Among the many memorable events we’ve had this election cycle–which will doubtless not end with Election Day next Tuesday–was Jeff Bezos’ decision that the Washington Post, his newspaper, would not endorse a candidate for President. Coming on the heels of a similar decision at the Los Angeles Times by another newly wealthy entrepreneur, it was a shock to the Post’s largely leftist readership base, to say nothing of the staff.
I read Bezos’ rationale for his decision and, while what he said is true, I can’t believe that’s all there is to it. Life and politics in this country is the biggest kabuki theatre (with apologies to the Japanese) in the world, where in a supposedly open society no one ever lets out their real motivations or objectives. That’s why, for example, we have the spectacle of a billionaire leading the lower middle classes in a revolt against the system, because the latter are too ashamed to admit that, in a country where anyone can supposedly go anywhere in life they want to, they’re on the losing end of the economic system.
On the other end, I think that Bezos is the victim of another hiding of the real objective: the legacy of the hippie radicals. He’s not alone: I think one problem I had with my Canadian sheeple was that he laughed at them in the 1960’s, not taking them seriously then or now, while I’ve always taken them very seriously. Bezos came into adulthood after that debacle; the left leaning elites, paragons of respectability after they got their rude shock with Ronald Reagan, wrapped themselves in the flag they once gleefully burned and presented themselves as the paragons of polite company.
Make no mistake: Bezos is as cold and ruthless of a business person as there is. But when entrepreneurs rise to the top, they want to be acknowledged by people whom they think can confer the mantle of respectability, the people we used to call in the old Episcopal Church our “betters.” What he’s starting to discover, however, is that the people he runs with now have objectives which are, to use my father’s expression, “basically inimical” to those which made Bezos the success that he has become.
Back in the day we were told that all of this striving for success was useless and made us suburban phonies, that we should be authentic, expressing that authenticity in not only getting laid, high or drunk, but in making those our life’s objectives (and making sure no one else had any other.) Such a sybaritic mindset is deeply Luddite but also comes against those who still think we should do great things. The way to enforce this in society can be summed up in one word: equity. If we all are supposed to end up in the same place, that can only happen if we all get paid the same and all are at the same economic level. The whole range of left wing causes–BLM, DEI, antisemitism–stem from a basic desire to throttle real achievement in our society and to, as Chairman Mao used to say, “put politics in command.”
Kamala Harris is a poster child for this idea. She came up getting laid, high and drunk for personal advancement, and when she was her authentic self she paraded the hippy dreamers’ wish list in a way that even outdid Bernie Sanders, a real hippy dreamer. Now that she is running for President, she’d like us all to forget that, so she buries her real idea in her now famous “word salads.”
Bezos may be cold and ruthless but he’s not stupid; I think the reality of what he’s gone along with is finally sinking in. Elon Musk, his peer, has taken things much further and gone all in for Donald Trump, at no small personal risk. It’s hard sometimes to convince immigrants that those who hold the strings of power are so deeply regressive, but when they figure that out, they respond in a way that puts the native born to shame.
Immigrants are a reminder that the United States isn’t the only game in town. This leads us to the ultimate question: how is it possible for a country lead by an elite that is so averse to real achievement, either by themselves or anyone else in the country, to take on and defeat adversaries such as Vladimir Putin and especially Yi Xinping? The answer is simple: they can’t, and the idea that they can is the biggest lie the American left has ever foisted on our people. That simple fact is a big reason why I have never been able to bring myself to become a part of the American left, that reason only exceeded by the fact that they are, in large part, God-hating people.
We have a choice in front of us that isn’t pleasant. Our political system has been good in serving up unpleasant political choices this past decade. But if we enthrone the American left at the pinnacle of our society, we are doomed as a nation. It’s that simple. Elon Musk has figured that out; Jeff Bezos is starting to do that. The blowback for both of these people–and others–will be severe if the hippy dreamers and their children–natural and intellectual–make the decisions. But it will be worse When the People’s Liberation Army Marches Down Pennsylvania Avenue.
Positive Infinity 