Good diagnosis, missed prescription
Lewis Andrews makes an important diagnosis but writes a misplaced prescription.

Diagnosis: Based on surveys, Americans are withdrawing from BOTH the commercial and cultural spheres, for similar reasons. Total employment and business starts have been decreasing steadily for a long time, and adherence to churches and cultural groups is decreasing. (Benedict Option and variants.)

Participation in BOTH the economy AND the culture is now more pain than gain.

Prescription:

If there is any wisdom to be gleaned from the unprecedented reluctance of both entrepreneurs and the devout to play their traditional roles in the life of the nation, it is the need for the leadership of both parties to step back from their expansive agendas and once again consider personal liberty as the ultimate guarantor of lasting progress. It is long past time for the unencumbered individual to retake the lead in building a better America.

I'll go along with "must step back", though I don't see how it can happen. I won't go along with "personal liberty".

Two reasons:

(1) The cultural tyranny is based above all on "personal liberty" for the aristocracy. When a Trans Thing feels its liberty has been infringed by the mere existence of non-Trans humans, the non-Trans humans must surrender. This is identical to medieval caste laws, except that the medieval version was logical. You knew who was a Baron and who was a Commoner. A Dolezal can declare its aristocracy at any time, without any visible symbols. It's a caste based on mind-reading, violating all previous norms of logic and laws.

So any attempt to undo the tyranny using "personal liberty" will be hopelessly confused and conflated by the tyrants.

(2) What we've lost ISN'T on the personal level anyway. Most people are NOT SUPPOSED TO BE entrepreneurs or hermetic saints. Only criminals and psychopaths are primarily motivated by Individual Liberty.

When our civilization was functional, it relied on mid-sized businesses where ordinary men could use their varied talents. Those businesses are disappearing, but NOT because startups are decreasing. On one end those mid-sized businesses are being LBO'd by Romney and his buddies, replacing jobs and factories with pure numbers; on the other end labor is being split up into 1099 gigs nominally representing "personal liberty" but actually offering zero security and near-zero pay.

When our civilization existed, it also relied on mid-sized Fraternal Benefit Associations that served financial and medical needs. Die-Versity laws broke those associations. We also had mid-sized businesses called "banks" where the ordinary man could store his earnings toward future goals, keeping up with inflation.

And we also had mid-sized churches where ordinary people could feel secure and spiritually useful. Those churches have been merged into TV megachurches on one end, or turned into private clubs for Trans Things on the other end. Ordinary families are either drowned in anonymity or bulldozed by Antichrist Francine.

= = = = =

These mid-sized organizations can't be rebuilt by Individual Entrepreneurs. They require cooperative action, which will get you killed. So we're fucked.

Labels: defensible spaces, Make or break, Old Economy Steve

  ¶ 12:43 PM