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If we're throwing reading material onto the pile I'd like to add Burnham's "The Managerial Revolution", which nails our moment, though it was written in 1941 (!):

"What is occurring in this transition is a drive for social dominance, for power and privilege, for the position of ruling class, by the social group or class of the MANAGERS (as I shall call them, reserving for the moment an explanation of whom this class includes). This drive will be successful. At the conclusion of the transition period the managers will, in fact, have achieved social dominance, will be the ruling class in society. This drive, moreover, is worldwide in extent, already well advanced in all nations, though at different levels of development in different nations."

And Christopher Lasch's “The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy” from 1991:

"Control has become their obsession. In their drive to insulate themselves against risk and contingency—against the unpredictable hazards that afflict human life—the thinking classes have seceded not just from the common world around them but from reality itself.

The culture wars that have convulsed America since the sixties are best understood as a form of class warfare, in which an enlightened elite (as it thinks of itself) seeks not so much to impose its values on the majority (a majority perceived as incorrigibly racist, sexist, provincial, and xenophobic), much less to persuade the majority by means of rational public debate, as to create parallel or 'alternative' institutions in which it will no longer be necessary to confront the unenlightened at all."

All I can add is that it seems that just like for centuries people were controlled and menaced by various monarchs, aristocrats, warlords, religious fanatics, etc etc, in our time it seems we're stuck with an elite managerial class who are formed and processed through the finishing schools of academia and then emerge looking to take their places at the top of the social pyramid—which leads them to believe they were born to tell the rest of us what to think, do, feel, create etc.

But this iteration of managerial aristocrats has wrecked everything they've touched, are bleeding credibility from their massive litany of lies being exposed, and can feel their power slipping. Hopefully they'll all be replaced soon by something wiser and more authentic—or at least hopefully soon we can at least have a ruling class that doesn't hate their own people and nations.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO CHRIS AND TO EVERYONE!

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2dEdited

Spot on! In the same way they inflicted elder abuse on Biden, the "usurping" class uses/deceives trannies, climate warriors, pro-abortionists, unions, minorities, the elderly, apologists, etc., in a shameless and desperate bid to maintain power. They actually find elections and voters inconvenient and distasteful. They care nothing about the aforementioned "causes." Power is the only thing that matters.

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Excellent reading recommendations!

Thanks for bringing them up - that's the kind of stuff students should be reading as a counterweight to all the regular dross they are given at unis nowadays.

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Lasch especially is so prescient and relevant, anything that shows recurring patterns and teaches that the new is old is always helpful.

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And you could add the more contemporary Michael Lind’s “The New Class War” which departs from Burnham and Mills and has the added interest of being a major influence on Vivek Ramaswamy.

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I call them cloud people! They believe they are above us dirt people.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708456/

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James Burnham is the father of neoconservatism. Demonic character -

https://cynthiachung.substack.com/p/the-story-of-how-trotskyism-gave?utm_source=publication-search

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I don't really know much or anything about Burnham the man—certainly not as much as Cynthia Chung!—I've just read the Managerial book and the "Suicide of the West" and read them more as descriptive than prescriptive.

Thanks for the link.

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So true - in my nightmares these ‘aristocrats’ are replaced with AI…

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Yeah, that is spooky., of course they are more afrain of you than the other way around., especially if you pop them out of their body, oh terrified!

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The Power Elite, from circa 1955 (by C. Wright Mills?) is probably similar to the Burnham book.

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havent read that one

oh god more reading material! ;)

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Walter Lippman's "Public Opinion" is still relevant, as it's referenced in the Tablet essay that Chris linked to.

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Thank You a good comment, have to agree - "they think" we are not aware. IMO they know we are aware and are terrified that the people will revolt completely. However, that could be a silent "revolt" by simply not buying, investing or participating in their dog and pony shows. As individuals, we have to find our own ways of disconnecting from the lunatics and embracing those who care about the people, care about security and prosperity for all. I know it almost looks lost completely at this time - but the majority are becoming more united than ever, this is why the "elite" are pushing hard for their agenda and being more destructive by the day., the boys at the top are in essence cowards.

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What did we have before the rule of managers and the elite sent us down this cul-de-sac? Somehow I find it hard to imagine a complex society without them. Was it simply that in the past they were more honest, more intelligent, less brazen, less full of themselves? What?

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Kings and aristocrats and priests and community networks? You and your family living on the same tribal/aristocratic lands for generations?

I guess the major dividing line is the old world where most of us never left our villages and everything from food to school to doctors to marriages took place in the same area versus the rise of the modern world and its global connected networks that required global managers?

"I find it hard to imagine a complex society without them." Me too, I guess the main difference (besides the one I just mentioned) is that it's only more recently (post-60s?) that our leadership class decided that preening as global saviors and bigshots was more fun and gratifying than actually representing their own people.

