Troubles with the Endgame

If there be among those whom it is attempted to coerce into prudence or temperance any of the material of which vigorous and independent characters are made, they will infallibly rebel against the yoke. No such person will ever feel that others have a right to control him in his concerns, such as they have to prevent him from injuring them in theirs; and it easily comes to be considered a mark of spirit and courage to fly in the face of such usurped authority, and do with ostentation the exact opposite of what it enjoins… —John Stuart Mill, from On Liberty

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. —Isaac Newton

     It has been my intention to avoid mere political commentary on current events on this blog. I try to keep my approach to criticizing (bashing, poking fun at) the phenomenon of the New Left as philosophical, historical, and anthropological as possible. This is partly because I don’t use Internet all that much here in Burma, and more importantly because I wouldn’t want to spend hours every day keeping abreast of the news, and all the commentary on the news, anyway. As a monk I have better things to do, like just sitting in meditation, or sweeping leaves off the road. Besides, there are plenty of people out there making sharp observations on current events while they’re still fresh, including an intriguing occultist on YouTube (previously a flat-out Satanist) who calls himself Styxhexenhammer666. He’s usually very astute. So again, I tend to shy away from superficial politics, and try to go a little deeper, and try to see a broader, more historical aspect of the big picture.

     Even so…there is a current political phenomenon, maybe very important, maybe not, that has been going on for some time now, and which I would like to discuss. Here goes.

     It appears that quite a few people nowadays, mostly pessimistic commentators in comments sections but also including a few relatively high profile political gurus, are of the opinion that Western Civilization is in the final stages of a long-planned scheme to overthrow the current system and replace it with, essentially, a radically socialized, globalized society, a New World Order. One of the most prevalent theories is that a group of Jewish Neo-Marxists called the Frankfurt School realized that the working class in the West was too prosperous and comfortable to rise up and overthrow capitalism in a glorious proletarian revolution, and so way back in the 1920s and 30s they began devising an elaborate, long-term plan to destabilize and weaken Western society, preparing the way for elites such as academics and journalists to lead a different kind of cultural revolution. Many of the odd features of the new left, including scorn for Christianity and defense of Islam, glorification and mainstreaming of sexual aberrations, feminism, racial strife in the name of non-racism, the educational system and mainstream media being dominated by the political left, abhorrence of classical Western “patriarchal” culture, and the disintegration of the family, are all claimed to be aspects of this master plan. 

     Assuming for the sake of argument that some approximation of this conspiracy theory is true (and some conspiracy theories really are true you know), then it would appear that just a few years ago the master plan had already succeeded. The European Union had already become a sort of feminized, gently repressive Soviet Union Lite, with President Obama of the USA, and a feminist metrosexual pretty-boy Prime Minister of Canada, leading the western hemisphere in the same direction. True, there was some unrest among the masses over allowing millions of unskilled migrants from other cultures to flood into developed western countries, but this unrest was repressible and only an inconvenient temporary setback. Even the establishment Right was on board, presumably because they saw money to be made from it. The culture war had been won. Hillary Clinton, despite her legion of shortcomings, was almost guaranteed of victory over a clownish vulgarian named Trump, if only because it is politically correct to vote for a woman; and all could look forward to a steady advance into a feminized, globalized Utopia of equality (except maybe for white men), Social Justice, and pansexual indulgence.  

     But now it appears that some things are going awry with the assumed culture war victory, with the smooth sailing toward globalized Social Justice entering upon choppy waters, maybe even stormy seas. First, the migrant crisis in Europe, with associated terrorist attacks and skyrocketing crime statistics, resulted in tens of millions of thoroughly disgusted people turning to the right and to nationalism. Then the UK opted out of the European Union. Next, even more abominable, Donald Trump actually won the US presidency. (Sometimes I still laugh over that one.) And lately, the mainstream media, most of it deeply committed to leftist propaganda, has been publicly discredited again and again, and is losing its credibility and esteem, and thus its power to control the consensus narrative. Furthermore, to top it all off, the American left’s furious attempts to destroy President Trump have been going pretty much nowhere, while a mountain of shady deals, scandal, and apparent crimes looms ever higher against their own side. The globalists and the left were so smug, so overconfident of victory, that they hadn’t even bothered to come up with a contingency plan. They didn’t see it coming at all; they were blindsided by it. Up until the election nights for Brexit and the US presidency, the predominantly leftist press were smilingly declaring Brexit and Trump the losers, and when they proved to be wrong, the left and the globalists were thrown into chaos, into an amazing state of raging, butt-hurt hysteria. It apparently had occurred to few of them to consult with the Common Person in the west, whose values were sneered at and threatened with destruction by the social elite and by a massive influx of immigrants.

