I recently had occasion to retain a lawyer in what was until recently a small, agricultural town. It's now an exurb. But it was striking that this lawyer and his paralegal knew everyone. I don't just mean the professional class. But they knew the teachers and the TAs and the janitors. They knew who was strolling outside the office, taking the sun. They could - and did - tell us who all the nearby streets were named after and what those peoples' children - or in some cases the people themselves - were doing, and where they were on vacation in December.
Such a town as that surely has its own problems. There is - I assume - graft, nepotism, gossip, scandal. But there's also a rootedness and interconnectedness that would make the symptoms Chris describes here almost unthinkable. You can't speak sharply to your lessers, to hoi polloi, if your kids go to school with them. You can't think yourself eloi if you're shopping in the same general store as Zeke. It's professional, educational, and temporal separation that allows this culture of contempt to exist.
The problem is that, contra Chris (and in agreement with Jellyfish), this is actually very, very sustainable. This is how a lot of places in the world, particularly the Americas, are: gated communities for the cloud people, slums for the rest of us. And function will follow form. As the elites continue to segregate themselves geographically, they'll do so in manners and values as well, and since of course they earned their lofty position (right?) it stands to reason that those who aren't on their side are backwards, shameful, lazy, and probably listen to AM radio. So fuck 'em.
I am reminded of France of the 1780's--the real France, not the 1780's France of Allied war propaganda of two world wars. Before the deluge, but also when many realize that things are going drastically wrong. 1785. When a man named Calonne had defeated the "reformers" using what looks like "debt consolidation" to temporarily "solve" France's public finance problem. His solution also made it possible to see the horrendous problem: the government needs to take in more money than it's getting or else the checks are going to start bouncing. Factions form in the Court, the King's youngest brother Artois (future King Charles X who will come to the throne age 67 in 1824) is the leader of the faction who want a land tax paid by the nobility. An elder stateman-politician named Vergennes is behind the calling of an Assembly of Notables (none had been called for over 60 years) in 1787 to come up with reform proposals (they will-with some blood-curdling reforms which would prove too radical even for 1789!) but Vergennes dies a few weeks after it starts debating. Ultimately this Assembly would come to nothing; Louis XVI tries to institute great reforms using the absolute regime's usual methods and meets massive legal resistance and is forced to call an Estates General (which hasn't met since 1614) and all Hell breaks loose for the next 25 years as France winds up eventually anticipating Hitler's overrunning of Europe which makes France when it's all over in 1815 a pariah among European nations for many years akin to Germany after 1945.
Now whether America goes the France 1789 route we'll see. When America catches cold--the world sneezes. United Nations occupation under the leadership of Putin and Xi is a distinct possibility.
Oh, Calonne and Artois? Artois and his family were ordered by the King out of France even before the Bastille fell. When he returns in 1814 as heir to the throne he makes no bones about the Old Order's NOT going to be restored. The Bourbons keep the Code Napoleon--no more Ancient Law of France to get in the way! Gone are the nobility's "privileges"--they will eventually get some payment for them--pennies on the dollar/centimes on the Louis d'Or--but no they don't get the land back either. Calonne? He flees France early on; as an old man he asks Napoleon for permission to return--which is granted--then he soon dies.
The two men who started the deluge.
Back to the 1780's France analogy. For the 1788 resistance to Louis XVI's reform attempts read Lawfare and the Deep State. The financial problems are similar: entitlements and wars and fuzzy finance. Biden as Mirabeau I think his name was. Merrick Garland and AOC will try to be Mr. & Mrs. Robespierre maybe. We'll see.
Interesting summary, but it covered so much ground!
Could you recommend some of your favorite books on the history of France?
I have a recommendation in return: The Discovery of France, by Graham Robb, describes the process by which central elites in Paris assimilated and centralized control over the different semi-autonomous regions of France, as well as imposing a standardized tongue.
"The story about people overdosing on horse paste in rural Oklahoma wasn’t meant as a factual description of an event; it was meant as a cultural product that allowed its consumers to assume a higher social status than rural people in Oklahoma."
Also works if you replace taking horse paste with supporting Donald Trump. High school mean girls culture.
The book "Coming Apart" by Charles Murray gives some data behind this change. It's interesting that you can actually reflect the attitude noted above in statistics. It's a disheartening read, but it's important to understand there is an actual mechanism that supports, and perhaps drives, this change.
Nicely argued. But when you say “unsustainable” I am not sure that’s right. Writers like you make excellent compelling points, but are read by comparatively few of the population. By the time the next outrage appears, this will have been publicly forgotten. Not having a media that keeps these issues surfaced is a terrible problem. So, the concern is that over time, little by little things deteriorate, but never so much that the ordinary mass of people will do anything. They don’t know, they largely don’t care, and power rests in the hands of the elite. All too sustainable, I worry.
I recently had occasion to retain a lawyer in what was until recently a small, agricultural town. It's now an exurb. But it was striking that this lawyer and his paralegal knew everyone. I don't just mean the professional class. But they knew the teachers and the TAs and the janitors. They knew who was strolling outside the office, taking the sun. They could - and did - tell us who all the nearby streets were named after and what those peoples' children - or in some cases the people themselves - were doing, and where they were on vacation in December.
