beaten senseless the essential fact of our Nation's political distress. I would put it this way:

Control is a drug & our politicians are well & truly addicted.

To describe the political terrain (& explain why those of us who love freedom are in such a difficult situation) I would replace the inadequate mental model of a Left-Right spectrum with a triangle:

The upper-left corner, I call Determinist. Those who think politics is a march to utopia (a forced march if need be) live here. The sundry flavors of socialist, communist, liberal, progressive are residents. The upper-right corner, I call Structural. Those who believe in freedom live here. The political blueprint for the structure is the Constitution. I (& I think, you) would call this corner home. But, in the lower-center corner, we have the Controlists. These are they who don't care what the flavor of political policy is, as long as they're the ones with the power. Here there be fascists, along with other, less-enthusiatic varieties of control-freaks.

Regards,

The essential problem the Structuralists face is that the Determinists & Controlists have made common cause. Of course, once power is consolidated, the Determinists' march to utopia will be cancelled, because for the Controlists, "power is consolidated" IS utopia. The life expectance of Determinists in this case will be rather dismal. To your analysis of the GOP, the elitist elements in the GOP are Controlists who talk a Structuralist game.

As to what to do, I quite agree that for the GOP to survive as anything other than an Igor to the Dem Dr. Frankenstein, principles must be primary. Those who say the GOP must 'reach out' to 'groups' want the GOP to play the patronage game. That's playing right into their enemies' hands. Instead, something like: Gov't's place is at the boundary of society, to provide for our common defense & create a place of domestic tranquility wherein We, the People, enjoy life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness.

What will give life to principle is action, however. For example, the political establishment has just betrayed some 1700 low-income, minority families in Washington DC by ending their educational choices -- & chances. What if persons of a Structuralist orientation put together scholarships to keep those kids free? Principles can change minds, but this kind of action can capture hearts.

BTW, have you ever read William Livinstone, "Have Fun At Work"? His take on bureaucratic dysfunction was a lifesaver for me.

Regards,

The essential problem the Structuralists face is that the Determinists & Controlists have made common cause. Of course, once power is consolidated, the Determinists' march to utopia will be cancelled, because for the Controlists, "power is consolidated" IS utopia. The life expectance of Determinists in this case will be rather dismal. To your analysis of the GOP, the elitist elements in the GOP are Controlists who talk a Structuralist game.

As to what to do, I quite agree that for the GOP to survive as anything other than an Igor to the Dem Dr. Frankenstein, principles must be primary. Those who say the GOP must 'reach out' to 'groups' want the GOP to play the patronage game. That's playing right into their enemies' hands. Instead, something like: Gov't's place is at the boundary of society, to provide for our common defense & create a place of domestic tranquility wherein We, the People, enjoy life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness.

What will give life to principle is action, however. For example, the political establishment has just betrayed some 1700 low-income, minority families in Washington DC by ending their educational choices -- & chances. What if persons of a Structuralist orientation put together scholarships to keep those kids free? Principles can change minds, but this kind of action can capture hearts.

BTW, have you ever read William Livinstone, "Have Fun At Work"? His take on bureaucratic dysfunction was a lifesaver for me.

Regards,

You said that better than I ever could. Robert Hightower is our bureaucracy guy and says that the hard part about bureaucracy is that it is made up of good people doing evil deeds...like zombies, or automatons.
It's hard to go after them, still we must.
Moses Sands also broke the world down into three's, (all things come in twos' sometimes three's) French, German and American, representing a class view (Fr) of the world, an engineered view (Ger) and a common man's view.
We believe here that modern elitism is driven not by a wish to control the common man but from an underlying great anger toward him...because of what he has been able to do here. It's the view the 90K/yr lawyer feels about the C-student rube who hit it big in scrap metal. (I know this to be a fact).
Besides that there is the continued rise of the Betas, who always seem to be successors in any business and make up almost the whole of the state apparatus. (Those who can do, those who cannot go into the public sector.)This is not so much the revenge of the nerds as it is the betas.
I was just about to post a piece on homo sapiens sapiens (Cro-Magnon) who died out because he was so damned independent, replaced by us. The beat goes on, it seems.
If you are looking for an end-time scenario, look for it in the demise of the alpha male in a free society. He either returns to the wild as tribal beast, or he dies, for he does seem to be able to educate his seed. To define an alpha male look no further than the Constitution, for it inferred those attributes in the ordinary citizen.
Thanks for the note. I'll study it further. Much food for thought.

...the most successful form of tyranny ever devised. It is successful because it is faceless.

You may be right that the elite isn't interested in controlling ordinary folks, per se. I think they practical interest of the elite is to control their own circumstances. But to do that they need to ensure 'negative' control of the regular folks. We can do whatever we want, so long as we don't threaten the Establishment. Feel free to wear boxers or briefs, or even go commando, that threatens no one important. If you go thinking that you can start an underwear factory, & pay your employees what you & they freely agree to, & suddenly you're a captialist pig.

Regards,