The Glenn Beck Program - June 14, 2024


Ep 1 ｜ Control Freaks： The 'Scientific' Roots of Progressive Tyranny (REPLAY) ｜ The Beck Story


Episode Stats

Length

58 minutes

Words per Minute

131.62

Word Count

7,706

Sentence Count

485

Misogynist Sentences

2

Hate Speech Sentences

15


Summary

Every day now, decisions are being made by a class of experts that have a direct bearing on your life and the future of not only your nation, but the world, and no one is asking you about any of it. As the world learned in 2020, expertise untethered from humanity and combined with a cult-like devotion to the science can have disastrous, far-reaching consequences.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Ever wonder why things are the way they are in America?
00:00:08.740 Welcome to The Beck Story, my podcast on how our past informs our present, charts our future.
00:00:18.120 How did we get here?
00:00:19.640 The first season is about the cult of expertise in America, how it permeated our government,
00:00:25.460 how this allegiance to so-called expertise has far-reaching implications for our nation right now.
00:00:33.620 A remarkably consistent through-line extends from the original progressive movement
00:00:39.380 right through to the actions of left-wing elites today.
00:00:44.220 How many times lately have you heard,
00:00:47.360 well, do you have a doctorate in that?
00:00:50.280 Oh, are you an expert?
00:00:52.380 Oh, you must be a scientist.
00:00:55.460 No, I'm not any of those things.
00:00:58.680 I am somebody who's a reasonable-thinking American.
00:01:02.920 I have a right to question, and I also have a responsibility
00:01:07.560 to be involved in all of the decisions that now seem to be being made for me.
00:01:15.200 So how did we get here?
00:01:17.420 How many times in the past few years have you heard some version of this?
00:01:22.300 Health experts say your time might be running out.
00:01:27.200 Experts say it's happening.
00:01:28.680 Well, experts.
00:01:29.480 Health experts say.
00:01:30.560 Some experts.
00:01:31.440 Experts.
00:01:32.160 Follow the science.
00:01:33.120 Follow the science.
00:01:34.300 Be driven by science.
00:01:35.900 Listen to the scientists.
00:01:37.500 But if we now have access to so many experts and so much science,
00:01:44.500 why is it that everything seems to be breaking down and basic common sense is gone?
00:01:51.920 Answer?
00:01:54.060 Expertise killed it.
00:01:55.620 Every day now, decisions are being made by a class of experts that have a direct bearing on your life
00:02:03.240 and the future of not only your nation, but the world.
00:02:07.000 And no one is asking you about any of it.
00:02:10.560 As the world learned in 2020, expertise untethered from humanity
00:02:15.960 and combined with a cult-like devotion to the science, end quote,
00:02:21.360 can have disastrous, far-reaching consequences.
00:02:25.440 But again, how did we get to this point?
00:02:28.200 That's the journey I want to take you on this season.
00:02:31.220 How the experts rose to such power.
00:02:34.840 How they wielded that power.
00:02:37.220 And how America is now struggling with the fallout.
00:02:40.300 Our story begins with Louise Marie Taylor.
00:02:52.960 She had traveled all over Europe numerous times,
00:02:56.180 but she had never seen a lavish spectacle quite like the one that greeted her in Rome in 1927.
00:03:03.620 Lou, as her family called her, was in Rome for the Third International Management Congress,
00:03:09.360 The pageantry in the crowd surrounding the conference demonstrated the power of her late husband's legacy,
00:03:17.080 Frederick W. Taylor.
00:03:19.140 He'd been dead now for 12 years, but he was a legend in the field known then as scientific management,
00:03:27.740 a field that he basically invented in more ways than one.
00:03:32.500 Frederick Taylor's most famous book called The Principles of Scientific Management
00:03:39.340 was first translated into Italian in 1915, the year Taylor died.
00:03:45.740 Just 11 years later, Italian bureaucrats were so taken with Taylor's principles
00:03:50.980 that they created a government agency to promote scientific management.
00:03:56.160 At the closing ceremony of the conference, banners, flags, soldiers all provided a regal atmosphere
00:04:03.100 in the Italian Senate chamber.
00:04:06.300 Lou was moved when a photo of Frederick, her husband, was projected on a big screen.
00:04:11.580 Then the leader of the conference rose to speak and gave a full-throated endorsement of scientific management,
00:04:19.020 and the crowd roared with approval.
00:04:21.380 After the closing ceremony, Lou received a special invitation from the revered conference leader
00:04:28.320 to his private office.
00:04:30.020 He was eager to present Lou with a photo of himself in an exchange for a photo of her husband,
00:04:36.320 Frederick Taylor, whom he said was a great man and had revolutionized management.
00:04:43.380 Lou thanked the man, who happened to be a little bit more than just the Italian leader
00:04:48.440 of the management conference.
00:04:51.080 In fact, he was the new leader of everything in Italy.
00:04:56.480 He was Benito Mussolini.
00:05:00.380 What is an expert?
00:05:02.220 Some expert witnesses point out the thought after.
00:05:05.340 We turn to the experts on...
00:05:06.960 Experts agree that if nothing is done...
00:05:08.660 Do we really think experts are jumping in and helping people make great decisions?
00:05:14.920 I don't think so.
00:05:16.200 When you learn about the progressive era in history class, it probably went something like
00:05:25.100 this.
00:05:26.100 The progressives are big-hearted heroes who cared for the common man.
00:05:30.320 They used government to fight for the poor, for children, for women, and immigrants, battling
00:05:35.320 all the terrible things that they had suffered at the hands of evil industrial capitalists.
00:05:41.520 Right?
00:05:41.780 This reform obsession that came to be known as progressivism was not an overnight sensation.
00:05:49.580 It was a slow burn.
00:05:51.380 Roughly the 1890s to the end of World War I in 1918, and some of the reforms that progressives
00:05:58.040 brought about were good things, like basic safety and sanitary standards for America's
00:06:03.420 food and drugs.
00:06:04.340 No one's going around today saying, gee, I wish we still had kindergartners working on
00:06:09.980 the factory floor.
00:06:11.840 But overall, America's history textbooks don't tell you the whole story about progressivism,
00:06:19.080 or frankly, anything.
00:06:21.040 They fail to mention how a cult of expertise developed among progressives and how these experts
00:06:28.260 took a sledgehammer to our constitutional system of government, and we're still feeling the
00:06:34.520 effects today.
00:06:35.500 In 1856, Frederick Winslow Taylor was born into a wealthy family in Philadelphia.
00:06:43.900 When he was 12, he spent three years touring around Europe with his family at a time when
00:06:49.140 no one outside of the wealthiest Americans did such a thing.
00:06:53.840 When he was 16, Taylor attended Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, an elite boarding
00:06:59.520 school for America's wealthy young men.
00:07:01.520 Two years later, he passed the Harvard entrance exam with honors, then horrified his parents
00:07:08.160 by deciding not to attend Harvard.
00:07:11.460 He hung out at his parents' Philadelphia mansion for several months until his father finally helped
00:07:17.100 Taylor get an apprenticeship at a machine shop called the Enterprise Hydraulic Works.
00:07:23.960 There, Taylor learned to cuss like a commoner and work with his hands.
00:07:28.820 He had a genuine knack for engineering and design.
00:07:32.200 In fact, he eventually owned several patents, including tennis racket and golf club designs.
00:07:39.680 Taylor would always use his apprenticeship as a badge of honor.
00:07:43.260 Having rubbed shoulders with the common folk gave him some sort of street cred.
00:07:48.640 But Taylor was always an elite.
00:07:51.500 He never shed that part of himself.
00:07:53.540 And the major difference between he and the regular men that he apprenticed under was that
00:07:58.820 ultimately, he didn't need the job.
00:08:01.700 He had a safety net.
00:08:03.760 After his apprenticeship, he pleased his parents by completing an engineering degree from Stevens
00:08:09.400 Institute of Technology in New Jersey.
00:08:12.320 He then got a job at Millvale Steel Company in Philadelphia.
