#Resistance Is Feudal

According to the not-at-all-conservative but fairly rational Joel Kotkin, the modern left is retreating into a sort of feudalist orthodoxy:

In the past, the right, notably the segment affiliated with religious belief, was closely associated with censorship and control of thought. Today, enforced orthodoxy derives primarily from the left, emboldened by near total control of the media, university curricula and cultural products.
Remarkably [to the authors, anyway – Ed.], a recent study by the Atlantic found that “the most politically intolerant Americans” tend be white, highly educated urban progressives.
Conservatives may have once driven intolerance from the pulpit and the press, but they no longer have the ability to exercise thought control in a meaningful way.

Long ago, religious zealots embraced feudal ideals, but increasingly it’s the ultra-secular progressives who reprise the role of Medieval Inquisitors.

One of the things that originally led to “Berg’s Seventh Law” was noticing that, while John Kerry was quick to condescend to his various opponents’ lack of “Nuance” in approaching complex issues, it was in fact people on the left that exercised the most rigorously reductionistic approach to analyzing the world.

I’m happy to see I’m not alone:


Today these ideals are being undermined by a fevered rush to reject empiricism and complexity. “There’s a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually, and semantically correct than about being morally right,” suggests the left’s super-star Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez .
This emphasis on intent and “morality” reflects a more Medieval attitude than that of a reasoned politics that grows from facts and evidence.
As in the Middle Ages, the new progressives often seek to impose a secular version of the imperial theocracy. Like the Medieval Catholic Church, new school progressives often exhibit hostility to the roots of our own past, whether verities contained in Shakespeare, the writings of the founders or even the notion of disinterested jurisprudence. In the new fundamentalism, as in the old, there can be only one set of truths, while all others are viewed as evil.

Can you remember when this scene…

…actually didn’t remind you of a typical day at a modern American university?

2 thoughts on “#Resistance Is Feudal

  1. For the last 20 years, I’ve been saying the leftist reprobates won’t be satisfied until we’re reduced to squatting over dung fires in loin cloths…sniffing each other’s asses to determine who’s ripe for sex.

    In big leftist cities today, people hover around burn barrels in rags…we’re 1/2 way there. We’re reduced in body, and they are working to reduce our humanity.

    The time is neigh to draw the line and take a stand.

  2. Joel Kotkin is a national treasure. He is the kind of conservative democrat I would not mind pulling the lever for on election day after the local GOP train jumped the track.

    He comes from the same mindset as HHH and Martin Sabo and while their big government, big solutions lie at the heart of many of the country’s problems, the nation can survive them for a term or two – and with luck, their pragmatism just might do some good.

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