Brilliant, as usual:
The professional structure of the Left eventually creates a common organizational culture. One of the reasons that the Left does so well working with foreign intelligence agencies, Islamic extremists and even criminal syndicates and crooked unions is that they architectured like them. The Left has a version of every process a conspiratorial organization possesses. From rites of initiation — which may consist in the case of menial, repetitive tasks like selling the Daily Worker at a streetcorner to ‘making their bones’ the Left has a conveyor belt geared towards controlling admission into a cherished inner sanctum. It is a process that appeals naturally to snobs…
Because the Left partakes in the internal structures of power they are not going away soon; certainly not in 2010 or 2012. The Left is baked into the system…The disquiet created by the information revolution stems from the fact that it has allowed the “amateurs” to briefly glimpse the professionals at work, perhaps for the first time in their lives…
America was conceived as an experiment in creating a land run for amateurs. The Founding Fathers appear to have taken the view that the Towers of Power would always be with us, but attempted to keep them low. They tried craft a society in which the power of elites would limited, with no established religions; no runaway central authority; hedged with prohibitions on government. It was an attempt to enshrine amateurism as a means of pre-empting the establishment of Byzantine structures that would eventually encrust the majority will with their own agendas. One of the reasons for the reaction against President Obama’s agenda is the perception that the elites are about to succeed, perhaps forever; that the experiment of July 4, 1776 is at an end…
…[A]ll true revolutions are attempts to assert the primacy of the ordinary and of the individual over the powers and principalities of the world. In practice most revolution is not about the wretched of the earth overthrowing their masters. It is about the ordinary man trying to keep from being told what to do by self-appointed and highly paid busybodies. It is a struggle that will probably continue to the end of the human race between those with the will to rule; and on the other hand those who simply wish to to be left alone. The most revolutionary thing in the world is to try to live your life as you want to.
Previously a lifelong Democrat, born in New York and living in New England, surrounded by liberals on all sides, I've found myself slowly but surely 
August 24th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
The jig is exposed but is the jig up? Even if Tea Party types trounce the Democrats in November, will they dismantle any of the Professional Left’s tools of monopoly. Eliminating a department or two… agriculture, education, HUD… all rat holes of corruption and systemic societal looting and destruction.
We need something like the 1990s ‘Contract With America.’ I think the only thing simple enough would be to pledge to balance the budget. People would definitely go for the idea and may even be willing to allow the starvation of government programs that otherwise would be sacred cows.
Pledge now, candidates, Balanced Budget!
August 24th, 2010 at 6:44 pm
The most revolutionary thing in the world is to try to live your life as you want to.
That would make a good bumper sticker.
Seriously, we need to start thinking of ways to spread the limited-government, free-market, individual-liberty message in simple, easily digestible soundbites. For a lot of people, trying to get them to read Hayek, the Federalist Papers, or even the recent Codevilla essay just ain’t gonna work. (Heck, I haven’t even read the Federalist Papers.)
August 24th, 2010 at 6:47 pm
We have something like the Contract with America.
It’s known as the Contract from America…
Given the subject matter of neo’s post this bears repeating:
“Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties:
1. Those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes.
2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although not [always] the most wise depository of the public interests.
In every country these two parties exist, and in every one where they are free to think, speak, and write, they will declare themselves.” –Thomas Jefferson to Henry Lee, 1824
This is nothing new, liberty must ever be defended and occasionally with the blood of patriots.
August 24th, 2010 at 7:01 pm
“a conveyor belt geared towards controlling admission into a cherished inner sanctum”…read C S Lewis on The Inner Circle, also his novel “That Hideous Strength,” in which the action is driven largely by the protagonist’s strong desire to be a member of that circle.
August 24th, 2010 at 7:12 pm
That’s not the only similarity. They’re all sneaky, criminal, undemocratic, and anti-American, too. The differences between them are trivial.
August 24th, 2010 at 7:45 pm
“”That would make a good bumper sticker.”"
How about “How did we not see flower children turning into rigid tyrants?”
August 24th, 2010 at 7:57 pm
SteveH, that is a thing that I have spent a lot of time wondering about. How did hippies grow up to be oligarchical dictators? I have seen it on a personal level too – my coworkers who used to be hippies are far and away the most rigid regimented people in the office – while still putting on a show about how tolerant and open they are. Strangely enough, they think they are unpopular in the office because no one understands them. Um, no it’s because we don’t like being ruled with an iron fist, that is why.
