It's no secret that the prime supporters of ageing "democratic socialist" Bernie Sanders, winner in the Democratic presidential primary in New Hampshire, are young people.
Because?
Yeah, really. What in the world do rich white kids think they are doing?
There are many reasons offered to explain the support for socialism in the young:
So we are living in a totally new world, and it is not surprising that the most obvious cultural meme is what I call the Great Reaction, a retrospective ideology that instinctively lurches back to the old and familiar.
And even if we decided to teach the kiddies to love the market, which might work for boys that are coded for war and danger, whatabout the girls? We are teaching girls that they can be superheroes, but the most notable cultural development of recent years, I'd say, is the concern with "microaggressions" and "safe spaces," and that is girl stuff. Women are easily offended, and do not like to interact like men in the male Culture of Insult; and women do not like physical danger, not at all: they want to be safe and their loved ones too.
So I say that, probably for girls and young women, it's a hopeless cause. Women expect to be protected and always will.
But boys: Well, I think that boys should be chucked out of school at 13 and expected to take up apprenticeships -- or internships if you prefer -- and these apprenticeships should be away from home. And boys that want more school-learning should be forced to crawl over broken glass to get it. OK. I know this will never work for rich kids, because mothers. But for the rest it will generate rough, tough hombres with a Nietzschean tolerance for a good deal of "accidents and nonsense." And they will be the kind of men that don't want to be soft soy boys in their parents' basement. And they won't be Bernie Bros.
I also think that all government education should be transformed into parent-controlled vouchers, so that parents can choose their kids' education from a whole menu of options. Poor parents could choose KIPP schools to get their kids into the middle class. Or Rudolf Steiner schools for rich kids to make them into creative artists. Or home schools run by the neighborhood mothers. Or college prep schools to get kids into the fancy-pants selective colleges. Or other types of schools that I would never have thought of.
Hey, I know. Maybe the Bernie Bro phenomenon is the last gasp of socialism, because whatever comes next is going to be different.
What will that thing be? I have no idea, except that I suspect it will be derivative of the German Turn from Kant to Jung. But I am sure that it will make everyone from me to the local lefty absolutely outraged.
And why not?
Why should rich lefty white kids set the agenda for the nation? Whatabout diversity and inclusion? Whatabout if diversity turns out to be the rising generation of minority Commoners that want to be resourceful and independent and proud and not tied to liberal rich white kids?
Why can't the rest of us have fun?
Because?
Yeah, really. What in the world do rich white kids think they are doing?
There are many reasons offered to explain the support for socialism in the young:
- Socialist ideology is like a family: your share of the loot and your share of the work are determined by family relationships.
- What do you expect from the teachers at government child custodial facilities?
- Nearly all politicians and activists are in the game of selling more government loot. Where is the percentage for anyone active in politics to say: Hey, we need a lot less government force!
- Nearly all journalists are in the game of political push and shove. Who wants to read about price theory and regulatory capture?
- Nearly all academics are in the game of selling "with this weird trick we can tranform society." Just like the click-bait artists.
- Nearly everyone feels that, if they lost their job, where would they look fo help? The market?
- And anyway, whatabout Marx, Engels, Horkheimer, Adorno, Marcuse and the rest? Exactly; rich kids, sons of businessmen. Why should our rich white kids be any different?
So we are living in a totally new world, and it is not surprising that the most obvious cultural meme is what I call the Great Reaction, a retrospective ideology that instinctively lurches back to the old and familiar.
And even if we decided to teach the kiddies to love the market, which might work for boys that are coded for war and danger, whatabout the girls? We are teaching girls that they can be superheroes, but the most notable cultural development of recent years, I'd say, is the concern with "microaggressions" and "safe spaces," and that is girl stuff. Women are easily offended, and do not like to interact like men in the male Culture of Insult; and women do not like physical danger, not at all: they want to be safe and their loved ones too.
So I say that, probably for girls and young women, it's a hopeless cause. Women expect to be protected and always will.
But boys: Well, I think that boys should be chucked out of school at 13 and expected to take up apprenticeships -- or internships if you prefer -- and these apprenticeships should be away from home. And boys that want more school-learning should be forced to crawl over broken glass to get it. OK. I know this will never work for rich kids, because mothers. But for the rest it will generate rough, tough hombres with a Nietzschean tolerance for a good deal of "accidents and nonsense." And they will be the kind of men that don't want to be soft soy boys in their parents' basement. And they won't be Bernie Bros.
I also think that all government education should be transformed into parent-controlled vouchers, so that parents can choose their kids' education from a whole menu of options. Poor parents could choose KIPP schools to get their kids into the middle class. Or Rudolf Steiner schools for rich kids to make them into creative artists. Or home schools run by the neighborhood mothers. Or college prep schools to get kids into the fancy-pants selective colleges. Or other types of schools that I would never have thought of.
Hey, I know. Maybe the Bernie Bro phenomenon is the last gasp of socialism, because whatever comes next is going to be different.
What will that thing be? I have no idea, except that I suspect it will be derivative of the German Turn from Kant to Jung. But I am sure that it will make everyone from me to the local lefty absolutely outraged.
And why not?
Why should rich lefty white kids set the agenda for the nation? Whatabout diversity and inclusion? Whatabout if diversity turns out to be the rising generation of minority Commoners that want to be resourceful and independent and proud and not tied to liberal rich white kids?
Why can't the rest of us have fun?
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