00:08:15.740 And it was there that he discovered the knack that would make him famous.
00:08:21.020 The knack for telling people how to do their jobs better.
00:08:26.140 At Midville, Taylor observed inefficiencies through the company, including what he believed
00:08:32.040 to be employees working slowly on purpose.
00:08:36.180 Taylor soon fell in love with the stopwatch and then began doing time studies each step of
00:08:41.940 the manufacturing process.
00:08:43.360 He then corrected the workers, dictating the best technique that they should follow in
00:08:48.580 performing their job.
00:08:50.440 Oh, he must have been mighty popular.
00:08:53.960 Detailed performance standards were put in place for all of the areas of the operation.
00:08:59.240 He moved equipment around and meticulously streamlined everything.
00:09:03.920 Through these efficiency audits, he was able to enhance a company's productivity and cut
00:09:08.580 costs.
00:09:09.200 He essentially invented management consulting.
00:09:13.360 Here's how historian Jill Lepore described what Taylor did, quote, he'd get himself hired
00:09:20.000 by some business, spend a while watching people work, stopwatch and slide rule in hand, write
00:09:25.480 a report telling them how to do their work faster and then submit an astronomical bill for
00:09:30.940 his services, end quote.
00:09:32.360 He called it science.
00:09:35.000 And since no one had really done it before, no one really argued with him about how scientific
00:09:41.120 it actually was.
00:09:43.240 His favorite example, which he talked about in his book and countless lectures, was his
00:09:48.960 1899 pig iron study at Bethlehem Steel Company in Pennsylvania.
00:09:53.920 Pig iron was part of the steelmaking process in which iron ore was smelted and then poured
00:10:00.440 into molds.
00:10:01.820 When the iron cooled, you can have individual planks of iron that were later used as raw
00:10:06.960 material for producing steel.
00:10:09.860 Taylor loved to tell the story about how his efficiency science got a man named Henry Knoll,
00:10:15.480 who he referred to as Schmidt in his book, to work harder than everyone else when it came
00:10:21.760 to the job of moving pig iron.
00:10:24.280 The legend, as Taylor always told it, was that he got Henry Knoll to prove that a man could
00:10:29.920 move 47 and a half tons of pig iron per day instead of 12 and a half tons.
00:10:36.660 How did Taylor's science come up with 47 and a half tons as the standard?
00:10:41.080 Well, he picked 10 men.
00:10:43.780 He challenged them to load 16 and a half tons as fast as they could.
00:10:48.740 They did it in 14 minutes.
00:10:51.200 So, at that rate, over a 10-hour day, that equaled about 71 tons per man.
00:10:58.180 But then he knocked that number down to 47 and a half tons based on his guesstimate of what
00:11:04.080 he called the law of heavy laboring.
00:11:06.640 But only Henry Knoll was ever able to get close to 47 and a half tons per day.
00:11:13.920 And he certainly didn't reach the number every day.
00:11:18.460 Was that really science?
00:11:21.040 Well, apparently it was, if you just kept saying science over and over.
00:11:25.640 And if you saved your client some money in the process.
00:11:29.420 You can really see Taylor's elitism shining through as he discusses the pig iron job in
00:11:35.960 his book.
00:11:37.160 Quote,
00:11:37.500 This work is so crude and elementary in its nature that the writer firmly believes that
00:11:44.860 it would be possible to train an intelligent gorilla so as to become a more efficient pig
00:11:50.860 iron handler than any man can be.
00:11:53.520 Yet it will be shown that the science of handling pig iron is so great and amounts to so much
00:12:00.180 that it is impossible for the man who is best suited to this type of work to understand
00:12:05.860 the principles of this science or even to work in accordance with these principles without
00:12:11.080 the aid of a man better educated than he is.
00:12:14.960 Unfortunately, he goes on.
00:12:17.520 Quote,
00:12:17.880 Now one of the very first requirements for a man who is fit to handle pig iron as a regular
00:12:23.800 occupation is that he shall be so stupid and so phlegmatic that he more nearly resembles
00:12:30.660 in his mental makeup the ox than any other type.
00:12:34.640 He is so stupid that the word percentage has no meaning to him and he must consequently
00:12:41.460 be trained by a man more intelligent than himself into the habit of working in accordance
00:12:47.620 with the laws of this science before he can be successful.
00:12:52.860 Here is the progressive hero narrative of experts in action.
00:12:57.940 Poor Schmidt had no chance on his own.
00:13:01.560 But with rules and prodding by expert overseers, he can rise above his station.
00:13:09.680 Taylor's audiences ate up the Schmidt story, never mind the fact that Taylor described the
00:13:15.100 workers he was supposedly helping as stupid gorillas and oxen.
00:13:20.760 He was merely doing science.
00:13:23.040 As America would find out, elitism usually goes hand in hand with progressivism.
00:13:31.200 Frederick Taylor considered himself a progressive.
00:13:34.600 But he wasn't much of a political activist during most of his career.
00:13:39.020 Politics and state power were not his passions.
00:13:41.760 Yet, he had basically stumbled onto the holy grail that would make him a hero and a saint to American
00:13:49.200 progressive elite.
00:13:50.580 He synthesized the spirit of the progressive era he lived in.
00:13:55.560 He codified what progressive leaders were instinctively building, but just hadn't branded it yet.
00:14:01.920 It was the idea that we should put experts in charge of all aspects of life, and life would
00:14:09.060 improve for everyone.
00:14:10.200 Taylor said, quote,
00:14:12.640 In our scheme, we do not ask the initiative of our men.
00:14:16.860 We do not want any initiative.
00:14:19.180 All we want of them is to obey the orders we give them, do what we say, and do it quick.
00:14:26.900 Perhaps nothing made Taylor more progressive than the fact he was so in love with his own
00:14:32.000 ideas.
00:14:32.980 In his book, he said scientific management should be applied across all of society.
00:14:38.800 Quote,
00:14:39.460 The same principles can be applied with equal force to all social activities, to the management
00:14:46.200 of our homes, the management of our farms, the management of the business of our tradesmen,
00:14:52.020 large and small, of our churches, our philanthropic institutions, our universities, and our governmental
00:14:59.840 departments.
00:15:00.780 This would become music to progressive ears.
00:15:05.080 Taylor's concept of scientific management gave PowerMad progressives the perfect label
00:15:11.140 and tool they needed.
00:15:13.060 If you could transform a complex business through careful study and planning and dictated change,
00:15:19.860 imagine what could be done by using those same techniques on government and society.
00:15:25.820 Now, progressivism had a unifying rallying cry.
00:15:31.580 Taylor was the Moses for them, coming down from the mountain with a new set of commandments
00:15:37.820 and giving them even more justification to take charge.
00:15:41.720 Because now, science was on their side.
00:15:46.300 And you can't argue with science.
00:15:49.080 Progressive leaders took Taylor's concept and married it with political power.
00:15:54.060 But it would take another progressive titan, someone that the left still worships today,
00:16:00.440 to take Taylor's ideas about the importance of experts and make them go viral.
00:16:05.880 A century ago, as we're now learning, we witnessed the dawn of the expert class in this country.
00:16:15.580 The consolidation of power into a few hands was something the founders tried to avoid.
00:16:21.720 But we had progressivism.
00:16:24.000 Woodrow Wilson, he brought it all crashing back into our lives.
00:16:27.780 And in one of the most blatant efforts of all time, trying to stamp out individualism and freedom,
00:16:34.100 we're doing it again.
00:16:34.920 And that means the freedom to have the opportunity, to take your destiny in your own hands.
00:16:42.080 It's something that I believe in.
00:16:43.400 And if you're listening to this podcast, I believe you are too.
00:16:45.900 And it's something that Jace Medical believes in as well.
00:16:49.500 They're a proud partner in bringing this together.