August 24th, 2010 at 8:18 pm
Anna, i know the type very well. And in high school they knew the life story of every musician in every cool band. Which looking back should have been my first clue we’d be dealing with obssessive repulsive know it all kids in grown up bodies one day.
August 24th, 2010 at 8:34 pm
Anna– imagine being a hippy, way back when, that didn’t think free love was all that great. Or thought guns were handy for something. Or that liked wearing a bra. (I know I much prefer it!)
Imagining the sheer outrage?
Not like the dictating is new, it’s just that they’re the ones in power, now.
August 24th, 2010 at 8:37 pm
I think there are several stickers,something like:
“You can’t rage against the machine when you ARE the machine.”
“Truth to Power means unpopular targets, not the easy ones.”
“You are your father’s generation.”
August 24th, 2010 at 9:01 pm
anna and SteveH, yes, I have seen it too. They put on a show about how tolerant and open they are–and you aren’t. It’s always an exercise in feeling and showing superiority.
Their tolerance, or their show of it anyway, is additionally patronizing–in some nearly indefinable way. They patronize those whom they believe (in true life), by accident of birth and culture, to be inferior. They don’t, I think, really imagine Muslims, or black Africans, or Indian Hindus, or Orientals, or any “other,” to be their equals. But they cannot comprehend that Americans, with whom they share a culture, an education (at least roughly), and a heritage, might think differently from them. They cannot comprehend that we do no see the same things when we look out of our eyes that they see when they look out of theirs. It dumbfounds me, I’ve tied my brain in not a few knots trying to figure out why it is so. But it is. They will not tolerate white Americans who think differently from them. They seem to think that, for example, a really religious, believing American cannot have a legitimate case to make. Oh, now and then one or another of them will study us as might an anthropologist, but it’s only an exercise–they really hate us, and think us not worth tolerating. But they have no trouble thinking that a Muslim can legitimately believe teen-aged daughters should be murdered for dishonoring their families–that’s what the Muslims believe, don’t you know, so it is real to them. It is simply patronizing.
And I do not for the life of me understand it.
August 24th, 2010 at 9:03 pm
Sorry. Left out a “close italics,” there. Golly, I wish we had a preview function! Oh well, never mind.
August 24th, 2010 at 9:09 pm
It’s why they sometimes think, for example, that we’re simply mentally ill: http://tinyurl.com/2w8whx
August 24th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
See also this: http://tinyurl.com/26uy6z7
These are the kinds of things that remind me of the fact that, in the old Soviet Union, political dissidents were often placed in mental hospitals.
And then there’s also the fact that, when I read Wretchard’s post this morning (happily quoted by Neo this afternoon), I was yet again, and no doubt not for the last time, reminded of the Illuminati Trilogy: http://tinyurl.com/2dswbfy
I know sophisticated folk are not supposed to believe in conspiracy theories. But still, one wonders sometimes. . . .
August 24th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
Got my blood boiling, alright– we paid for that?!?!?
August 24th, 2010 at 9:28 pm
Foxfier,
LOL!!! Well, I’m about as conservative as they come, and I haven’t worn a bra in years!
August 24th, 2010 at 9:29 pm
Amateurs vs profis: Amateurs have to keep learning and measure their actions by their effects. Profis have a piece of paper saying they know what they need to know, and they don’t worry about effects. Government by the first encourages personal growth based on life experience. It also encourages creativity because thinking outside the box is the norm. Government by the second leads to mental stagnation, both for the profis and for their underlings.
August 25th, 2010 at 5:47 am
You can test (i.e. preview) html text here: http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp Then, copy and paste.
August 25th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
Betsybounds- without getting into TMI area, let’s leave it that I wish I could, but life is much more comfortable if I don’t forgo!
But it goes back to the lib/concerv, pro/amateurs divide that Expat mentions; most conservatives I know don’t care that you don’t wear a bra, or that my mom (double mastectomy) doesn’t wear a bra, so long as it’s not, ahem, disturbingly apparent that is the case. Even then, the most I’ve ever seen happen is a tendency to offer a jacket.
On the other hand, I’ve been chewed out on ideological grounds for wearing comfortable foundation garments. Never mind that not doing so would effectively remove me from doing heavy *laundry*, let alone the more physical jobs I tend to do– the ideology is all. (Tried to write “idiotology.” >.
August 25th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
The only real stronghold against usurpation of power by Professional Left is US constitution. So strategically it makes sense to concentrate efforts on defending this constitution by all possible means, including people’s right to armed rebellion against tyranny. Specter of socialism is haunting America now. To expell it, use the specter of new Revolutionary War. Just make Washington know that this option is on the table, and they will retreat.