In yesterday's piece, "The Politics of the Three Peoples," I attempted to describe the natural political tastes of the the three kinds of people in the modern era. How the People of the Subordinate Self want a neo-feudal welfare state to take care of them; how the People of the Responsible Self want a minimal state that protects life and liberty and defends a law-based people going about their business; how the People of the Creative Self want to run things, to create a perfect state abounding with compassion and justice, as a witness to their wonderfulness.
But what, you may ask, is the consequence of these Three Peoples with their conflicting ideas about government and justice?
The first, and obvious thing, is that the People of the Subordinate Self and the People of the Creative Self are natural allies. The People of the Subordinate Self want stuff in return for their support of their liege lord, and the People of the Creative Self are glad to give away Other Peoples' Money in return for the support of the People of the Subordinate Self so they can creatively create the perfect state with Hope and Change.
This is clearly demonstrated in my catchphrase that government is an armed minority occupying territory and taxing the inhabitants thereof to reward its supporters, with the "supporters" as the People of the Subordinate Self, the "inhabitants" the People of the Responsible Self, and the "armed minority" the People of the Creative Self.
The only problem with the happy dance between the People of the Creative Self and the People of the Subordinate Self is that it is not a self-regulating system. This is brought out by Ilana Mercer in a recent piece on African politics. There is no regulating system to tell African dictators just how much loot and plunder to reward their supporters is too much, so they tend to loot the place to the bare walls. This is obviously true also in lefty dictatorships like Venezuela. Any country experiencing hyper-inflation has a ruling class that has seriously screwed up its sums: the amount of loot that can be consistently extracted from the populace to give to its supporters. In countries like the United States we merely have an obvious prediction that things cannot go on as they have forever: the entitlements will run out of Other Peoples' Money at some point, but not yet.
The dance between the People of the Creative Self and the People of the Subordinate Self is a big problem for the People of the Responsible Self. We really do not want to play the game of taxing the inhabitants to reward our supporters. We think that such a philosophy of politics is stupid. The world is much too complicated to reduce it to a matter of loot and plunder. We do not really want to live at the expense of our fellow citizens and we do not thrill to the orgasm of ordering our fellow citizens about and putting our hands in their pockets. We do not boil with a rage to be revenged upon corporate profits or greedy bankers, and we do not thrill with the prospect of fundamentally transforming society.
And that is why conservatives have been in retreat for the last century. We do not want to use the state to advance our power project, because we have no power project. We just want to let the exchange economy have its way and keep a sharp eye out for the occasional egregious injustice that might be correctable by beneficial legislation.
That is why Donald Trump is such a phenomenon. He has cut this Gordian Knot by the simple expedient of exploiting the egregious injustice suffered by the white working class in the past generation and linking it to the negative agenda of the libertarian, conservative Right.
The Trump phenomenon is perfectly simple, in retrospect. In their enthusiasm to right the wrongs of the past, our liberal friends determined to help the women and minorities that had been marginalized under the regime of "white privilege." But they forgot to check the possible operation of the Law of Unintended Consequences. It turned out that their post Sixties identity politics harmed not the scions of "white privilege"-- people like me -- but the white working class, the sons and daughters of the Irish, the Italians, and Scotch Irish, that in 1900 and through the Great Depression were considered to be the working stiffs of the marginalized working class.
So today the cunning President Trump is standing up for the rights of the white working class by passing a tax bill that lowers federal income tax for the broad middle class, including the white working class, and puts a cat among the international pigeons by lowering the rate on the corporate income tax below the rate in most First World countries.
Do you see what he has done? He has put himself at the head of the white working class, giving voice to its feeling that it was robbed, but is actually going to help it by reviving the whole economy through reduction of business regulation and taxes. If he can pull it off this ploy he will go down in history as another Ronald Reagan.
