Babylon and the Bolshevik Buttercups

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People divide up in two different ways. One way is when they differ on the substance of the debate—shall we go to war or shall we not? Shall we raise the minimum wage or shall we not? Shall we pursue an aggressive campaign against climate change or shall we not? Shall we appropriate big-time federal money to a new start-up climate-aware company, started by the president’s cousin, a company that is working on technology that can extract sunbeams from cucumbers, with a small royalty payment to Swift’s estate, or shall we not? This is the kind of division that is measured by political party platforms. Now policy obviously matters, but policy is not the whole game.lenin-red-square

The other way people divide up is a function of which group has all the perks and which group is out in the wilderness. Which group is soft and pampered and which group is hard and tough? Now with this said, there are anomalies in the set up. The soft group is soft because it does have the hardness of power protecting it, and the tough group is tough because it is too weak to defend itself against the depredations of the soft group. It can get complicated. But judge this by the video, not the snapshot.

So there are obvious left/right differences, but there are also—just as obvious—inside/outside differences.

Durable institutions are built by tough men, and those who inherit the institutions are a little less tough, and those inheriting from them a little less tough than that. Eventually you get to the impressive walls of great Babylon, encasing the effete Belshazzar.  And “in that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain” (Dan. 5:30).

Now the original Bolsheviks were evil—a biblical Christian’s differences with them on policy matters would be foundational moral differences. But they were still formidable outsiders—they were not the bolshie buttercups. However, their descendants and heirs—found at your nearest state university—are every bit as vicious as their progenitors, but they are not tough at all. They fall to whimpering whenever they encounter an alien opinion, and they spiral down into bolshie bathos crying out for safe spaces, coloring books, Play Doh, plush animal toys, and for the university administrators to make the bad man go away.

I have no doubt that some of these antics began simply as an Alinskyite tactic, designed to make the establishment obey their own rules. But a bunch of people on the left bought into it for reals—not having been provided with the kind of education that would enable their arguments to pass a Breathalyzer test. As a consequence they started actually to believe and feel their own emotive ramblings. And here we are.

Throughout the course of my lifetime, on the policy front we have been playing the hokey-pokey. You put your right foot in, you take your right foot out. The control of the federal government has alternated back and forth between the Republicans and Democrats. Sometimes this party platform was pursued, and sometimes that one was, and at times one reasonably suspected that there was not that great a difference between them. There were times when a reasonable man thought that the Democrats wanted to drive off the cliff at 80 mph and the Republicans countered with a proposal that we go 50. Be that as it may, there were policy differences—sometimes bigger, as in the time of Reagan, and other times smaller, as with Nixon.

But surrounding the whole thing, there has always been a mysterious bipartisan consensus, one dictated by an imperious zeitgeist, promulgated by the entertainment complex and media, and studiously obeyed by all the politicians. This zeitgeist was enthusiastically pushed by the left and sullenly obeyed by the right, and the whole culture steadily followed after it. When it has made enough of an appearance to be given a name, it has been called political-correctness.

If you want to know what powers this zeitgeist has, look no further than the immediately honored demand—driven by hidden chthonic powers—that a hapless congressman from East Toad Flats (R-AR) be found guilty of a career-ending gaffeous blunder because someone at the state fair barbecue recorded him telling a blonde joke. The cry goes up in the village and into the volcano he goes.

So this brings us to the recent presidential election. A mistake that many are making with regard to all of this is that they are trying to interpret everything in terms of policy. Now as I said at the top, policy matters and the new president will have to institute particular policies. He will have to govern, in other words. And in the appointments that have been made thus far, I know that I have serious policy differences with some of what is going on (e.g. Pompeo and bulk surveillance).

But don’t let that distract you from what is really going on. What is really going on is a gigantic collision between the insiders and the outsiders. Nothing is more obvious than that the decree went forth from the zeitgeist that Trump was to be thrown into the volcano, as so many before him had been, and the villagers refused.

“But he was guilty of a career-ending gaffe!” Don’t you understand yet? He was guilty of a thousand career-ending gaffes, with a good third of them on tape. And he took Wisconsin and Michigan and Pennsylvania.