00:16:52.160 And I'm happy to have them on board.
00:16:53.940 They understand the way you and I do, that you need to be able to make decisions for yourself and your family.
00:16:59.640 You need to be as self-reliant as possible.
00:17:03.240 And they're providing some of the most vital, life-saving medications.
00:17:07.160 Medications that the experts wouldn't want you to be in charge with.
00:17:11.080 Medicines because of the experts in charge might not be easy to get in the coming months and years.
00:17:17.020 And they'll make sure you're prepared for anything with a year's worth of whatever medicine you have to take every day.
00:17:23.280 I encourage you to check out JaceMedical.com and prepare yourself and your family.
00:17:29.040 I'm no expert, but I use Jace Medical.
00:17:34.880 Louis Brandeis.
00:17:36.280 He was one of those guys you didn't want to get into a debate with.
00:17:40.040 You know, kind of like Elon Musk.
00:17:42.420 You're certain to lose.
00:17:44.020 The son of a secular Jewish immigrant from Prague, Brandeis was born in Louisville, Kentucky and mostly grew up there.
00:17:52.060 He was incredibly smart and ambitious, graduating from Harvard Law School when he was 20 years old, with the highest grades in the school's history at the time.
00:18:02.380 In 1879, Brandeis started a law firm in Boston with a friend from Harvard.
00:18:09.220 And soon their practice was so profitable that Brandeis started taking on select cases for free.
00:18:15.660 Cases that furthered his progressive ideals.
00:18:19.480 For Brandeis, that included advancing the idea of rule by experts.
00:18:25.380 This speaks volumes about Brandeis' philosophy.
00:18:28.760 Among his papers, a note was once found that he had written himself, which said, quote,
00:18:35.100 Advise client on what he should have, not what he wants.
00:18:39.880 That could practically be the progressive motto.
00:18:45.460 In our history textbooks, a 1908 Supreme Court case, Mueller v. Oregon, is often cited as an example of superhero progressivism at work.
00:18:55.480 Before this case, the Supreme Court had considered it a right of employers and employees to establish a work contract without interference from the state.
00:19:07.220 Brandeis would change that.
00:19:09.620 This case demonstrated Brandeis' passion for rule by experts.
00:19:13.800 He defended the state of Oregon in front of the Supreme Court, packing his brief with over 100 pages of research and supposed science, backing up his theory that women working long hours was, quote,
00:19:28.760 dangerous to the public health, safety, morals, and welfare.
00:19:33.720 This progressive argued that the state was correct to restrict work hours for women, rather than allowing employers and employees to set up their own work arrangement.
00:19:47.800 Brandeis won the case, as he usually did.
00:19:51.580 And he's been hailed as a hero ever since for his Brandeis briefs.
00:19:55.960 Judicial historian Stephen Powers wrote, quote,
00:20:00.040 The so-called Brandeis brief became a model for progressive litigation.
00:20:05.160 He says the hallmark of this approach is, quote,
00:20:08.440 Its disregard for common law jurisprudence in favor of faith in a jurisprudence that takes into account social and historical realities.
00:20:20.580 Because of cases like Mueller v. Oregon, Brandeis gained a saintly reputation on the left as the people's lawyer.
00:20:29.660 In 1910, he got another big opportunity to stand up for the people, this time in a hearing before the Interstate Commerce Commission.
00:20:39.020 The ICC was an early product of progressivism.
00:20:43.060 It was established in 1887 to regulate the railroad industry.
00:20:47.900 It was the first regulatory authority commission in U.S. history.
00:20:53.180 Brandeis was brought in by the Trade Association of the Atlantic Seaboard to make an argument for why railroad companies should not be approved to increase their rates.
00:21:03.820 He dug in, preparing one of his famous Brandeis briefs.
00:21:07.840 And that is when he stumbled onto the glories of Frederick Taylor's scientific management.
00:21:14.860 Brandeis traveled to Philadelphia and met with Taylor in person to glean everything he could about the amazing new science.
00:21:23.760 He also met with Taylor's associates.
00:21:27.020 In true progressive expert style, Taylor was extremely protective of his scientific management concepts.
00:21:34.820 Only he could certify official scientific management experts.
00:21:38.620 According to him, there were only five other authorized experts in the world, and they all happened to work for him.
00:21:47.460 After learning everything he could about Taylor's scientific management, Brandeis was enthralled, writing, quote,
00:21:53.260 Of all the social and economic movements with which I have been connected, none seem to me to be more equal in its importance and hopefulness.
00:22:03.920 Brandeis felt he held the key to a glorious progressive future, and that key was experts in charge.
00:22:14.660 Just like Taylor hovering over his stopwatch and charts to reconfigure every department of a steel company, Brandeis could see experts reconfiguring every aspect of America's messy society.
00:22:28.600 Brandeis said, quote,
00:22:30.180 Efficiency is the hope of democracy.
00:22:33.920 In October 1910, before heading to D.C. for the Interstate Commerce Commission hearing, Brandeis held a meeting in New York City with some of Taylor's associates.
00:22:46.180 Among the attendees were Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, who later would become famous in the book Cheaper by the Dozen, which was written by two of their children.
00:22:55.840 Yes, they really did have 12 kids, and if you read the book or seen the 1950s movie, you recall that it's about these eccentric parents who try to run their chaotic household with strict efficiency rules.
00:23:10.160 The Gilbreth's were all about studying human motion to eliminate inefficiencies in everything from factory work to household tasks.
00:23:20.560 At that meeting, Brandeis had everyone help him settle in on an official title for this efficiency management by expert system.
00:23:30.020 They decided to call it scientific management.
00:23:34.080 Taylor, who was not at the meeting, had used the term before, so he was sure to approve their choice.
00:23:39.580 At the ICC hearing, Brandeis built his case trying to demonstrate how evil capitalist railroads had no clue as to how they arrived at their crazy high rates and therefore were not justified in raising them even more.
00:24:00.000 He built up to his you-can't-handle-the-truth moment when he questioned the VP of a New York railroad company named Charles Daly.
00:24:10.700 Daly admitted setting their prices was based on judgment, so Brandeis asked him for details on exactly how he made that judgment.
00:24:19.820 The basis of my judgment is exactly the same as the basis of a man who knows how to play a good game of golf.
00:24:27.480 It comes from practice, contact, and experience with the particular subject at issue.
00:24:34.560 Then Brandeis said,
00:24:35.960 I want to know, Mr. Daly, just as clearly as you can state it, whether you can give a single reason based on anything more than your arbitrary judgment as you have expressed it.
00:24:49.960 None whatever, replied Daly.
00:24:52.720 None whatever, none whatever.
00:24:57.480 Frank Gilbreth, the cheaper-by-the-dozen dad, was a star witness for Brandeis.
00:25:05.840 Gilbreth put on a show mesmerizing the commissioners when he used a stack of law books to demonstrate the bricklaying efficiency techniques he had developed using the new science of motion study.
00:25:18.780 When Gilbreth was done with his show, one of the commissioners said,
00:25:23.300 This has become a sort of substitute religion with you.
00:25:27.600 Yes, sir, responded Gilbreth with enthusiasm.
00:25:32.180 The commissioner had no idea how prescient he was comparing this to a religion.
00:25:36.920 The other thing that made Brandeis an activist lawyer who was way ahead of his time was his genius at controlling narrative.
00:25:48.400 At one point in the hearings, he made a startling claim that scientific management would save the railroads $1 million a day.
00:25:56.080 He knew that figure would turn heads.
00:25:59.080 The next morning, the New York Times headline read,
00:26:01.740 Rhodes could save $1 million a day, Brandeis says.
00:26:05.840 Scientific management would do it.
00:26:08.580 Calls rate increases unnecessary.
