The Blathering Superego at the End of History
JUNE
18, 2017
LIBERALISM
IS NOT working. Something deep within the mechanism has cracked. All our wonk
managers, our expert stewards of the world, have lost their way. They wander
desert highways in a daze, wondering why the brakes locked up, why the steering
wheel came off, how the engine caught on fire. Their charts lie abandoned by
the roadside. It was all going so well just a moment ago. History was over. The
technocratic order was globalizing the world; people were becoming accustomed
to the permanent triumph of a slightly kinder exploitation. What happened? All
they can recall is a loud thump in the undercarriage, an abrupt loss of
control. Was it Brexit? Trump? Suddenly the tires were bursting and smoke was
pouring into the vehicle, then a flash. The next thing they could remember, our
liberals were standing beside a smoldering ruin, blinking in the hot sun, their
power stolen, their world collapsing, their predictions all proven wrong.
In
the six months since the election of Donald Trump, American liberals have
managed to regroup, assembling themselves into a self-styled “Resistance” and
attempting to reassert control over a world they no longer recognize. But
something happened out there in the desert. There is something off about them
now. On every level, our most prominent technocrats have entered the new year
like uncanny valley copies of themselves, stuttering and miming their old
habits, with each take trying to remember what their lives felt like before the
accident. They can’t quite get the message right. For months, serious journalists
studied The Origins of Totalitarianism like a divination manual,
wondering when Trump would pass his enabling act. First, the president was a
fascist, until he failed to consolidate power. Then he was an authoritarian,
until he showed no interest in micro- or macro-management. Then he merely had
authoritarian tendencies, or something, and at any rate was probably a Kremlin
agent.
The
situation is no better on television. Rachel Maddow, once the charming
spokesperson of a kinder world, crazily unveils tax returns she found in Al
Capone’s vault. Keith Olbermann — never charming but at least self-confident —
now squats on the floor in promotional photos, swaddled in an American flag.
The newer stars of the left — the Louise Mensches and Eric Garlands — are using
game theory to outwit invisible Soviet assassins. Elected Democrats are
paralyzed. They repeat, over and over, that none of this is normal,
commit themselves to the fight, and then roll over, confirming the president’s
appointments, praising the beauty of a missile strike, or begging the FBI to
save them. Hillary Clinton emerges from the woods to blame Jim Comey, the DNC,
and the Russians for her loss, and the day before the United States withdraws
from the Paris Climate Agreement, she tweets a covfefe joke.
On
television, in journals, in the halls of Congress, none of the old methods by
which American liberals enforced their claim to superior expertise are working
anymore. For all their “resistance,” the greatest impediment to Donald Trump
remains his own stupidity. Despite every evil and crime of his administration,
the most ambitious Democratic victory on the horizon is making Mike Pence
president. Our liberals are right: none of this is normal. This isn’t
how it used to be. Everywhere, our best and brightest blink. Are they still in
the desert? Is all this an hallucination, a bad dream?
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