At some point, maybe since the education process made our elite global, postnational and disconnected from their roots, what should be ruling class that maintains the consent of the governed became adversarial and began to see their mission as the guiding, massaging, and scolding (and fleecing) of their flocks.

(Lasch's book has alot to say about this.)

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I suspect that a big part of it too is the scope expansion of what is considered acceptable to manage. The last 30-40 years seems to have seen an metastasizing of managerial meddling into every part of our lives, and an increasing acceptance of that as normal and reasonable. The notions that 1: We can usefully manage the minutia of people's lives and 2: That we ought to attempt to do so. those seem to be the overwhelming modern assumptions driving the behavior we see. Once those two are accepted it merely becomes a fight over what we manage, and who gets to do it.

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You're correct that every society needs elites (managers) of some kind. The problem sin't that we have elites but that our elites are 1) separated from their fellow non-elite citizens; 2) essentially incompetent; 3) postmodern and therefore disconnected from reality.

Fortunately, these are fixable and most can be traced to the erosion of our universities (the "long march through the institutions that the 68 generation succeeded at).

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Excellent comment.

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My wife took the blue pill. She doesn't want me talking to her about anything you wrote! I thought I was red-pilled but now I think I'm black-pilled. I think I need a blue, red, and black pill ornament for my Christmas tree.

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You are not alone.

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...my husband, too... it's super hard....black sheep are definitely black-pilled...that's me, too! lol!

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Chris - thank you for yet another intelligent and mature post. El gato malo talks a lot about the 'reputation economy.' He is dead right. I have no idea what your 'credentials' may be, but the consistent quality of your thinking and insight means more to me than any such credentials anyway.

Enjoy a well-earned Christmas break, my friend. And, though it is probably not at all within your cultural boundary, do yourself a favor and tune into The Rugby Network app and watch the first half of the match today between Leicester Tigers and Bristol Bears. Maybe it seems banal, but spending a little time among normal human beings enjoying normal human entertainment is a balm for my soul, at least :-)

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Rugby confuses us

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OMG LOL! You are a truthsayer!

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Rugby is what American football should have been. Brutally honest and unapologetically masculine.

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Naomi Wolf says that we're in a situation where demonic entities have taken control of most all Western societies. Others have, as well. I'm inclined to believe that explanation, as it make sense, given the almost perfect synchronization of so many policies, across so many societies, and so many institutions. There is evil in the world: all socialist societies depend on it.

Anyway, Merry Christmas to you and yours! However, like Mr. Scrooge, I expect you back to work early!

Danny Huckabee

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That picture at the end is amazing and uplifting and inspiring

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I’ve taken to writing letters to the editor of my local newspaper overrun by zombified communists (or communist zombies, depending on the day). Not to change minds or insult gratuitously, though either would be fine, but just to let them know that we live among them. We’re not afraid, but they should be. If that doesn’t inspire peace on earth and goodwill toward men, nothing does.

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Rise like Lions after slumber

In unvanquishable number-

Shake your chains to earth like

dew

Which in sleep had fallen on you

Ye are many-they are few.

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2 Kings 6:15

And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?

16 And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.

17And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

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Does the newspaper run them?

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Most of them. This is actually an online site in a suburban Boston town, not the Boston Globe itself (which also used to publish my letters, or maybe a quarter of them). I started chirping when someone wrote to complain the state legislature wasn’t acting on “vital” issues lie, oh whatever, climate change. It’s 70-80% Dems at the State House, I wrote, and you still don’t get what you want? Even with that mean, hyper-MAGA Charlie Baker out, and the woke lesbian Maura Healy in? (Not that I wrote in that tone.) Maybe, just maybe, vote for diversity of opinion and see what happens. At least don’t let them take your vote for granted. THAT went over well.

But I’ve become more proactive. My town, even more to the left than average, announced that to improve services to the likes of seniors and veterans, it intends to create a new job, Director of Human Services, who would oversee a Human Services “Cabinet” consisting of the other Directors—of Senior Services, Veteran Services, etc. Just another layer of management, in other words, at about 100k a year. Oh, and the town was overdue for a DEI Director, as well, also for 100k. How would siphoning off 200k a year, every year, help seniors, vets, and don’t forget the hungry who use the food pantry? Pretty racist, right? That’s what other readers thought, if I understand “MAGA = MAWA” and “proximity to whiteness” correctly. Which I’m not sure I do. I answered both, with sound logic and Christmas cheer, and they haven’t piped back up.

The only letter the site chose not to publish was one where I answered a frequent critic, who sprinkles “MAGA” liberally throughout his responses (see above), by telling him that some of us have a bet down on how many words it will take before he uses MAGA. Not over/under, exact. I wrote that the pot has grown over the weeks, as he has confounded our expectations; but he was going to make one of us a very rich man or woman. I even offered to split the my winnings with him if he “worked" with me. The humorless editor was not amused, I guess.