00:26:13.480 Well, similar headlines like that ran all across the nation.
00:26:17.300 And it was a brilliant PR coup.
00:26:19.120 Brandeis had no real way to back up the $1 million a day claim, but it didn't matter.
00:26:25.340 Reporters had never heard of scientific management before, and they were mesmerized.
00:26:30.120 That dollar figure struck in the public's mind.
00:26:33.000 Brandeis won, as usual.
00:26:35.940 The railroads were denied their rate hike.
00:26:38.300 It was like taking candy from a baby.
00:26:41.320 All you had to do was invoke scientific management.
00:26:45.180 But Brandeis wasn't just some clever con man.
00:26:50.260 He actually believed what he was preaching.
00:26:53.560 And he was just getting started.
00:26:59.240 Frederick Taylor.
00:27:00.740 He became an overnight star.
00:27:03.080 His scientific management spread like wildfire.
00:27:07.720 Brandeis hooked him up with a glowing profile in the American magazine,
00:27:12.180 written by uber-progressive journalist Ray Stannard Baker.
00:27:17.700 The same issue also serialized Taylor's book,
00:27:21.520 The Principles of Scientific Management,
00:27:23.580 which came out just in time to ride the public wave.
00:27:27.740 The magazine issue was titled,
00:27:30.040 The Gospel of Efficiency,
00:27:32.480 A New Science of Business Management.
00:27:35.100 In his profile of Taylor,
00:27:38.640 Baker wrote,
00:27:39.520 From the very first,
00:27:42.020 young Taylor,
00:27:42.920 with his early home environment
00:27:44.520 in a reform atmosphere
00:27:46.000 and his natural democratic instincts,
00:27:48.780 was impressed with the deplorable conditions of industry
00:27:51.800 and the heartlessness
00:27:53.560 which characterized nearly all industrial operations.
00:27:57.660 It was as natural as sunlight
00:28:00.060 for him to inquire,
00:28:02.140 how can I change these things?
00:28:04.380 Mr. Taylor is a man of wide cultivation,
00:28:08.780 of varied interest,
00:28:10.120 and of personal charm.
00:28:12.040 He has a lively and progressive mind,
00:28:14.860 seizing eagerly upon the problems of the day.
00:28:18.480 As would be the case with many leading progressives,
00:28:21.700 they often revealed their true colors.
00:28:24.520 Maybe Baker missed the part in Taylor's book
00:28:27.860 when he described the common laborer as,
00:28:30.840 Too stupid properly to train himself.
00:28:35.240 But that kind of rhetoric didn't matter
00:28:37.680 because with the progressive cause,
00:28:40.280 the ends justifies the means.
00:28:43.660 One biographer stated that Taylor's Principles of Scientific Management book
00:28:48.260 was,
00:28:48.900 Regardless of whether Taylor actually considered it that,
00:28:58.960 many progressive activists did.
00:29:02.220 Louis Brandeis raved that,
00:29:04.220 Quote,
00:29:04.680 The coming science of management in this century
00:29:09.400 marks an advance comparable only to that made by the coming of the machine in the last.
00:29:18.360 Nothing captured progressivism quite like scientific management.
00:29:22.620 Here was a bulletproof form of improved control.
00:29:27.340 You couldn't argue that it wasn't better for you
00:29:29.900 because it was based on science.
00:29:32.640 More than a century later,
00:29:34.520 progressives are still using this science argument.
00:29:39.500 And that's why in my first inaugural address,
00:29:42.280 I vowed to return science to its rightful place.
00:29:45.400 Follow the scientists.
00:29:47.400 The science.
00:29:47.960 We have seen a pattern with this administration,
00:29:49.980 which is they don't believe in science.
00:29:51.360 The science is settled.
00:29:52.820 Science, science, science, and science.
00:29:55.260 On almost every subject that you can name,
00:29:58.160 science is the answer.
00:29:59.740 The science determines
00:30:01.120 what is the correct answer to a particular question.
00:30:06.860 Armed with this magic new rhetorical device,
00:30:09.880 it was time for progressive operatives
00:30:12.300 to do what Taylor's book dictated.
00:30:15.700 Apply scientific management
00:30:17.440 to basically everything.
00:30:19.520 A little over a year after Taylor's book came out,
00:30:28.280 Louis Brandeis met his ideological twin,
00:30:31.980 Woodrow Wilson.
00:30:33.760 They met just after the Democratic Party
00:30:36.060 nominated Wilson for president.
00:30:38.520 Wilson, the former president of Princeton
00:30:40.460 and governor of New Jersey at the time of his nomination,
00:30:43.520 was instantly captivated by Brandeis' intellect.
00:30:49.160 Wilson biographer A. Scott Berg wrote that Brandeis,
00:30:53.620 quote,
00:30:53.900 as much as anyone would shape the future
00:30:57.080 of Woodrow Wilson's campaign and career.
00:31:00.720 Brandeis and Wilson, a perfect match.
00:31:04.380 Two self-styled experts,
00:31:06.480 a Harvard man and a Princeton man,
00:31:09.920 like-minded about the problem facing America.
00:31:13.320 They both thought America
00:31:14.660 had outgrown the Constitution.
00:31:18.020 An editorial in the New Republic magazine
00:31:20.120 perfectly captured this progressive mindset,
00:31:23.260 quote,
00:31:23.480 The business of politics
00:31:25.940 had become too complex
00:31:27.420 to be left to the pretentious misunderstandings
00:31:30.880 of the benevolent amateur.
00:31:34.180 Ray Stannard Baker,
00:31:35.720 the guy Brandeis got to write that glowing feature
00:31:38.700 about Frederick Taylor,
00:31:40.840 called for a, quote,
00:31:42.240 New aristocracy,
00:31:44.120 which must appear in America
00:31:45.920 if our inefficient and halting political democracy
00:31:49.620 is ever to develop into a true democracy,
00:31:52.880 that higher and finer sort of aristocracy
00:31:55.700 based upon a scientific and artistic outlook
00:31:59.100 and inspired by an intense enthusiasm
00:32:02.240 for human progress.
00:32:06.200 Brandeis and Wilson
00:32:07.380 believed the situation required experts to fix it.
00:32:11.980 They nominated themselves to do it.
00:32:14.660 Wilson was the first president to have a PhD,
00:32:17.380 and progressives were beside themselves about it.
00:32:21.660 The left's charge
00:32:22.640 against every non-progressive president
00:32:25.160 since Wilson
00:32:26.140 has been that they're just dumb.
00:32:30.060 When Wilson was president of Princeton,
00:32:33.020 he gave a speech titled
00:32:34.400 Our Elastic Constitution.
00:32:37.580 That really should have been a warning sign to America,
00:32:40.740 but progressives saw it as a virtue.
00:32:44.240 Wilson and Brandeis
00:32:45.160 helped institutionalize this notion
00:32:47.460 of a living constitution.
00:32:50.540 Wilson was the very first president
00:32:52.300 to ever disparage the constitution
00:32:54.600 and the separation of powers,
00:32:56.920 which he considered an outdated barrier
00:32:59.320 to his agenda.
00:33:00.940 He thought it was time for America
00:33:02.800 to evolve beyond the constitution.
00:33:06.120 He was a fanboy of the British parliamentary system
00:33:08.820 and desired to see the U.S. convert
00:33:11.120 to a British-style setup.
00:33:13.700 Wilson said, quote,
00:33:14.540 Each generation must form its own conception
00:33:17.920 of what liberty is.
00:33:20.000 We are not bound to adhere
00:33:22.100 to the doctrines held by the signers
00:33:24.180 of the Declaration of Independence.
00:33:26.260 We are as free as they were
00:33:28.100 to make and unmake governments.
00:33:30.340 Every Fourth of July
00:33:31.600 should be a time for examining
00:33:33.460 what forms of power
00:33:35.360 we think most likely to affect
00:33:37.220 our safety and happiness.
00:33:39.140 Brandeis and Wilson had big plans for America,
00:33:44.100 which they dubbed the New Freedom
00:33:46.600 during the 1912 presidential campaign.
00:33:49.600 But when Wilson won the election,
00:33:52.200 the reality was that he still had to work
00:33:54.640 within the constitutional system
00:33:56.600 for the time being.
00:33:58.040 So they needed willing allies in Congress
00:34:00.820 to carry out their progressive bidding.
00:34:03.720 You know, the field of medicine
00:34:07.840 didn't used to draw a distinction
00:34:09.600 between itself and what we would now call
00:34:12.160 holistic remedies.
00:34:13.460 It was just the field of medicine.
00:34:17.020 Some things worked better than others,
00:34:18.500 and that's it.
00:34:19.780 But then, of course, came the experts.
00:34:23.040 They insisted on things being done
00:34:24.900 in a certain way,
