Wednesday, 2 March 2022
The rise of written-off anachronisms
The energy that actually shapes the world springs from emotions — racial pride, leader-worship, religious belief, love of war — which liberal intellectuals mechanically write off as anachronisms, and which they have usually destroyed so completely in themselves as to have lost all power of action.
George Orwell - Wells, Hitler and the World State (1941)
I've used this quote before, but it's what we are seeing now of course – written-off anachronisms which were never written-off at all. Which we should have known and guarded against but our elites were too busy with personal sound bites, virtue signalling, celebrity culture, climate change, gender politics, racism, diversity, equality, sabotaging merit, screwing up education and just lately grossly overreacting to a virus.
And let us not forget – abusing, side-lining and censoring those who have been pointing out the foolishness of it for decades.
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7 comments:
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
I'd be happy to see that quote on a regular basis. We need to be aware of the forces that motivate people, partly because we can be on our guard against the nasty ones, but also because it would be good if our "leaders" embodied a few of the positive emotions rather than attempting to merely juggle what emerges as a form of anaemic managerialism. But the liberal intellectuals have captured the world of ideas in the west; the universities train our politicians, and the media shape what can be said.
Love makes the world go around, as does anger, pride, honour, fear, patriotism, religious fervour. Just about any strong emotion is the powerhouse behind action, good or bad.
Do we want Genghis Kahn, Alexander, Adlof Hilter bestriding the world? No. Do we want the colourless politicians (take your pick) managing the world? No. The hope is to find a balance between the extremes, depending on circumstances.
You could make an argument that Donald Trump, Nigel Farage, and Boris Johnson have been successful politicians, despite their failings, because they are colourful. The bland managers (May, Starmer) not so much. Putin has been successful in a Russian context but may have overcooked it. Biden never rose above being a managerial cog.
It's a strange world where Bold/Bland is the leadership metric.
After my first two decades of experience and observations as an adult, I came to the conclusion that compared to our progress in understanding some aspects of the physical world, our collective understanding of the world of human behaviour was still in the medieval era.
dearieme - and they outlast us all.
Sam - yes that's it, a form of anaemic managerialism. It seems to be forced on anyone we elect and many of those are signed up to managerialism to begin with.
DJ - yes it is a strange world and it may be that colourful characters are those the swamp finds more difficult to control than the bland. In other words we should forgive the sins of the colourful because they are the best antidote to managerialists lurking within the bureaucracy.
Tammly - I don't think we really want to understand human behaviour. It would dispel too many myths.
" In other words we should forgive the sins of the colourful because they are the best antidote to managerialists lurking within the bureaucracy"
This.
AK : Right! That is the main reason behind the phenomenon I conclude.
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