Political Formulas and the Managerial Elite ｜ 11⧸21⧸23
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
145.91017
Summary
Every nation is run by an organized minority of its population, a ruling class. And that class always tells us a story about why they should be in charge. Be it the divine right of kings, the mandate of heaven, or popular election, every ruling class invests in a narrative that grants them legitimacy.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
We hope you're enjoying your Air Canada flight.
00:00:10.720
Fast-free Wi-Fi means I can make dinner reservations before we land.
00:00:25.260
Wi-Fi available to Airplane members on Equipped Flight.
00:00:30.000
Every nation is run by an organized minority of its population, a ruling class.
00:00:42.740
And that class always tells a story about why they should be in charge.
00:00:46.940
Be it the divine right of kings, the mandate of heaven, or popular election,
00:00:51.380
every ruling class invests in a narrative that grants them legitimacy.
00:00:55.120
The Italian political theorist Gaetano Mosca called this narrative of sovereignty a political formula.
00:01:03.860
It can be easy to assume that these narratives are lies of pure ambition,
00:01:08.680
convenient fictions concocted by the ruling class for their own advantage,
00:01:15.400
Rulers never like to see themselves as the villain,
00:01:18.160
and the exercise of pure power wears on the people of a nation, breeding unrest.
00:01:23.520
Any ruling class seeking to achieve longevity and stability
00:01:27.400
must establish a narrative that rings true for both themselves and their subjects,
00:01:32.300
establishing legitimacy through a shared set of beliefs.
00:01:35.040
For our current managerial elite, that narrative is one of efficiency and progress,
00:01:44.040
While the political formula of our own liberal democracy tells us that the people of the nation
00:01:49.420
are sovereign over themselves, this can never be the case.
00:01:52.740
The political formula's role is to elevate one group above all others
00:01:58.200
and grant that group exceptional powers and privileges.
00:02:01.740
This narrative works best when it's drawn from shared elements of culture and tradition
00:02:07.160
that allow the ruling class to confidently wield their power
00:02:10.220
and the subject class to freely accept its legitimacy.
00:02:14.080
This means that the story told must be particular to the character of the nation it sustains.
00:02:20.420
Early religions were the natural source of this narrative as they tended to be tribal.
00:02:26.800
The gods of the city were particular to those people
00:02:29.360
and grounded the power of the ruling class in something that was deeply personal to the in-group.
00:02:34.760
When does fast grocery delivery through Instacart matter most?
00:02:38.400
When your famous grainy mustard potato salad isn't so famous without the grainy mustard.
00:02:43.260
When the barbecue's lit, but there's nothing to grill.
00:02:45.920
When the in-laws decide that, actually, they will stay for dinner.
00:02:49.200
Instacart has all your groceries covered this summer.
00:02:52.280
So download the app and get delivery in as fast as 60 minutes.
00:02:55.860
Plus, enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders.
00:03:05.560
While this was very effective, it made large-scale cooperation impossible
00:03:10.580
as there was no basis for shared values between tribes.
00:03:14.280
The rise of great religions, like Christianity and Islam,
00:03:19.460
allowed for large-scale, civilizational coordination among many different peoples
00:03:27.840
While these great religions solved the problem of scaling coordination,
00:03:32.160
they generated a new problem by creating supranational organizations
00:03:37.000
that competed for sovereignty with the rulers of particular peoples.
00:03:42.220
This resulted in the classic Western tension between the authority of the Pope
00:03:50.860
This tension was largely resolved in favor of the ruling classes
00:03:54.520
by the Treaty of Westphalia and the creation of the nation-state.
00:03:59.280
Universities today aren't just neglecting real education.
00:04:05.200
America was made for an educated and engaged citizenry.
00:04:08.760
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute is here to help.
00:04:11.560
ISI offers programs and opportunities for conservative students across the country.
00:04:16.760
ISI understands that conservatives and right-of-center students
00:04:21.860
and that you're often fighting for your own reputation, dignity, and future.
00:04:26.740
Through ISI, you can learn about what Russell Kirk called the permanent things,
00:04:30.540
the philosophical and political teachings that shaped and made Western civilization great.