Such a town as that surely has its own problems. There is - I assume - graft, nepotism, gossip, scandal. But there's also a rootedness and interconnectedness that would make the symptoms Chris describes here almost unthinkable. You can't speak sharply to your lessers, to hoi polloi, if your kids go to school with them. You can't think yourself eloi if you're shopping in the same general store as Zeke. It's professional, educational, and temporal separation that allows this culture of contempt to exist.
The problem is that, contra Chris (and in agreement with Jellyfish), this is actually very, very sustainable. This is how a lot of places in the world, particularly the Americas, are: gated communities for the cloud people, slums for the rest of us. And function will follow form. As the elites continue to segregate themselves geographically, they'll do so in manners and values as well, and since of course they earned their lofty position (right?) it stands to reason that those who aren't on their side are backwards, shameful, lazy, and probably listen to AM radio. So fuck 'em.
TBD! I mean, sadly, we'll find out.
I am reminded of France of the 1780's--the real France, not the 1780's France of Allied war propaganda of two world wars. Before the deluge, but also when many realize that things are going drastically wrong. 1785. When a man named Calonne had defeated the "reformers" using what looks like "debt consolidation" to temporarily "solve" France's public finance problem. His solution also made it possible to see the horrendous problem: the government needs to take in more money than it's getting or else the checks are going to start bouncing. Factions form in the Court, the King's youngest brother Artois (future King Charles X who will come to the throne age 67 in 1824) is the leader of the faction who want a land tax paid by the nobility. An elder stateman-politician named Vergennes is behind the calling of an Assembly of Notables (none had been called for over 60 years) in 1787 to come up with reform proposals (they will-with some blood-curdling reforms which would prove too radical even for 1789!) but Vergennes dies a few weeks after it starts debating. Ultimately this Assembly would come to nothing; Louis XVI tries to institute great reforms using the absolute regime's usual methods and meets massive legal resistance and is forced to call an Estates General (which hasn't met since 1614) and all Hell breaks loose for the next 25 years as France winds up eventually anticipating Hitler's overrunning of Europe which makes France when it's all over in 1815 a pariah among European nations for many years akin to Germany after 1945.
Now whether America goes the France 1789 route we'll see. When America catches cold--the world sneezes. United Nations occupation under the leadership of Putin and Xi is a distinct possibility.
Oh, Calonne and Artois? Artois and his family were ordered by the King out of France even before the Bastille fell. When he returns in 1814 as heir to the throne he makes no bones about the Old Order's NOT going to be restored. The Bourbons keep the Code Napoleon--no more Ancient Law of France to get in the way! Gone are the nobility's "privileges"--they will eventually get some payment for them--pennies on the dollar/centimes on the Louis d'Or--but no they don't get the land back either. Calonne? He flees France early on; as an old man he asks Napoleon for permission to return--which is granted--then he soon dies.
The two men who started the deluge.
Back to the 1780's France analogy. For the 1788 resistance to Louis XVI's reform attempts read Lawfare and the Deep State. The financial problems are similar: entitlements and wars and fuzzy finance. Biden as Mirabeau I think his name was. Merrick Garland and AOC will try to be Mr. & Mrs. Robespierre maybe. We'll see.
Interesting summary, but it covered so much ground!
Could you recommend some of your favorite books on the history of France?
I have a recommendation in return: The Discovery of France, by Graham Robb, describes the process by which central elites in Paris assimilated and centralized control over the different semi-autonomous regions of France, as well as imposing a standardized tongue.
Hear hear. Nailed it:
"The story about people overdosing on horse paste in rural Oklahoma wasn’t meant as a factual description of an event; it was meant as a cultural product that allowed its consumers to assume a higher social status than rural people in Oklahoma."
Also works if you replace taking horse paste with supporting Donald Trump. High school mean girls culture.
The cryptic crossword puzzle in the NY Times two Sundays ago had this clue: “Trump, primarily, and each offspring covering up Republican high crime.”
The correct answer was “TREASON.”
I was really, even at this late date, amazed they could print something that oozed such contempt for, not only the Trumps, but half the country.
We know all about the price inflation that has set in, but the positional contempt variety seems to still be going strong.
What's the vegan equivalent of red meat?
The book "Coming Apart" by Charles Murray gives some data behind this change. It's interesting that you can actually reflect the attitude noted above in statistics. It's a disheartening read, but it's important to understand there is an actual mechanism that supports, and perhaps drives, this change.
Nicely argued. But when you say “unsustainable” I am not sure that’s right. Writers like you make excellent compelling points, but are read by comparatively few of the population. By the time the next outrage appears, this will have been publicly forgotten. Not having a media that keeps these issues surfaced is a terrible problem. So, the concern is that over time, little by little things deteriorate, but never so much that the ordinary mass of people will do anything. They don’t know, they largely don’t care, and power rests in the hands of the elite. All too sustainable, I worry.
What goes around comes around... and payback is a 12 letter word
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