So, on my view, the Politics of the Three Peoples plays out with the People of the Creative Self and the People of the Subordinate Self ganging up on the People of the Responsible Self and milking them dry. And so it will continue unless the People of the Responsible Self can find a group that has been lately shafted by the criminal conspiracy between the People of the Creative Self and the People of the Subordinate Self and offer that group assistance, as in the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
See? Life is not that complicated after all.
But what, you may ask, is the consequence of these Three Peoples with their conflicting ideas about government and justice?
The first, and obvious thing, is that the People of the Subordinate Self and the People of the Creative Self are natural allies. The People of the Subordinate Self want stuff in return for their support of their liege lord, and the People of the Creative Self are glad to give away Other Peoples' Money in return for the support of the People of the Subordinate Self so they can creatively create the perfect state with Hope and Change.
This is clearly demonstrated in my catchphrase that government is an armed minority occupying territory and taxing the inhabitants thereof to reward its supporters, with the "supporters" as the People of the Subordinate Self, the "inhabitants" the People of the Responsible Self, and the "armed minority" the People of the Creative Self.
The only problem with the happy dance between the People of the Creative Self and the People of the Subordinate Self is that it is not a self-regulating system. This is brought out by Ilana Mercer in a recent piece on African politics. There is no regulating system to tell African dictators just how much loot and plunder to reward their supporters is too much, so they tend to loot the place to the bare walls. This is obviously true also in lefty dictatorships like Venezuela. Any country experiencing hyper-inflation has a ruling class that has seriously screwed up its sums: the amount of loot that can be consistently extracted from the populace to give to its supporters. In countries like the United States we merely have an obvious prediction that things cannot go on as they have forever: the entitlements will run out of Other Peoples' Money at some point, but not yet.
The dance between the People of the Creative Self and the People of the Subordinate Self is a big problem for the People of the Responsible Self. We really do not want to play the game of taxing the inhabitants to reward our supporters. We think that such a philosophy of politics is stupid. The world is much too complicated to reduce it to a matter of loot and plunder. We do not really want to live at the expense of our fellow citizens and we do not thrill to the orgasm of ordering our fellow citizens about and putting our hands in their pockets. We do not boil with a rage to be revenged upon corporate profits or greedy bankers, and we do not thrill with the prospect of fundamentally transforming society.
And that is why conservatives have been in retreat for the last century. We do not want to use the state to advance our power project, because we have no power project. We just want to let the exchange economy have its way and keep a sharp eye out for the occasional egregious injustice that might be correctable by beneficial legislation.
That is why Donald Trump is such a phenomenon. He has cut this Gordian Knot by the simple expedient of exploiting the egregious injustice suffered by the white working class in the past generation and linking it to the negative agenda of the libertarian, conservative Right.
The Trump phenomenon is perfectly simple, in retrospect. In their enthusiasm to right the wrongs of the past, our liberal friends determined to help the women and minorities that had been marginalized under the regime of "white privilege." But they forgot to check the possible operation of the Law of Unintended Consequences. It turned out that their post Sixties identity politics harmed not the scions of "white privilege"-- people like me -- but the white working class, the sons and daughters of the Irish, the Italians, and Scotch Irish, that in 1900 and through the Great Depression were considered to be the working stiffs of the marginalized working class.
So today the cunning President Trump is standing up for the rights of the white working class by passing a tax bill that lowers federal income tax for the broad middle class, including the white working class, and puts a cat among the international pigeons by lowering the rate on the corporate income tax below the rate in most First World countries.
Do you see what he has done? He has put himself at the head of the white working class, giving voice to its feeling that it was robbed, but is actually going to help it by reviving the whole economy through reduction of business regulation and taxes. If he can pull it off this ploy he will go down in history as another Ronald Reagan.
So, on my view, the Politics of the Three Peoples plays out with the People of the Creative Self and the People of the Subordinate Self ganging up on the People of the Responsible Self and milking them dry. And so it will continue unless the People of the Responsible Self can find a group that has been lately shafted by the criminal conspiracy between the People of the Creative Self and the People of the Subordinate Self and offer that group assistance, as in the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
See? Life is not that complicated after all.
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