00:34:26.380 which meant that a lot of good treatments
00:34:28.540 for things that we all had taken
00:34:31.560 or our grandparents had done
00:34:33.440 that really did work
00:34:34.860 went by the wayside.
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00:35:15.560 Have you ever heard of Robert LaFollette?
00:35:23.680 If you live in Wisconsin,
00:35:25.380 you probably have.
00:35:27.100 When you see a photo of Senator Robert LaFollette,
00:35:30.980 one aspects make him stand out
00:35:33.040 from almost every other politician of his era.
00:35:35.140 His full-on gravity-defying righteous mane of hair,
00:35:41.200 which totally fit the man who became known as Fighting Bob.
00:35:46.240 Theodore Roosevelt, progressive himself,
00:35:48.660 called LaFollette an extremist
00:35:51.080 with a touch of fanaticism.
00:35:53.960 And that's coming from the guy
00:35:55.580 who started the progressive party.
00:35:57.560 The way Robert LaFollette told it,
00:36:01.240 his own party turned him into a rebel fighter.
00:36:04.160 He was a Republican from Wisconsin
00:36:05.780 with a law practice in Madison.
00:36:08.480 In 1890, he claimed that Wisconsin U.S. Senator
00:36:11.620 Philetus Sawyer, a fellow Republican,
00:36:14.800 offered to bribe him
00:36:16.080 if he would influence a court case involving Sawyer.
00:36:19.620 The judge in the case happened to be
00:36:22.100 LaFollette's brother-in-law.
00:36:23.720 LaFollette said he refused the bribe
00:36:26.560 and his outrage set him on a war path
00:36:29.660 against corruption in his own party.
00:36:32.540 It also put him on the outs with Wisconsin Republicans.
00:36:36.080 He stuck with his party,
00:36:37.720 but became the leader of the progressive wing
00:36:40.180 and rallied a coalition
00:36:41.700 that got him elected governor in Wisconsin in 1900.
00:36:47.560 As Governor LaFollette,
00:36:49.520 was an early pioneer of the progressive obsession
00:36:52.740 with experts.
00:36:54.560 One of his co-pioneers of the strategy
00:36:56.540 was Richard T. Eli,
00:36:59.000 a University of Wisconsin professor
00:37:00.680 who had major influence
00:37:02.660 on a young Woodrow Wilson years earlier
00:37:05.240 when Wilson was his student
00:37:07.320 at John Hopkins University.
00:37:10.060 LaFollette, in partnership
00:37:11.600 with the University of Wisconsin,
00:37:14.020 established the Legislative Reference Bureau
00:37:16.680 in which professors and other experts
00:37:19.340 provided guidance to lawmakers
00:37:21.440 and actually drafted legislation for them.
00:37:25.240 In 1905, Wisconsin's legislature
00:37:27.800 elected LaFollette to the U.S. Senate.
00:37:30.560 Within a few years,
00:37:32.000 he established himself
00:37:33.340 as the leader of the progressive Republicans
00:37:36.100 in the Senate,
00:37:37.340 who were often called insurgents.
00:37:40.260 The American magazine published
00:37:41.800 a glowing 10-part series on LaFollette
00:37:44.420 titled An Autobiography of an Insurgent.
00:37:47.940 His co-writer was Ray Stannard Baker.
00:37:52.180 You remember him?
00:37:53.420 The guy who would go on
00:37:54.560 to write that puff piece
00:37:55.820 on Frederick Taylor
00:37:57.040 and scientific management.
00:38:00.760 In 1909, LaFollette
00:38:02.680 called the insurgents together
00:38:04.220 to divvy up the work
00:38:05.620 of pushing progressive reforms
00:38:07.300 through the Senate.
00:38:08.540 Their biggest reform
00:38:09.660 was the 17th Amendment,
00:38:11.420 and it allowed for the direct election
00:38:13.480 of U.S. senators.
00:38:14.880 The insurgents thought
00:38:16.880 they were improving democracy
00:38:18.560 by empowering voters,
00:38:20.420 but clearly it was a massive tilting
00:38:23.440 of the playing field
00:38:24.560 away from the states
00:38:26.180 and toward bigger,
00:38:28.580 more destructive federal power.
00:38:31.760 In 2010,
00:38:33.540 the late Supreme Court Justice
00:38:35.060 Antonin Scalia said
00:38:36.920 that through the 17th Amendment,
00:38:39.240 quote,
00:38:39.520 you can trace the decline
00:38:41.700 of so-called state rights
00:38:43.860 throughout the rest
00:38:45.380 of the 20th century,
00:38:47.020 end quote.
00:38:48.200 The 17th Amendment
00:38:49.540 was a seismic win
00:38:51.300 for progressivism.
00:38:52.980 The fighting Bob,
00:38:54.200 he was fast becoming
00:38:55.620 a progressive icon.
00:38:57.480 He started a magazine
00:38:58.600 to promote progressive ideas
00:39:00.400 called LaFollette's Weekly.
00:39:03.040 It's now called
00:39:04.160 The Progressive,
00:39:05.360 and it's still running today.
00:39:06.800 Shortly after Louis Brandeis's
00:39:10.220 scientific management show
00:39:12.320 at the ICC hearings,
00:39:14.620 LaFollette brought his fellow insurgents
00:39:17.000 together for a meeting
00:39:18.380 where they formed
00:39:19.300 the National Progressive
00:39:21.060 Republican League.
00:39:23.180 Historian William Murphy
00:39:24.940 described the league as,
00:39:26.800 a bold effort
00:39:28.040 by a group of Republican reformers
00:39:30.260 to seize control
00:39:31.460 of their party
00:39:32.400 and transform it
00:39:34.200 into a party
00:39:35.040 of progressivism,
00:39:36.760 end quote.
00:39:38.580 Ultimately,
00:39:39.280 Woodrow Wilson solved
00:39:40.340 the Republican Party's
00:39:41.420 progressive insurgency problem
00:39:43.080 by making progressivism
00:39:44.620 dominant
00:39:45.480 in the Democratic Party.
00:39:47.520 And when Wilson took office,
00:39:49.300 he and Brandeis
00:39:50.180 had no bigger champion
00:39:51.700 for their new freedom agenda
00:39:53.420 than Robert LaFollette.
00:39:55.160 One historian stated,
00:40:05.140 quote,
00:40:05.460 Woodrow Wilson
00:40:06.220 was the first president
00:40:07.420 to develop systematically
00:40:09.480 the legislative powers
00:40:11.340 of his office.
00:40:13.040 The Constitution
00:40:13.660 does not give the president
00:40:15.220 any legislative powers,
00:40:17.620 but surely the founders
00:40:19.120 meant to make an exception
00:40:20.480 for the president, right?
00:40:21.800 I mean,
00:40:22.320 if he has a PhD.
00:40:23.460 Louis Brandeis
00:40:25.640 became Wilson's
00:40:26.660 chief economic advisor.
00:40:29.060 Wilson wanted to give Brandeis
00:40:30.660 a cabinet position,
00:40:32.080 but there was strong
00:40:33.280 public pushback
00:40:34.600 because of Brandeis' radicalism,
00:40:36.820 so he remained
00:40:37.820 just an advisor.
00:40:39.620 In that role,
00:40:40.660 Brandeis was one
00:40:41.800 of the chief architects
00:40:43.080 of both the Federal Reserve Act
00:40:45.540 and the new
00:40:47.040 Federal Trade Commission.
00:40:49.160 The Federal Reserve
00:40:50.080 was absolutely transformational.
00:40:52.620 It created 12
00:40:54.440 regional reserve banks
00:40:56.180 controlled by
00:40:57.060 the Federal Reserve Board.
00:40:59.220 Naturally,
00:40:59.820 board members
00:41:00.420 were appointed
00:41:01.400 by the president.
00:41:03.020 But this government monolith
00:41:04.840 would have power
00:41:06.100 to adjust the interest rate,
00:41:08.400 regulate banks,
00:41:09.680 and control
00:41:10.400 the nation's money supply.
00:41:13.100 Just weeks before
00:41:14.580 Wilson took office,
00:41:15.820 the 16th Amendment
00:41:16.840 was ratified,
00:41:18.100 allowing federal income tax.
00:41:20.000 Wilson then signed in
00:41:22.140 the first peacetime
00:41:23.560 federal income tax law
00:41:25.580 in U.S. history,
00:41:27.000 and the only Republican senator
00:41:29.260 to vote for it
00:41:30.780 was Robert La Follette.
00:41:34.160 Wilson considered it
00:41:35.740 his duty and right
00:41:37.340 to lead Congress
00:41:38.400 by the nose
00:41:39.520 to accomplish his agenda.
00:41:41.400 He forced himself
00:41:42.600 on Congress
00:41:43.480 more than any other
00:41:45.160 previous president.
00:41:46.160 He was the first
00:41:47.500 since John Adams
00:41:48.560 to give a State of the Union
00:41:50.120 speech in person
00:41:51.540 before Congress.
00:41:53.400 Most previous presidents
00:41:54.640 rarely visited
00:41:55.640 the Capitol building.
00:41:57.420 But Wilson
00:41:57.940 used an office
00:41:59.180 in the Capitol
00:42:00.140 as often as
00:42:01.140 three times a week
00:42:02.200 to strong-arm
00:42:03.540 the legislative process.
00:42:06.020 Wilson had barely
00:42:06.820 been in office
00:42:07.560 for a year
00:42:08.220 when one journalist
00:42:09.200 remarked,
00:42:09.880 quote,
