@DOne:

Regarding your point concerning the aristos, I think that it would be more correct to say that in a democracy, there is a natural tension between the attitude that you describe on one hand and a suspicion of them on the other. I think that this is especially true of the United States; the Jacksonian movement of the 1820′s had powerful and long-lasting ramifications. This explains what technocrats describe as an “anti-intellectual” streak in the electorate, even among a segment that could be described as intellectual. This may be a fair description; what it describes is a sense that intellectuals and technocrats are more interested in and apt with systems than with people, and with the abstract rather than the concrete. It was this attitude that William F. Buckley, Jr., summed up when he made his famous statement that he’d rather be governed by the first five hundred names in the Boston phone book than by the faculty of Harvard University. If they wouldn’t be prone to as many bright ideas, it would be expected that they would also do far less harm.

Also, as a peculiarly American trope, the legend of Cincinnatus has compelled the imagination of the American political culture since its founding, when George Washington was held to be his Second Coming. It is a fondly cherished belief of most Americans that, when summoned from the plow, any virtuous American could effortlessly take up the reins of state, and happily resume the plow when his/her calling is done. At the very least, such a figure is assumed to understand the problems and concerns of the common man in a way that an intellectual cannot.

Because a defining characteristic of the liberal as opposed to the conservative is his/her belief that the great human problems are capable of solution, as opposed to mere management or benign neglect, liberals tend toward the attitude that you describe, while conservatives tend toward the attitude that I’ve described. Hence the estimable Doctor’s description of his four categories as liberal thought processes.

Nice article Doc. I have been trying to understand why a couple of my liberal friends continue to think Obama & his gang of thieves are doing a wonderful job. Perhaps it is the benevolence idea that they believe in and also that everything will “be fine” and everything has a happy ending no matter what. But I am not looking forward to any State of the Union address, I already know what the state of the union is & don’t plan to listen to Obummer lie about it.

Doctor Zero,
I leave this as a compliment to your fine essay, it was something that I wrote as part of a larger paper while attending college at the ripe old age of 39. It would seem that when Marines go to school for higher learning, the do so with a different undertsanding of history and how our government works than do most of their fellow civilian students. I must admitt that it was quite the experiance. I say that in the spirit of Cato, Jefferson, Madison, and the score of anonymous Anti-Federalist, you must continue your essays, for how else will a common populous fight against the encroachment upon its rights.

“In recent years, with the advent of mass multimedia, people have been inundated with the political circus that is our nation’s government. The ability to reach the masses in America has made the once maligned civic and patriotic duty into a sought after profession, in which the candidates do not even remotely resemble the politicians at the birth of this nation. This new breed preaches that the government is the answer to all ills, from where all power comes and that our shining democracy is an example for all to follow. The problem with that thought process is that the United States was created not as a democracy, but as a constitutional republic where the majority of power lay with the states. That power, however, has migrated to the centralized government, and needs to be arrested back by its intended keeper.
It is important to understand how we have arrived at this current state of affairs, one must know where we started and the reasons why the government was organized in its original fashion by the founding fathers. Most people know about the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War, but few know the system that guided us through that war, nor the document that sustained up until the time of the ratification of the Constitution. If the people were to throw off their apathetic attitude toward government, and reclaim their sacred duty of vigilance over self governance, they would soon realize how much freedom has been lost to the government. They would clamor for the return of controls, which once kept the beast in check, while allowing for the three founding principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to thrive once again.”

One last point; I am thankful Oprah is finally going out of business.

Maybe women will finally grow up, let go of their narcissistic and self-involved sweet-sixteen obsession for a change.

Young girls, don’t listen to Oprah or Marxist Feminist; they birthed Serfdom.

I don’t have children or grandchildren and never will (as a young teen I bought the Marxist Feminist lie that men and marriage would ruin your life; stupid idiot, gullible me) however I take some comfort knowing that at least when I die I will not have to face the enslavement of the next generation.

I feel sorry for those with children and grandchildren because when the parents and grandparents leave this earth they’ll be the ones facing the heavy guilt of knowing they plundered their own into horrid serfdom.

SO Mommies and Daddies (especially Mommies who advocate abortion), when your children have no choice but to unplug your life because you are too expensive to keep alive remember it was you who enslaved your own children and grandchildren.

I completely concur with your assessment, Doc, yet this assertion should not be solely delivered to those in blue. We, as Americans, are mired in a Socratic understanding of government, where the call to civil service is limited to those that are among the aristos, a gathering of men and women that are among the best and brightest and rule with only the “common good” in mind. We are all men (with apologies to the ladies in the audience) and are all susceptible to avarice and lapse. I would also argue that today’s politician is actually among the average in society; the best and brightest in America wouldn’t enter politics and subject themselves to that humiliation on a bet.

Another great article in a long line of great articles. I share these with my 16 year old son, thx Doc for helping to educate him about politics and about human nature in general.

“authority bestows wisdom”

See Jonah Goldberg in re the “Progressive” movement.

Or for sheer cleared eyed reality, George Orwell:

“It was only after the Soviet regime became unmistakably totalitarian that English intellectuals, in large numbers, began to show interest in it. Burnham, although the English Russophile intelligentsia would repudiate him, is really voicing their secret wish: the wish to destroy the old equalitarian version of Socialism and usher in a hierarchical society where the intellectual can at last get his hands on the whip.”

-George Orwell

re: your second point, about “the best and brightest” -

More people need to know the origins and implications of that phrase.