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I recently came across a few Substacks that include a large portion of the Long-Covid crowd. a small minority of these poor souls are starting to wake up to two factors:

1. that the virus didn’t come from nature. that it was created in a lab funded by the US NIH and Defense Department and...

2. that the vaccine and overproduction of the spike protein is what is causing the majority of injury and disability, not the virus itself.

of course these new apostates are met with intense pushback from the N-95 loving majority as the cognitive dissonance created by these revelations are not only intolerable but catastrophic for their worldview. this is because for them to have to admit that their suffering was created by the same government that they worship would be a fate much worse than death.

this is a great example of what both Samuels and Warby are discussing. that the weaponization of narrative is a force more powerful and insidious than any army. that in the 21st century, the new battlefield is what they call “Cognitive Infrastructure”.

for this reason, I believe that the novelists and writers have a far greater grasp of the situation compared with the academic crowd.

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"Would you like to catch the virus and have the spike protein pathogen attack your body (until your immune system gets rid of it)? Or would you like to be injected with this biological agent that causes your body to make the spike protein pathogen by itself (for an indeterminate time), and doesn't prevent infection anyway?"

Me: I'm good thanks, I'll take my chances with the former.

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Grandma killer!

Seriously, you summarized the choice nicely.

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Watch the documentary, Thank you, Dr Fauci, on Tucker's network. The virus itself, in addition to the jab, is causing lots of health challenges. Very sobering; I will watch it again.

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I’ll check it out.

one revelation I didn’t cover was that the some of the apostates are addressing the fact that the virus is damaging. this is the cornerstone of the Long-Covid narrative. the problem of course, is that if the government helped create it, then that means they are responsible for the horrible outcomes of a genetically altered virus. this is the worst case scenario for them.

they are much more comfortable blaming their fellow citizens for failure to mask up and criticizing the government for not being authoritarian enough.

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You did it … you made us listen to Rachel Maddow for :58 seconds . 🥶

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Personally I was good for a little less than :20

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Sorry, Chris. I didn't listen to it at all. My blood pressure just doesn't need to be that high.

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Beatcha! Clicked Madcow off at about 12 seconds.

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I watched about 20 seconds with the volume off! 🤣😂 She’s just too abhorrent to be allowed to be heard.

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Until you listen to Joy Reid.

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I can't listen to her... I have bleeding ears from listening to Justin Trudeau.... 😅

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Every time I see that clip, I think, you know, it’s not just that she’s wrong. It’s that she’s so arrogant in her superiority that being wrong literally doesn’t matter. Still doesn’t. Because she’s still inflicting in her presence on anyone who will listen to her.

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And she has been paid many millions of dollars to spew the lies. I believe she’s laughing all the way to the bank. I despise her and her ilk.

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for a second i thought i was at a different substack ;)

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Merry Christmas everyone!

If Christmas isn't your holiday I hope whatever you celebrate is the Best Evah!

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Merry Christmas 🎄 everyone.

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Once you start lying eventually everything becomes a lie. That is our neoliberal elite and most of the left.

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Constant lying, especially when done publicly & also getting paid for it, damages the brain & soul of a human. They arrive at a place where they’re simply soulless, useful idiots until useful no more. Most have been exposed.

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And opening themselves up to demonic energy....

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This year, may your visiting liberal relatives allow you to have a Merry Christmas

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Don't have any who still talk to me, so

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So no chance of getting any pride flag Christmas ornaments?

Without TDS meltdowns, you will have to go see the Nutcracker for performance art!

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I got all my relatives a Trump pocket watch. (they had Harris watches but they get stuck on 32 days)

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You know, those people will buy ANYTHING pride-related. I wonder how many MAGA are making bank selling that crap.

I often see things presented as jokes that They would adore.

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Our shattered families are so sad; sometimes I think this is the worst kind of damage that has been done to us.

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There's a story called The Machine Stops, from circa 1908, by E.M. Forster. It became at least a little famous during lockdowns, so maybe this comment is unnecessary. The tale is a very apt description of the cocooned adult, dwelling within "the machine," who cannot cope with disruption or disagreement. You can apply it to the Biden White House, for one.

Available here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/72890

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I love The Machine Stops. One of my favorites.

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A few days off to focus on the goodness of Christmas sounds like an excellent plan!

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Yeah, I know it's the Christmas season and fellowship and love and all that, but the saying is true:

"You don't hate them enough."

They are sociopaths and psychopaths and deserve to be put down.

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May 2025 allow us to witness a controlled demolition of the authoritarian/censorship/control structure, and may we spend the year sifting through the rubble to identify the blameworthy.

A Merry and Peaceful Christmas to all.

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Like!

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