The aftermath of this particular bloodbath has been a sight to behold. I am not here talking about the aftermath inside Clintonville—that is simply the downfall of a corrupt, mendacious and vain politician. Her story overlaps somewhat with this one, but she at least knows that she was rejected. The zeitgeist-mongers who are still running around loose in what used to be the power-centers of Manhattan do not yet have any idea what just happened.

And so the cast of Hamilton actually came out to the edge of the stage and graciously explained to the vice-president elect (and to the rest of us as well) that the volcano gods were very unhappy and unsettled, and that if we did not agree to go back to the old way of being inclusive to everyone except blue collar Midwesterners, they might even rumble a bit.

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Jerrod Arnold
Jerrod Arnold
7 years ago

I agree with this assessment. Most liberals with a microphone still don’t seem to understand the size of the tsunami upon which Trump was/is riding. I have consistently heard people expressing their appreciation for his willingness to say whatever he wanted, regardless of how the media feels about it, and this has made it clear to me that it was the primary reason most people I know voted for him. It almost didn’t matter what he stood for as long as it was not what the ruling elites (left or right) wanted. In my opinion, this was as much a… Read more »

Matt
Matt
7 years ago

Hmm, now I’m convinced. Everyone is totally going overboard on a 1% result. A few thousand votes the other way in a few places and we’d all be talking about how the Democrats have a permanent majority.

ME
ME
7 years ago
Reply to  Matt

You’re kind of not understanding how many walls had to fall in order for Trump to sweep this election. To try to imply the whole thing is just about a few thousand votes is to deny the entire significance of what just happened.

Matt
Matt
7 years ago
Reply to  ME

Well yes, i’m denying that this has the significance that various excitable persons on either side think it does.

Significant things that happened:

Donald Trump came out of nowhere and won the presidency

Republican coalition shifted from upscale whites to downscale whites

Not actually happening:

Liberalism defeated forever
Globalism defeated forever

Liberals exposed as collection of fools and hypocrites
Common man rises up against decadent elites
Hitler elected president

etc

ME
ME
7 years ago
Reply to  Matt

Well, liberals have been exposing themselves as a collection of fools for sometime now. So have republicans for that matter. Also, the whole narrative of our country since forever has been about the common man rising up against the decadent elite. Even president Obama came to power preaching sticking it to “The Man,” completely forgetting that once in power they are “The Man.”

So if these things were all true before the trump election, they are also going to be true after.

jigawatt
jigawatt
7 years ago

that a hapless congressman from East Toad Flats (R-AR)

I think that district includes Toad Suck Park — http://www.recreation.gov/camping/toad-suck/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=71454

jillybean
jillybean
7 years ago

In my day, students expressed their discontent by occupying the dean’s office and forcing the closure of entire campuses. We must surely believe that coloring book sessions are preferable.

Rick Davis
Rick Davis
7 years ago
Reply to  jillybean

Reading The Ball and the Cross, I don’t know that G.K. Chesterton would find the coloring book session preferable. :)

ashv
ashv
7 years ago

Trump is the corrective mechanism for the overreach by the vanguard elements of the left. He will restore a degree of stability and unity, so that the entire system may continue to function sufficiently well to continue sliding leftward into the void.

(At least, that’s the role he finds himself in. If anyone could change the script, he could — if he had sufficient wit and energy to perceive and act on it. Too soon to tell; I’m done underestimating him.)

Capndweeb
Capndweeb
7 years ago

“The zeitgeist-mongers who are still running around loose in what used to be the power-centers of Manhattan do not yet have any idea what just happened.” Yes, and isn’t it glorious? I read an article yesterday about Trump’s campaign manager, Stephen Bannon. If the left views Trump as Hitler, they view Bannon as the demon who made Hitler do all those bad things. The surprising thing is, Bannon actually believes Trump can bring back American jobs and revitalize the rust belt. Bannon was saying the changes to be made will have a positive impact for fifty years. If Trump is… Read more »

"A" dad
"A" dad
7 years ago
Reply to  Capndweeb

Silly Cap’n. Any success the Donald may have, was pre-ordained by Barak Obama, and the affordable care act, even if it is repealed!
Think of it this way, the climate changes, for the reasons I say it does, even when the climate does the opposite of what I predict!