00:04:35.880
ISI offers many opportunities to jumpstart your career.
00:04:38.960
They have fellowships at some of the nation's top conservative publications
00:04:42.080
like National Review, The American Conservative, and The College Thinker.
00:04:46.040
If you're a graduate student, ISI offers funding opportunities
00:04:48.880
to sponsor the next great generation of college professors.
00:04:52.060
Through ISI, you can work with conservative thinkers who are making a difference.
00:04:55.660
Thinkers like Chris Ruffo, who currently has an ISI researcher helping him with his book.
00:05:01.000
But perhaps most importantly, ISI offers college students
00:05:06.420
If you're a college student, ISI can help you start a student organization
00:05:09.780
or a student newspaper or meet other like-minded students
00:05:15.920
ISI is here to educate the next generation of great Americans.
00:05:24.140
In the United States and other Western liberal democracies,
00:05:28.820
the political formula became one of elections and popular sovereignty.
00:05:38.760
to a small class of elected officials who ruled in their name.
00:05:45.920
the actual framework of these nations has moved to a managerial system
00:05:50.540
and the political formula has slowly shifted to align with this reality over time.
00:05:56.720
The powers of legislative bodies like Congress have been increasingly delegated
00:06:02.000
to bureaucratic agencies on the basis of their managerial expertise.
00:06:06.380
Decision-making has been transferred out of the hands of elected officials
00:06:11.460
who now hold ceremonial debates over political action
00:06:14.740
while the real policies are crafted and enacted by experts
00:06:20.440
The public is assured that while elections are essential and democracy is sacred,
00:06:28.400
trust the science and ultimately place the real decisions
00:06:35.280
Nothing brought the reality of this political formula into focus
00:06:39.420
as clearly as the events surrounding the COVID pandemic.
00:06:46.840
the response of most nations was driven by international organizations
00:06:52.380
The World Health Organization and Gates Foundation
00:06:56.140
had a far larger impact on the global pandemic response
00:07:03.540
No constitutions were altered, no elections were held,
00:07:09.160
via the already established political formula of the managerial elite.
00:07:14.900
Donald Trump, a president who in all other respects
00:07:18.020
seemed to clash with the Washington, D.C. establishment,
00:07:20.960
was largely sidelined after ceding power to Anthony Fauci,
00:07:25.540
an expert that most voters had never heard of prior to the pandemic.
00:07:30.680
While the managerial class based its new political formula
00:07:40.160
The miracle of progress promised by managerialism
00:07:46.180
but it was always a bloodless and spiritually dead ideology
00:07:51.820
as soon as it stopped reliably dispensing material benefits.
00:07:56.600
The intersectional progressive faith known as wokeness
00:08:00.020
has begun to directly challenge the ideological pillars
00:08:05.680
Just as the managerial elite retained the forms of democracy
00:08:10.480
while shifting power into the hands of bureaucratic expertise,
00:08:15.340
so wokeness retains the appearance of managerial expertise
00:08:18.660
but shifts power into intersectional client groups.
00:08:23.260
While managerialism promised efficiency and productivity
00:08:29.140
wokeness insists that diversity is the key to reaching those goals.
00:08:32.860
While managerialism claimed science as the only legitimate source of knowledge,
00:08:38.980
wokeness insists that science is a deeply racist endeavor.
00:08:46.820
and valuing productivity itself are all declared white supremacy.
00:08:51.100
This deconstruction of the managerial political formula
00:09:02.400
and other institutions which were largely founded
00:09:10.500
and the attempt to shift America's political formula
00:09:13.400
has created great upheaval inside the ruling class.
00:09:17.040
While the left has secured near-hegemonic control
00:09:31.920
the instability created by their internal power struggle
00:09:35.320
opens space for right-wing counter-elites to maneuver
00:09:45.620
which will communicate a compelling vision of the future
00:09:49.120
and prove themselves capable of executing on that vision.
00:10:04.300
If you'd like to get these broadcasts as podcasts,
00:10:06.560
go ahead and subscribe to The Orr McIntyre Show
00:10:18.540
if you'd like to go ahead and watch these videos