00:42:10.060 the vital fact
00:42:11.700 in any present
00:42:12.880 American politics
00:42:14.140 is the enormous
00:42:15.620 control,
00:42:17.240 if not ascendancy,
00:42:18.940 which President Wilson
00:42:19.880 is exerting
00:42:20.680 over Congress.
00:42:22.700 Republican Senator
00:42:24.040 Albert Cummins
00:42:25.240 of Iowa
00:42:25.980 told his Senate
00:42:27.240 colleagues,
00:42:28.020 quote,
00:42:28.840 The influence
00:42:29.840 which has been exerted
00:42:30.980 by the president
00:42:31.760 upon members
00:42:32.740 of Congress,
00:42:34.060 an influence
00:42:34.940 so persistent
00:42:36.000 and determined
00:42:37.160 that it became
00:42:38.280 coercive,
00:42:39.140 is known to
00:42:40.220 every intelligent
00:42:41.280 citizen of the
00:42:42.240 United States.
00:42:43.820 It ought to
00:42:44.480 humiliate us all
00:42:45.800 somewhat
00:42:46.360 when we'd look
00:42:47.480 around and find
00:42:48.660 that the people
00:42:49.460 generally not only
00:42:50.860 understand the
00:42:51.860 surrender of our
00:42:52.700 rights and privileges,
00:42:54.080 but observe it
00:42:55.080 with a certain
00:42:55.780 degree of satisfaction.
00:42:58.760 Besides dominating
00:43:00.020 Congress,
00:43:00.840 Wilson also signed
00:43:02.160 over 1,800
00:43:03.860 executive orders.
00:43:06.180 That's the second
00:43:07.080 most of any
00:43:08.040 president of all
00:43:09.120 time,
00:43:10.080 behind FDR.
00:43:12.040 Remember,
00:43:13.300 Wilson had two
00:43:14.160 terms,
00:43:15.100 FDR had four.
00:43:17.780 This was the
00:43:19.020 expert at work.
00:43:20.900 This was scientific
00:43:22.020 management at work.
00:43:23.880 After all,
00:43:24.680 he was a doctor.
00:43:26.180 And doctors
00:43:27.060 know best.
00:43:27.860 Here's how
00:43:35.660 Princeton historian
00:43:36.680 Thomas Leonard
00:43:37.560 summed up
00:43:38.240 Wilson's radical
00:43:39.280 first term in
00:43:40.180 office.
00:43:40.780 Quote,
00:43:41.000 By March
00:43:42.260 1917,
00:43:44.040 the fourth
00:43:44.580 branch of
00:43:45.140 government was
00:43:45.820 established.
00:43:46.780 Fourth branch
00:43:47.640 describes the
00:43:48.680 independent government
00:43:49.700 agencies,
00:43:51.120 staffed and
00:43:51.820 advised by
00:43:52.700 experts,
00:43:53.400 which,
00:43:54.520 though nominally
00:43:55.320 inside the
00:43:56.280 executive branch,
00:43:57.740 were chartered
00:43:58.560 specifically to be
00:44:00.220 free of political
00:44:01.460 influence,
00:44:02.480 employing a
00:44:03.420 permanent civil
00:44:04.560 service rather
00:44:05.960 than political
00:44:06.980 appointees.
00:44:08.520 These experts
00:44:09.620 represented
00:44:10.640 themselves as
00:44:11.840 objective
00:44:12.640 scientists above
00:44:14.200 the political
00:44:15.060 fray,
00:44:16.160 administering
00:44:16.980 progress for
00:44:18.060 the good of
00:44:18.460 all.
00:44:19.460 How's that
00:44:20.100 working out for
00:44:20.740 us?
00:44:21.540 This was the
00:44:22.660 birth of what
00:44:23.400 many conservatives
00:44:24.220 mean when they
00:44:25.000 refer to the
00:44:25.980 deep state,
00:44:27.380 a vast bureaucracy
00:44:28.420 of unelected
00:44:29.700 experts creating
00:44:30.660 policies that
00:44:32.040 have the force
00:44:32.860 of law because
00:44:33.820 they're under
00:44:34.280 the executive
00:44:35.020 branch.
00:44:36.240 To Wilson and
00:44:36.980 Brandeis,
00:44:37.720 consolidating
00:44:38.380 power under
00:44:39.240 the executive
00:44:40.020 was the
00:44:40.960 natural evolution
00:44:41.980 required for
00:44:43.260 efficiency.
00:44:44.700 To them,
00:44:45.300 the Constitution's
00:44:46.280 separation of
00:44:47.060 powers was
00:44:47.940 for a bygone
00:44:49.320 era.
00:44:50.360 True progress
00:44:51.240 required more
00:44:52.280 concentrated power.
00:44:54.840 Near the end
00:44:55.440 of Wilson's
00:44:55.940 first term,
00:44:56.640 he rewarded
00:44:57.400 Brandeis for
00:44:58.260 all of his
00:44:58.760 transformative
00:44:59.400 work with the
00:45:00.300 Supreme Court
00:45:00.920 nomination.
00:45:02.300 The only
00:45:02.900 senator consulted
00:45:04.220 before Wilson
00:45:05.040 announced his
00:45:06.020 nominee was
00:45:06.940 who else?
00:45:08.120 Robert La
00:45:09.040 Follette.
00:45:10.380 Wilson needed
00:45:10.920 to know he
00:45:11.680 could count on
00:45:12.440 progressive
00:45:12.900 Republican votes
00:45:13.820 to confirm
00:45:14.580 Brandeis.
00:45:16.120 Fighting Bob
00:45:17.080 assured him,
00:45:18.220 oh yes,
00:45:19.080 you'll have the
00:45:19.640 votes.
00:45:21.000 Not everyone
00:45:21.980 was so enthusiastic
00:45:23.120 about Brandeis'
00:45:24.300 nomination.
00:45:25.620 However,
00:45:26.200 former President
00:45:26.920 Taft pulled
00:45:27.980 zero punches,
00:45:29.640 saying that
00:45:30.100 Brandeis was,
00:45:30.960 A muckraker,
00:45:34.280 an emotionalist
00:45:35.240 for his own
00:45:35.980 purposes,
00:45:37.000 a socialist
00:45:37.680 prompted by
00:45:38.700 jealousy,
00:45:39.660 a hypocrite,
00:45:40.900 a man of
00:45:41.620 infinite cunning,
00:45:43.060 of great
00:45:43.560 tenacity of
00:45:44.420 purpose,
00:45:45.280 and in my
00:45:46.140 judgment,
00:45:46.940 of much power
00:45:47.900 for evil.
00:45:49.600 This nomination
00:45:50.580 is one of the
00:45:51.700 deepest wounds
00:45:52.380 that I have ever
00:45:53.120 had as an
00:45:53.780 American and a
00:45:54.860 lover of the
00:45:55.480 Constitution.
00:45:56.140 In the end,
00:46:00.640 La Follette
00:46:01.240 voted yes,
00:46:03.160 even though
00:46:03.740 he only got
00:46:04.740 two other
00:46:05.280 progressive
00:46:05.720 Republicans
00:46:06.360 to join him.
00:46:08.220 Louis Brandeis
00:46:09.200 was on the
00:46:10.100 highest court
00:46:10.760 in the land.
00:46:12.260 Now,
00:46:13.100 he could really
00:46:13.880 give the
00:46:14.500 living Constitution,
00:46:16.780 a run
00:46:17.360 that would
00:46:18.180 long outlast
00:46:19.360 him.
00:46:20.560 Now,
00:46:21.140 progressives
00:46:21.620 had hardcore
00:46:22.580 disciples of
00:46:23.820 the gospel
00:46:24.540 of expertise
00:46:25.980 in key
00:46:26.900 leadership
00:46:27.420 roles in
00:46:28.580 all three
00:46:29.300 branches of
00:46:30.140 government.
00:46:31.520 Progressive
00:46:32.080 dreams were
00:46:33.100 coming true,
00:46:34.460 and yet,
00:46:35.020 there was
00:46:35.560 still so
00:46:36.500 much to
00:46:37.280 be done.
00:46:41.320 The experts
00:46:42.640 in our
00:46:43.040 society
00:46:43.460 helped bring
00:46:44.200 about some
00:46:44.820 of the
00:46:45.160 modern
00:46:45.700 miracles
00:46:46.320 we've
00:46:46.760 experienced
00:46:47.380 in technology,
00:46:48.460 no doubt,
00:46:49.320 but they've
00:46:49.780 also helped
00:46:50.540 usher in
00:46:51.320 modern
00:46:51.880 horrors.
00:46:53.320 At the
00:46:53.540 dawn of
00:46:53.860 the 20th
00:46:54.360 century,
00:46:54.760 as mankind
00:46:55.200 was raising
00:46:56.000 its hackles
00:46:56.740 and nations
00:46:57.420 were slowly
00:46:58.240 preparing to
00:46:59.000 go to war
00:46:59.460 with each
00:46:59.900 other in
00:47:00.340 what would
00:47:00.840 be the
00:47:01.300 bloodiest
00:47:01.820 war in
00:47:02.280 history,
00:47:03.180 until its
00:47:03.860 sequel,
00:47:05.100 while all
00:47:05.680 of that
00:47:05.940 was going
00:47:06.360 on,
00:47:06.840 the experts
00:47:07.760 in the
00:47:08.420 medical
00:47:08.740 field,
00:47:09.740 they were
00:47:10.720 raising their
00:47:11.960 ugly heads
00:47:12.780 as well.
00:47:13.940 They were
00:47:14.380 the experts,
00:47:15.540 the doctors
00:47:16.220 that you
00:47:16.600 could trust,
00:47:17.860 and they
00:47:18.400 were promoting
00:47:19.180 eugenics,
00:47:20.900 the systematic
00:47:21.700 weeding out
00:47:22.520 of undesirable
00:47:23.900 human beings
00:47:24.960 because their
00:47:25.920 lives and
00:47:26.440 their rights
00:47:26.860 weren't that
00:47:27.400 important,
00:47:28.060 because they
00:47:28.660 stood in the
00:47:29.240 way of
00:47:29.780 progress.
00:47:31.120 They didn't
00:47:31.420 have a life
00:47:32.140 that's worth
00:47:33.000 living.
00:47:34.260 Our experts
00:47:35.120 today,
00:47:36.220 Yuval Harari
00:47:37.020 is one of
00:47:37.500 them,
00:47:37.700 says by
00:47:38.300 2030 there
00:47:39.080 will be
00:47:39.420 millions of
00:47:40.360 useless
00:47:40.920 people.
00:47:42.700 Maybe we
00:47:43.340 should learn
00:47:43.800 from the
00:47:44.320 past.