Wow! So this is what it’s like to be Randman! Cool!????

Christian Histo
Christian Histo
7 years ago

The funny thing is that Trump is turning out to be a standard moderate (leaning liberal) republican. He has backed off his immigration stuff, his global warming stuff, his clinton-in-jail stuff, and his Obamacare stuff all before he has even taken office.

Anyone who really wanted revolution should have voted Cruz in the primaries. Trump is slightly to the left of Nixon.

Ilion
Ilion
7 years ago

We already had the only revolution Cruz could deliver — scorning the explicit requirements of the Constitution — when the Obamanation was elected.

Christian Histo
Christian Histo
7 years ago
Reply to  Ilion

So you are just going to go with the flow now and elect moderate/liberal republicans like Trump?

Ilion
Ilion
7 years ago

It is utterly impossible to hold those who would rule us to the restrictions the Constitution places upon them while not holding them to all the restrictions the Constitution places upon them.

Christian Histo
Christian Histo
7 years ago
Reply to  Ilion

I don’t understand what you are saying. Are you saying “Stop voting it is worthless… who cares who wins?” Or are you saying “Trump is the antidote?”

Because if it is the latter, I would like to know your explanation. Trump is a moderate to liberal republican who is going to be as status quo as a republican can be.

ashv
ashv
7 years ago

Your election predictions were wrong, why should we think you’re any more accurate now?

Christian Histo
Christian Histo
7 years ago
Reply to  ashv

I never said it was impossible for Trump to win but I do admit I didn’t think he would. And I did say that he was the worst possible candidate (and he was). Trump got less votes than Romney and lost the popular vote. He was a terrible candidate and won simply because the woman he was running against was even less likeable. It was the race to the bottom and Hillary won. But I am not predicting now. I am describing current statements. Trump is a moderate republican now. His current positions are more moderate and liberal than almost… Read more »

ashv
ashv
7 years ago

lol didn’t read

ArwenB
ArwenB
7 years ago

It show how far the left the culture has drifted that “Standard moderate, leaning liberal” can be condemned as right-wing nutbaggery.

katecho
katecho
7 years ago

Wilson wrote: The zeitgeist-mongers who are still running around loose in what used to be the power-centers of Manhattan do not yet have any idea what just happened. It is significant that the zeitgeist-mongers have lost control. That’s long overdue. Mainstream media has certainly earned our complete lack of trust in it. However, I think we need to be careful to distinguish this from any notion that our situation has significantly, or automatically, changed with a Trump victory. It hasn’t. In most ways the Trump victory is a complete distraction, giving renewed hope to many evangelicals that politics might, in… Read more »

Indigo
Indigo
7 years ago
Reply to  katecho

Yes. Let’s sing Psalm 146, all together now.

Capndweeb
Capndweeb
7 years ago
Reply to  katecho

Katecho, I think there is a significant change and the left knows it. That’s why they are protesting and furiously kneading their Play-Doh(r). Prior to the election, the left believed they were right. So right, in fact, that the universe was on their side. It was a done deal. A given. Now, the John Lennon dream has come crashing down. I’m sure that even as I write this, they are making plans to circumvent and correct the stupidity that has taken place. (And, make no mistake, they view everyone who voted for Trump as stupid, ignorant, hate-filled misogynists and racists.)… Read more »

PB
PB
7 years ago

What Doug has touched on here explains the divide being formed between black evangelicals (those at Reformed African American Network and TGC), and white evangelicals. Many respectable black leaders are saying that they do not see a way for them to continue in fellowship with the mainline church considering it was responsible for voting in Donald Trump. In essence, they believe the church’s latent racism was made known in how it disregarded the concerns of the black community and elected someone who is appointing white-nationalists to his administration. As can be expected, many over there are groveling in self-loathing and… Read more »