the sad CNN meme: the Democrats lose another election,
and the left-wing propagandist newscasters sit in bemused silence

     To make matters worse for the left, the more they have faltered, the more they have doubled down on losing strategies. I assume this has something to do with the left’s preference of idealism and ideology (or just emotional wishful thinking) to pragmatic realism. They seem to have no Plan B, possibly as a matter of principle, so they simply become more hysterical in their insistence on Plan A, even though it is ineffective. In America, the strategy of “Vote for us because we hate and oppose Trump” didn’t work before the presidential election, the Democrats have continued with it nonetheless, and it still doesn’t work…but so far they seem unwilling to come up with anything else, other than some sporadic environmentalism and endorsement of a new Cold War with Russia. Plus of course, political correctness, which has become so extreme that even many millennials are running away from it. Ironically, nationalism and the political right are being seen more and more as respectable and “cool,” with emphasis on sexual orientations, hysterical complaining over microaggressions, etc., etc., being seen more and more as essentially dysfunctional, fanatical, or infantile. Who knows, it may be that the next major intellectual and youth counterculture will be right-wing, possibly libertarian or even alt-right—that could be interesting. Intellectual punk. But the left just doesn’t “get it.” Instead, they become more fanatical and begin turning on each other.

hatred against hate

     The culture war has reached a new phase, a phase of counter-rebellion against Progressivism. This is occurring even to some weak degree in sophisticated, emasculated Western Europe, where the Progressives won long ago, with even the mopping up pretty much over and done with. The left thus far has not been responding very effectively, except in the just-mentioned EU where censorship and silencing dissenters guilty of “hate speech” has been partially effective. In America, by contrast, the Democratic Party is showing signs of implosion and possibly of schism, with many Progressives, whose candidate was essentially swindled out of the Democratic presidential primaries, crying for the indictment of Hillary Clinton, if anything even more than most Republicans are crying for it. The latter party, being more realist and pragmatic, has scrambled to adjust to the new populist, pro-Trump right, but the left thus far has failed to adjust to such a radically altered situation.

     I assume these troubles with the endgame are the main reason why the left in the USA and the UK have become so loudly hysterical, even sometimes rioting and howling in the streets, and repeatedly calling for the assassination of Donald Trump: they thought they were winning, or even that they had already won! This wasn’t supposed to happen! It wasn’t it wasn’t it wasn’t!!! It may be, as some pessimists claim, that Brexit, Trump, etc. are just temporary obstacles to the New World Order of the new globalized left, and will cause only a slight delay in the great plan, maybe just a few years. But I’m not so sure now. The right is apparently gaining momentum while the left has begun to flounder, and in Western Europe especially the situation is heading for real civil war, with European culture and traditional liberal values at stake. The feminized left hardly knows how to cope with all this, especially since those on the Progressive side are conditioned to have extremely fine-tuned sensitivities anyhow, and to melt down easily. Which, by the way, is another weakness in their position. Also they seem to prefer feelings and ideals to facts, which is another serious weakness.

     Sometimes I tell the other monk who lives here (a Burmese one) that the whole culture war thing going on now is just too damned interesting. Especially now that the Common Person has said Enough is Enough and is starting to fight back in earnest. A sleeping giant has awakened, and is filled with a terrible resolve, and it’s just too damned interesting.

leftist turmoil in Oakland, California

Appendix: It’s Now or Never

The following YouTube video contains a glorious rant…and although Alex Jones is conducting the interview, he’s not the one doing the glorious ranting. You can take Alex with a grain of salt (he’s a Texas “redneck” who appears to believe most conspiracy theories, but he reminds me of my Uncle Hank when I was a kid, and he’s sincere, so I like him); but Stefan Molyneux asserts in emphatic, passionate terms that we are in the midst of a “war for civilization.” (He starts warming up at around 5:00, and by 11:30 he’s moving into full impassioned rant mode. Magnificent.)