00:47:45.260 This podcast
00:47:46.060 today is
00:47:47.100 a pilot,
00:47:48.820 and we're
00:47:49.120 watching the
00:47:49.860 metrics to
00:47:50.480 see if you
00:47:51.240 connect with
00:47:51.780 it.
00:47:52.300 If you
00:47:52.520 want more,
00:47:53.320 let us
00:47:53.820 know.
00:47:54.420 But in
00:47:55.180 one of our
00:47:55.580 upcoming
00:47:55.960 episodes,
00:47:56.700 if it
00:47:57.100 indeed goes
00:47:58.040 well,
00:47:58.880 and you
00:47:59.220 like this
00:47:59.840 podcast,
00:48:00.600 we'll be
00:48:01.060 about
00:48:01.540 eugenics
00:48:02.640 and the
00:48:03.340 experts in
00:48:04.340 medicine.
00:48:05.820 Tragically,
00:48:06.500 the brainchild
00:48:07.080 of that
00:48:07.440 historic evil
00:48:08.380 is embedded
00:48:09.000 in our
00:48:09.440 society to
00:48:10.180 this day.
00:48:10.620 It's
00:48:10.700 practiced
00:48:11.060 every time
00:48:11.960 an expecting
00:48:12.580 mother walks
00:48:13.380 into a
00:48:13.780 clinic and
00:48:14.220 allows a
00:48:14.760 doctor,
00:48:15.280 an expert,
00:48:16.120 to destroy
00:48:17.040 her unborn
00:48:17.860 child.
00:48:19.300 Progress
00:48:19.700 is progress,
00:48:21.460 don't you
00:48:22.020 know?
00:48:23.680 I want to
00:48:24.180 thank one
00:48:24.720 of our
00:48:25.100 partners
00:48:25.860 founding this
00:48:27.080 particular
00:48:27.780 podcast.
00:48:28.680 It's
00:48:28.840 Preborn.
00:48:29.740 They combat
00:48:30.800 this evil
00:48:31.460 every day.
00:48:32.240 Please go
00:48:32.760 to
00:48:32.940 preborn.com
00:48:34.420 and join
00:48:35.360 the battle
00:48:35.900 to fight
00:48:36.640 against
00:48:37.020 these
00:48:37.340 sadistic
00:48:38.160 experts.
00:48:39.980 Save a
00:48:40.520 mother and
00:48:40.980 their child.
00:48:41.960 Do it
00:48:42.120 today,
00:48:42.520 preborn.com.
00:48:43.840 Written on
00:48:49.760 Frederick
00:48:50.060 Taylor's
00:48:50.580 tombstone
00:48:51.420 in Philadelphia
00:48:52.100 are the
00:48:52.600 words,
00:48:53.280 father of
00:48:54.020 scientific
00:48:54.780 management.
00:48:56.420 So much
00:48:56.920 for Taylor's
00:48:57.540 science,
00:48:58.760 because it
00:48:59.220 really wasn't
00:49:00.000 science at
00:49:00.760 all.
00:49:02.160 Taylor's
00:49:02.580 biographer,
00:49:03.560 Robert
00:49:03.880 Canigal,
00:49:04.840 put it like
00:49:05.280 this,
00:49:05.740 quote,
00:49:06.500 his scientific
00:49:07.420 time studies
00:49:08.340 weren't very
00:49:09.140 scientific.
00:49:10.320 He had
00:49:10.640 left a
00:49:10.980 legacy not
00:49:11.720 of harmony,
00:49:12.320 but of
00:49:13.460 turmoil.
00:49:14.760 Yet these
00:49:15.300 elements of
00:49:16.060 the story
00:49:17.040 would,
00:49:17.740 in his
00:49:18.060 telling and
00:49:18.600 retelling,
00:49:19.280 recede into
00:49:20.020 the dark
00:49:20.480 corner of
00:49:21.080 the stage.
00:49:22.340 Meanwhile,
00:49:23.100 bathed in
00:49:23.700 the floodlight
00:49:24.560 would be
00:49:25.360 another version,
00:49:26.440 close enough
00:49:27.480 to the events
00:49:28.100 to be true,
00:49:29.520 yet sufficiently
00:49:30.400 rearranged and
00:49:31.500 reconstituted to
00:49:32.620 be seen with
00:49:33.300 equal justice
00:49:34.720 as the product
00:49:35.860 of Taylor's
00:49:36.580 art.
00:49:38.780 All of
00:49:39.640 this would
00:49:40.120 become the
00:49:40.640 stuff of
00:49:41.420 story,
00:49:41.960 myth,
00:49:43.080 and drama.
00:49:44.580 According to
00:49:45.480 historian Jill
00:49:46.280 Lepore,
00:49:47.100 quote,
00:49:48.140 Taylor fudged
00:49:48.940 his data,
00:49:49.900 lied to
00:49:50.340 his clients,
00:49:51.240 and inflated
00:49:51.880 his record
00:49:52.540 of success.
00:49:54.180 An analysis
00:49:54.960 of Taylor's
00:49:55.540 work by two
00:49:56.160 historians in
00:49:56.900 the 1970s
00:49:57.920 concluded,
00:49:58.600 quote,
00:49:59.260 a careful
00:49:59.720 study of
00:50:00.280 Taylor's
00:50:00.640 published
00:50:00.980 accounts of
00:50:01.620 the story
00:50:02.080 about his
00:50:02.560 1899
00:50:03.440 pig iron
00:50:04.180 study,
00:50:04.980 his biography,
00:50:06.280 his papers,
00:50:07.160 all revealed
00:50:08.140 Taylor's story
00:50:09.040 to be more
00:50:09.860 fiction than
00:50:10.820 fact.
00:50:11.280 Yet
00:50:13.360 none of
00:50:13.980 that mattered
00:50:14.600 to progressive
00:50:15.240 leaders because
00:50:16.160 Taylor's art
00:50:17.700 helped legitimize
00:50:19.260 their cult of
00:50:20.100 expertise.
00:50:21.700 Harvard was
00:50:22.380 finally convinced
00:50:23.640 to open its
00:50:24.640 business school
00:50:25.380 by a man who
00:50:26.320 wanted to
00:50:27.180 model it on
00:50:28.020 Taylor's
00:50:28.520 scientific
00:50:29.000 management.
00:50:30.680 Taylor delivered
00:50:31.300 a lecture series
00:50:32.400 there every year
00:50:33.360 until his death.
00:50:35.100 Many other
00:50:35.540 universities soon
00:50:36.500 followed suit.
00:50:37.960 Elite universities
00:50:38.820 would become
00:50:39.460 America's
00:50:40.180 factories that
00:50:41.580 churned out
00:50:42.360 experts to
00:50:43.500 run everything.
00:50:45.940 Oh, and do you
00:50:46.460 remember Frank
00:50:47.100 Gilbreth, the
00:50:48.500 cheaper-by-the-dozen
00:50:49.620 dad?
00:50:50.440 He helped start
00:50:51.680 the Society for the
00:50:52.820 Promotion of the
00:50:54.340 Science of Management,
00:50:56.100 which was later
00:50:57.360 renamed the Taylor
00:50:59.100 Society.
00:51:00.420 During the 1920s,
00:51:02.100 the Taylor Society
00:51:03.220 was an incubator
00:51:04.700 for future new
00:51:06.000 dealers and
00:51:06.920 members of
00:51:07.480 FDR's so-called
00:51:08.780 Brain Trust.
00:51:13.320 In the introduction
00:51:14.660 to The Principles
00:51:16.120 of Scientific
00:51:16.880 Management,
00:51:17.860 Taylor said,
00:51:18.780 quote,
00:51:19.260 In the past,
00:51:20.420 the man has
00:51:21.380 been first.
00:51:22.720 In the future,
00:51:24.100 the system
00:51:24.920 must be first.
00:51:26.540 But what happens
00:51:27.520 when you carry
00:51:28.200 that system
00:51:28.940 too far?
00:51:30.920 Mussolini was
00:51:31.680 a devoted man
00:51:32.560 of scientific
00:51:33.420 management,
00:51:34.020 but so was
00:51:35.180 Lenin,
00:51:35.660 who read
00:51:36.160 Taylor's books,
00:51:37.460 created a
00:51:38.160 Soviet Council
00:51:39.060 for Scientific
00:51:40.020 Management,
00:51:40.800 and insisted
00:51:41.600 that the Taylor
00:51:42.400 system be taught
00:51:43.540 and incorporated
00:51:44.340 across Russian
00:51:45.840 territory.
00:51:47.520 And what happens
00:51:48.820 when the
00:51:49.180 scientific management
00:51:50.120 system is supreme
00:51:51.520 and it merges
00:51:52.580 with technology
00:51:53.580 and artificial
00:51:54.640 intelligence?
00:51:56.240 All you would
00:51:57.220 have to do
00:51:57.820 is watch
00:51:58.660 what's unfolding
00:51:59.560 in real time
00:52:01.060 in China.
00:52:01.820 And a happy,
00:52:03.840 smiley,
00:52:04.580 in this swell
00:52:05.380 version is
00:52:06.620 right around
00:52:07.120 the corner
00:52:07.560 for Western
00:52:08.380 progressive
00:52:08.860 societies.
00:52:11.100 At the World
00:52:12.280 Economic Forum
00:52:13.240 Conference in
00:52:14.080 Davos in 2023,
00:52:16.260 Duke University
00:52:17.040 professor
00:52:17.640 Neeta Farhani
00:52:19.140 presented a
00:52:20.160 disturbing seminar
00:52:21.280 on the latest
00:52:22.320 in brainwave
00:52:23.300 technology.
00:52:24.080 After all,
00:52:24.940 what you think,
00:52:25.820 what you feel,
00:52:27.260 it's all just
00:52:28.100 data.
00:52:29.280 Data that in
00:52:30.540 large patterns
00:52:31.720 can be decoded
00:52:33.000 using artificial
00:52:34.260 intelligence.
00:52:35.280 We're not talking
00:52:36.420 about implanted
00:52:37.680 devices of the
00:52:38.480 future.
00:52:39.240 I'm talking about
00:52:40.080 wearable devices
00:52:41.140 that are like
00:52:42.140 Fitbits for your
00:52:42.860 brain.
00:52:43.580 Using consumer
00:52:44.600 wearable devices,
00:52:46.340 these are
00:52:46.920 headbands,
00:52:48.380 hats that have
00:52:49.620 sensors that can
00:52:50.860 pick up your
00:52:51.380 brainwave activity,
00:52:52.620 earbuds,
00:52:52.980 headphones,
00:52:54.640 tiny tattoos
00:52:55.280 that you can
00:52:55.800 wear behind
00:52:56.180 your ear.
00:52:57.240 We can pick up
00:52:58.280 emotional states
00:52:59.260 like are you
00:52:59.640 happy or sad
00:53:00.680 or angry.
00:53:01.640 We can pick up
00:53:02.800 and decode faces
