I’m surprised that someone would put it this plainly, but they did:
In practice, this means replacing our current elites in government, the media, and universities with a class of “self-conscious aristoi.” This new elite will “secure the foundational goods that make possible human flourishing for ordinary people.” More specifically, this new elite will abolish the system of “separations” that plague modernity including the separation of church and state and the separation of powers. The stakes are high for this more ennobled form of postliberalism. Should we fail to embrace it, we may well lurch toward “civil war, hot or cold.”
I’ve lamented the effete, sybaritic and (to cover up the first two) self-righteous elites that dominate our national life. I’ve also, contrary to what passes as political thought in Christian circles, felt that replacing them is the key to the long term survival and prosperity of the country. The fact that our Christian political class spent so much time wanting more to become a part of our elite rather than displacing them was a mistake, probably a fatal one.
But rather than some kind of “self-conscious aristoi,” I have a different approach.
- Why is it that the educational institutions that dominate our government life are private? The states’ counterparts to those aren’t. Every President between Reagan and Biden has been an Ivy Leaguer. (It was a sign of the depth of desperation that the Democrats nominated Joe Biden on this account alone.) Without breaking up this monopoly we won’t get anywhere. Making them federal institutions (like the service academies) would also be a stronger guarantee of First Amendment rights, and would signal to everyone what they’re about.
- Why are we still, in this technological age, still obsessed with the arts (such as they are these days, that’s a big part of the problem) when we need more technically educated people in our upper reaches? That’s an inheritance from our British roots that we need to get past. Some in the past have thought we would make that shift, but we haven’t. This is why we turn our nose up at technological solutions to our problems while embracing zero-sum thinking and mass movements to get us past our problems: they’re the only weapons in the elite arsenal.
- We need to seriously break up our tech monopolies. The supposedly “liberating” web has turned into a net to corral us. Such concentration of wealth will always lead to the centralisation of power, and tinkering with institutions will not change that.
I’m sure I’ll get howls of indignation about these ideas; I have in the past. But if we don’t come up with a better way to fix our problems than the one we have now, someone else will do it for us, and we won’t like it one bit.
Positive Infinity 