CXXI – All The Rage

In a follow up discussion of WM Briggs’ ‘Excess of Educated Men‘, I had a fruitful discussion with Hambone on the topic.

WM Briggs comments on a particular section, saying this:

Power was still held by “men of action” and the “intellectual is treated as a poor relation who has to pick up the crumbs. Even “when his excellence…is…rewarded, he does not feel himself one of the elite.” That sting leads to lashing out. Which is why the intellectual “has pioneered every upheaval from the Reformation to the latest nationalist or socialist movement.” After the tumult, because intellectuals are rarely leaders, they are pushed out by other strong men and “left out in the cold.”

This thesis, that “intellectuals have pioneered every upheaval”, is an interesting one. Intellectuals can rile up the populace, but can’t effectively contain them, so inevitably a strong-man who effectuated their revolution will take authority from the intellectual who preceded him. We can see this with Stalin, Lenin, and Trotsky. Having not done a comprehensive historical analysis, a part of me wants to say this is post hoc ergo propter hoc at it’s finest, but it seems to fit with my model of human nature.

In our contemporary age, it’s fair to say we live in a time of upheaval in almost every sphere of life. The “right-populist” phenomenon, embodied by President Trump, captured the rage of half the population that feels they don’t have a say in an increasingly elitist and oligarchical Republic. He embodied that rage, and rode it into the white house.

The other half of society is angry about something else.

Let’s look at “higher education”, which is simply any education received after highschool. My generation’s grandparents told my generation’s parents that a diploma was the key to success: It worked for me, it will work for you, and for a time that was true. My generations parents told my generation the same thing.

This three (at least!) generations of demand has led to Academia as an institution. It led to things like “studies”, like degrees that confer on their holders no special knowledge or skills, and tries it’s best to imbue an ideology upon them. That’s because the business is guaranteed: They can charge infinite dollars, and market forces cannot bring that price down because it is government backed. In any industry where the government guarantees payment, there will be people who scramble to find a reason to join the party.

So lets look at the lay of the land: An intellectual class uninterested in furthering intellectual pursuits. A student class who very much want to succeed but who continue to want to lower the bar to do so. Prices that always go up. Payments that never get made.

Imagine being told all your life that Santa is real and then, after a minimum of 4 years and nearly $100,000 in debt, you emerge from your cocoon only to find that it’s all been a lie.

To whom do you turn?

Enter: Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders wants to take from those people who lied to you, and give it to you. He wants to ease your burdens. He wants to make Santa real for another generation.

So here is where we get our current bipolar political environment. On the one hand, embodied by Trump, fueled by people who don’t believe they are being listened to. On the other hand, embodied by Sanders, fueled by people who believe they were lied to.

All this rage comes from a place of blaming, from extrinsic sources of happiness or fulfillment. And it’s got to go somewhere.

AMDG