The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

The Haughty Pride of the Elite

Posted on | September 21, 2020 | 1 Comment

 

If you are familiar with the story of Whittaker Chambers, you know that when he left the Communist Party in the 1930s, he told his wife he was “leaving the winning side for the losing side.” So powerful was the Soviet apparatus, it seemed that evil was certain to triumph and yet, by his defection from the Party, Chambers ultimately helped shift the tide of history. His testimony against Alger Hiss proved the extent of Soviet espionage, corroborating the testimony of Elizabeth Bentley and other CPUSA defectors. You should read his book, Witness.

What got me thinking about Chambers was something that Ace wrote, referring to the arguments over replacing RBG:

If you watched Fox News on Friday, you heard several hundred tributes to the “great American” and “trailblazer” Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Would it surprise you to learn that the leftist outlets feel no such corresponding obligation to praise their enemies upon their deaths?
Would you say that if one group can command courtesies and tributes from another group, but that second group cannot reciprocally demand courtesies and tributes, what we have on our hands is a Caste system of Lords and Commoners?
Would you say you are sick and tired of our alleged representatives reifying and confirming this Jim Crow system by continuing to offer praise to the left when the left is quite open about wanting to formally enslave us? . . .
The left has captured almost every taste-making, norms-creating, rules-enforcing institution in America.
This gives them a great advantage in that it’s always their approval people must seek, if they seek approval from any institution at all.
But these institutions no longer represent excellence, or accomplishment, or virtue, or intelligence. They’re just hardcore partisan shill organizations wearing the skin-suits of organizations that formerly had some bipartisan credibility.
Now they’re saying: Do what we say, and maybe we’ll show 8% less hatred and contempt for you. Maybe.
And they still expect this to work!

What he is describing here is how the Left’s hegemony in academia, media, etc., gives them an almost dictatorial power when it comes to setting the terms of debate over important public issues. This is very much like the prestige once enjoyed by Communism, when the party could attract the support of such well-bred persons as Alger Hiss.

Even though the vast majority of Americans always opposed Communism, it was never popular among intellectuals to be an anti-Communist, and this allowed Communism to enjoy a certain prestige that it certainly never deserved. Meanwhile, outspoken anti-Communists like Richard Nixon, Joe McCarthy and Ronald Reagan were demonized by the fashionable media of their age, so that we can well understand why Chambers felt such a sense of doom when he left the Party.

Our only advantage, in situations like this, is that the corrupt elite are so arrogantly sure of themselves. Within their ideological echo chamber, the elites never hear any voice of doubt or dissent, so they believe they are on “the right side of history,” and assured of victory. They underestimate the intelligence, determination and courage of their opponents.

In 1977, Richard Allen, a confidant and advisor, asked Ronald Reagan for his theory of U.S.-Soviet relations. “Here’s my strategy on the Cold War,” Reagan replied. “We win, they lose.”

We ought to emulate that example.




 

Category: Culture, History, Intellectuals

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