Chesapeake Observer – Page 89 – Perspectives on public affairs from Maryland's Eastern Shore

Where Will It End?

March 30, 2021

It is extraordinary how in the past year the terms “woke” and “critical race theory” have gone from producing blank incomprehension in 99% of the population to capturing the attention of a vast majority. Rod Dreher’s book Live Not by Lies, with its theme of how big business imposes soft totalitarianism based on woke sensibility and white guilt, has become a best seller. Public schools are being outed for indoctrinating students with false versions of American history and imposing woke views on sexuality. The new Administration’s actions affecting the military, health, education, and religion appear to have turned control of wide swaths of public policy over to its most extreme Progressive elements. It would be possible to spend 24 hours a day reading reports, analysis and arguments about these topics. There are some brilliant one-liners, clear and accurate descriptions of the origins and meaning of wokeness and critical theory, and well-stated concerns about where our country is heading. Yet I see few, if any, convincing proposals for how to turn the tide. ... Read More

My rant is brief, and to take this discussion beyond my conclusions I am recommending a selection of articles representative of the research on which I have relied. The first is a basic survey of the growth of the managerial state, followed by DEI in military services, suppression of results at NIH, and climate policy. I end with a contrary and more optimistic point of view. My point is not how misguided policies adopted in the past four years have been -- I need not repeat that story -- but how these policies did not get or need Presidential attention in order to be adopted. They are the continued working of a self-perpetuating layer of managers.

A basic introduction to how the managers have taken over everything from elected officials

The great historian Niall Ferguson, now an invaluable columnist in the Free Press, discusses how far we have fallen under Biden-Harris-Blinken-Sullivan foreign policy.

A detailed report on how our military establishment has decided to indoctrinate future generations of admirals and generals.

How an NIH researcher is withholding results that undermine claims that sex change is good for teenagers.

A good discussion of the basic unrealism of EPA’s new regulations to mandate electric vehicles and remove natural gas and coal from electricity generation. It is complemented by this survey that few Americans even care about the climate cause or want the regulations imposed by these managers..

And to wrap up my concerns about the powers that be, a point by Matt Taibbi: “Something’s up. Suspiciously similar editorials about possible post-election emergency measures coming out in multiple publications” The managers are worried but have a plan to hold on to power.

But maybe I am wrong. Alex Gutentag and Michael Shellenberger observe how Kamala’s campaign is ”circling the drain,” in the immortal words of Bo Snerdley. Gutentag and Shellenberger describe its many pathologies that have driven pillars of my “managerial class” away from Democrats. One good line is that in Kamala’s world “shaming and belittling take precedence over actual debate. This, in the long-term, has been another losing strategy.” I have been the target of shaming and belittling, and we will see if these optimists are correct. I hope and pray they are.