00:53:04.480 that you're seeing
00:53:05.960 in your mind.
00:53:07.060 Simple shapes,
00:53:08.340 numbers,
00:53:09.280 your PIN number
00:53:10.180 to your bank
00:53:11.320 account.
00:53:13.720 We're moving
00:53:14.820 beyond scientific
00:53:15.740 management at this
00:53:16.740 point.
00:53:17.660 It's scientific
00:53:18.640 micromanagement.
00:53:20.940 In 1948,
00:53:21.940 C.S. Lewis
00:53:23.680 wrote,
00:53:24.200 Of all
00:53:25.180 tyrannies,
00:53:26.200 a tyranny
00:53:26.780 sincerely exercised
00:53:28.420 for the good
00:53:29.160 of its victims
00:53:29.920 may be the most
00:53:31.180 oppressive.
00:53:32.260 It would be
00:53:32.800 better to live
00:53:34.000 under robber
00:53:34.640 barons than
00:53:35.480 under omnipotent
00:53:36.400 moral busybodies.
00:53:38.380 The robber
00:53:38.880 barons'
00:53:39.500 cruelty may
00:53:40.320 sometimes sleep,
00:53:41.960 but those
00:53:42.600 who torment us
00:53:43.540 for our own
00:53:44.220 good will
00:53:45.320 torment us
00:53:46.140 without end,
00:53:47.160 for they do
00:53:47.740 so with the
00:53:48.500 approval of
00:53:49.400 their own
00:53:49.820 conscience.
00:53:50.360 This kind
00:53:52.740 of expert
00:53:53.280 control
00:53:53.900 continues to
00:53:55.140 be the
00:53:55.580 dividing force
00:53:56.560 of progressives.
00:53:58.100 We see
00:53:58.900 things like
00:53:59.320 the Biden
00:53:59.700 administration
00:54:00.280 telling us
00:54:01.160 what light
00:54:01.900 bulbs were
00:54:02.480 allowed to
00:54:02.920 buy,
00:54:03.940 banning the
00:54:04.680 sale of
00:54:05.400 incandescent
00:54:06.160 bulbs in
00:54:06.700 2023,
00:54:07.980 and doing it
00:54:08.940 through the
00:54:09.380 Department of
00:54:10.020 Energy,
00:54:10.880 which is under
00:54:11.560 the executive
00:54:12.480 branch.
00:54:13.620 So you have
00:54:14.180 no say in
00:54:14.960 the matter.
00:54:15.320 it's the
00:54:16.420 old progressive
00:54:17.120 obsession with
00:54:18.580 efficiency,
00:54:20.100 only now with
00:54:21.640 the added
00:54:22.100 urgency of
00:54:23.440 climate change.
00:54:25.840 The
00:54:26.520 progressives
00:54:27.060 suffered a
00:54:27.540 backlash after
00:54:28.320 World War I
00:54:29.120 in Woodrow
00:54:29.700 Wilson's second
00:54:30.460 term for
00:54:31.180 reasons we'll
00:54:32.340 explore in
00:54:33.160 another episode
00:54:34.100 later this
00:54:34.900 season.
00:54:35.820 But there's
00:54:36.240 little doubt
00:54:36.780 that Wilson
00:54:37.360 would have
00:54:37.820 kept running
00:54:38.320 for president
00:54:39.000 if his
00:54:39.700 health hadn't
00:54:40.580 failed him.
00:54:41.660 He never
00:54:42.140 fully recovered
00:54:42.940 from the
00:54:43.440 stroke that
00:54:44.060 had incapacitated
00:54:45.220 him for the
00:54:46.280 last year and
00:54:47.400 a half of
00:54:48.160 his presidency.
00:54:49.320 That didn't
00:54:50.180 stop him from
00:54:50.980 collaborating with
00:54:51.980 Louis Brandeis
00:54:53.100 in 1921 on
00:54:55.320 a new
00:54:55.780 progressive
00:54:56.340 manifesto,
00:54:58.220 just as he
00:54:59.020 was starting to
00:54:59.700 plot another
00:55:00.980 presidential run.
00:55:03.400 Wilson died
00:55:04.220 later that
00:55:04.860 year, and
00:55:05.960 instead,
00:55:07.100 Robert La
00:55:07.760 Follette kept
00:55:09.120 the progressive
00:55:09.780 flame burning,
00:55:11.920 running for
00:55:12.620 president 1924
00:55:14.100 with a coalition
00:55:15.060 of labor unions
00:55:16.240 and socialist
00:55:17.420 groups backing
00:55:18.340 them.
00:55:19.740 Who did he
00:55:20.280 choose as his
00:55:21.460 full-time running
00:55:22.060 mate?
00:55:23.460 Louis Brandeis.
00:55:25.160 But Brandeis
00:55:26.000 declined.
00:55:27.340 He couldn't
00:55:27.880 give up his
00:55:28.480 influential
00:55:29.200 lifetime post
00:55:30.580 on the Supreme
00:55:31.320 Court.
00:55:32.560 In 1922,
00:55:34.200 Supreme Court
00:55:34.780 heard a case
00:55:35.340 involving a
00:55:36.080 female student
00:55:36.960 who was barred
00:55:38.420 from attending
00:55:39.180 public school
00:55:40.080 in San Antonio
00:55:41.180 because her
00:55:42.080 parents refused
00:55:42.740 to get her
00:55:43.180 vaccinated for
00:55:44.100 smallpox as
00:55:45.360 required by her
00:55:47.080 school district.
00:55:48.440 Their lawyers
00:55:49.400 argued that the
00:55:50.880 vaccine requirement
00:55:52.240 denied her equal
00:55:53.840 protection of the
00:55:54.800 laws under the
00:55:56.140 14th Amendment.
00:55:57.460 But the Supreme
00:55:58.280 Court unanimously
00:55:59.480 ruled against her.
00:56:01.640 And here's what
00:56:02.380 Louis Brandeis
00:56:03.360 wrote in the
00:56:04.720 decision.
00:56:05.740 Quote,
00:56:06.020 Long before this
00:56:07.880 suit was
00:56:08.500 instituted,
00:56:10.140 Jacobson v.
00:56:11.280 Massachusetts
00:56:12.040 had settled
00:56:13.280 that it is
00:56:14.680 within the
00:56:15.500 police power
00:56:16.380 of a state
00:56:17.180 to provide
00:56:18.180 for compulsory
00:56:19.300 vaccination.
00:56:21.020 These ordinances
00:56:22.080 confer not
00:56:23.080 arbitrary power,
00:56:24.720 but only that
00:56:25.940 broad discretion
00:56:26.900 is required for
00:56:28.020 the protection
00:56:28.680 of the public
00:56:29.560 health.
00:56:29.960 In 2020,
00:56:34.640 America met
00:56:35.300 a certain
00:56:35.720 doctor who
00:56:36.960 was a little
00:56:37.720 bit of
00:56:38.240 Frederick Taylor,
00:56:39.960 Louis Brandeis,
00:56:41.500 Woodrow Wilson,
00:56:42.620 and Robert La
00:56:44.240 Follette all
00:56:45.220 rolled into one.
00:56:47.500 As if he had
00:56:48.520 been created in
00:56:49.820 a progressive
00:56:50.260 lab, few
00:56:51.280 people embodied
00:56:52.680 the sheer
00:56:53.360 elitist
00:56:54.200 progressive
00:56:54.960 conviction of
00:56:56.120 their own
00:56:56.680 genius
00:56:57.160 expertise
00:56:58.060 more
00:56:58.700 than
00:57:01.180 Anthony
00:57:01.740 Fauci.
00:57:03.440 How many
00:57:04.180 times was
00:57:04.980 America told
00:57:05.780 what an
00:57:06.500 expert Dr.
00:57:07.680 Fauci really
00:57:08.440 was?
00:57:09.600 He was a
00:57:10.200 doctor who
00:57:10.780 had been in
00:57:11.260 this position
00:57:11.900 for nearly
00:57:12.420 40 years.
00:57:14.220 That kind
00:57:14.600 of expertise
00:57:15.140 could not
00:57:16.360 possibly go
00:57:17.540 wrong.
00:57:18.800 Even when
00:57:19.560 the contradictions
00:57:20.380 piled up,
00:57:21.560 to question
00:57:22.220 the experts,
00:57:24.000 to question
00:57:24.640 the science
00:57:25.480 during a
00:57:26.260 national health
00:57:27.020 crisis,
00:57:28.040 was considered
00:57:28.760 dangerous.
00:57:30.000 It's very
00:57:30.580 dangerous,
00:57:31.480 Chuck,
00:57:31.700 because a lot
00:57:32.380 of what
00:57:32.720 you're seeing
00:57:33.460 as attacks
00:57:34.580 on me,
00:57:35.220 quite frankly,
00:57:36.040 are attacks
00:57:36.640 on science.
00:57:38.260 Because all
00:57:39.060 of the things
00:57:39.560 that I have
00:57:39.980 spoken about
00:57:40.780 consistently
00:57:41.900 from the
00:57:42.500 very beginning
00:57:43.200 have been
00:57:44.120 fundamentally
00:57:44.740 based on
00:57:45.540 science.
00:57:46.700 Sometimes
00:57:47.020 those things
00:57:47.980 were inconvenient
00:57:48.980 truths for
00:57:50.220 people,
00:57:51.040 and there was
00:57:51.540 pushback against
00:57:52.580 me.
00:57:53.320 So if you
00:57:53.860 are trying
00:57:54.440 to, you
00:57:55.200 know, get
00:57:55.980 at me as
00:57:57.560 a public
00:57:58.000 health official
00:57:58.680 and a
00:57:59.040 scientist,
00:57:59.860 you're really
00:58:00.480 attacking not
00:58:01.320 only Dr.
00:58:02.020 Anthony Fauci,
00:58:02.880 you're attacking
00:58:03.620 science.
00:58:06.500 The expert
00:58:07.540 was no longer
00:58:08.620 just using
00:58:09.640 science as
00:58:10.960 a tool.
00:58:12.020 The expert
00:58:12.940 had become
00:58:14.320 the science.
00:58:16.140 We constantly
00:58:17.380 rely on
00:58:18.020 experts to
00:58:18.780 make decisions
00:58:19.440 for us.
00:58:19.840 Because even
00:58:20.740 eyewitnesses and
00:58:21.920 experts can get
00:58:22.880 it wrong.
00:58:23.540 But experts
00:58:24.080 do get things
00:58:25.000 wrong.
00:58:25.440 You have to
00:58:25.820 seek out
00:58:26.400 sources from
00:58:27.260 other points
00:58:28.140 of view
00:58:28.600 and then
00:58:29.420 critically examine
00:58:30.400 their motivations
00:58:31.500 and credibility
00:58:32.260 as well.