People read the WSJ editorial page because it supports their political agenda or because they’re dupes.
Our adversaries are not making gross intellectual errors. They are spreading disinformation in the service of a retrograde political agenda. To all intents and purposes they’ve won, and we should be preparing ourselves for survival the new neoliberal world.
Academics, especially economists but including political scientists, have developed models of society within which political action is either epiphenomenal, imaginary, and unreal, or else bad, harmful, irrational, and destructive. Academics have extraordinary power within the Democratic Party and among liberals, and as a result, liberal Democrats are unable to recognize politics when it bites them on the ass — much less do politics themselves. If a liberal ever tries to do something politically effective, the rest of them mob him and peck him to death.
90% of all Political Science PhDs are Democrats, whereas Karl Rove had one undergrad year at a third-rate school. Isn’t there a lesson there?
Yeah, I’m a conspiracy theorist (and a populist know-nothing). I have failed to realize that there is no such thing as a “political agent”. We know that events really just emerge from the pluralist welter of conflicting purposes. And I’m not being charitable toward the vicious, lying, Mellonist, neo-Confederate neoliberals who have won the game. Camus, Gandhi, Orwell, Niebuhr and Jesus would rebuke me. Hofstadter, Shils, and Bell would sneer at me. We know that consensus reigns, and that there are no classes and no class conflict, and that everyone who says otherwise is a Nazi or a Communist.
This has been like watching an ad hoc, scattered hodgepodge of tribal militias battling the concerted efforts of an imperial power. The Republicans have been trying to destroy the New Deal ever since 1932, and it’s now a fait accompli.
THIS JUST IN:
Liberals don’t act like conservatives and while we might certainly engage in our share of group-think, the standards of evidence are much higher on our side.
Trollblog 
August 13, 2011 at 6:33 am
[…] have been trying to destroy the New Deal ever since 1932, and it’s now a fait accompli. Read […]
September 11, 2011 at 6:29 pm
“We know that consensus reigns”
Examine the usual comment threads at the big liberal sites—Crooked timber, d-kos,digby,unfogged. It’s not just consensus–it’s something like Herd Mind. The regs speak a shared language–vaguely techie, but not merely techie–they share a PC sort of snarky attitude, a devotion to frat boy hijinks and… sexiness, but not merely porno (honest porno bad form for collegetown). The Unfogged gang for instance will go for hours without really making any tangible points. When they do, its lightweight –the bastards are taking Social Security , etc. In effect,they are indulging in group masturbation, not discussion. We suggest that blog language functions more or less like a thieves’ jargon–that includes the ostensibly academic rhetoric of a Krugman or Delong.They’re protecting their rackets
May 13, 2012 at 1:52 am
Woodrow Wilson had a degree in poli sci — was a professor of it, even — and he seemed to understand how to exercise power, gain power, and manipulate the masses. I’d suggest reading his lecture notes if they’re available…. shows that not all poli sci is nonsense.
“This has been like watching an ad hoc, scattered hodgepodge of tribal militias battling the concerted efforts of an imperial power. ”
Have you studied history? Who wins those wars? It depends on the following things, among others:
(1) The sanity of the imperial power’s strategists. Point to the tribal militias.
(2) Who has the home ground advantage. Point to the tribal militias outside the South.
(3) The resource base in real (not monetary) terms of the imperial power. Unclear.
(4) The current state of military technology. Currently, guerrilla warfare is dominant thanks largely to the current state of communications technology. Point to the tribal militias.
(5) The differential of military technology. Currently, the imperial power has somewhat more (TV stations, radio, etc). Point to the imperial power, but not a deciding point (this isn’t guns vs. swords, and the internet is inherently in the hands of the tribal militias).
Unfortunately, these wars (metaphorical or otherwise) are decades-long, drawn-out affairs; empires can throw a lot into an attack on tribal militias before the empire simply collapses and dies, and *then* history gets interesting (unfortunately).
Obviously I came to these conclusions after studying the Afghan and Iraq wars, but the analogies apply quite well. It is certain that the current insane right-wingers will go so far that they will be overthrown; what is uncertain is who will succeed them (possibly competent, sane, Franco-style right-wingers, if we’re unlucky.)
May 18, 2012 at 8:41 pm
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