Politics is downstream of culture. Even if you won the elections and changed the laws, demoralized people will still find ways around them. Make reality cool again, be a rebel start a family.
Oct 27, 2023·edited Oct 27, 2023Liked by Christopher F. Rufo
I’d take changing the law over eliminating woke ideas if it involved not just civil rights law but universal school choice, defunding higher education, etc. As you've written, these people largely don't exist without government funding!
But either way, what’s good to focus on is that we’re political writers. Law is what we can hope to influence. If people want to make movies or TikTok videos or whatever to influence the culture, they have my full blessing.
Agreed. Culture and laws are complementary, not exclusionary, in western society. To put it very simple terms, a constitution (like ours) is worthless if the culture to keep it intact does not exist. The exception would be the authoritarian who replaces culture with draconian laws. A long term effort, no doubt, is needed for us to recapture our culture. That is why cleaning up education is so important.
Family culture is the heart of society. Reinforcing traditional marriage and cohesive, responsible families would change everything. Fatherless homes and irresponsibility promote lawlessness and destruction of basic human value. Reigniting the family structure would change the nihilistic trends we are currently experiencing.
I think Christopher is correct. Politics is downstream of culture. Way downstream. Now Christopher and a few politicians like DeSantis have helped enormously in some states. However, there has been relatively little cultural change. I am a professor and high end business consultant. One can see how much culture has impacted academia easily but it has impacted premier business consulting a great deal as well. Just take a look at articles by McKinsey, BCG and Bain. One might think almost all of what businesses care about is DEI and ESG. Crazy. And these folks know that - but they dare not say it.
I also have an MFA from one of the best art schools in the world. In the art sphere, many/almost all exhibitions and articles are by or about women, minorities and the LBGTQI+ alphabet project. There are articles and exhibitions focusing on a few white man - so long as they are dead. In short, we are making almost no progress in this important aspect of culture. This needs to stop. Being human - whatever colour, gender or sexual preference - is the primitive. The Creator created everything and everyone. Let's start there. Let's celebrate that! We need to support excellence in whomever and wherever we find it. This seems like a way to start changing culture - for the better. And we have made scant progress in the last 30 years. It's going to be hard, especially if we don't start.
I agree with Rufo, over the past 5 years, the acceleration of woke culture and identity politics has happened primarily because of the Left’s “long march” through, and ultimately capture of, America’s institutions, especially academia and the media. Ordinary Americans are largely unaware of current events and historical facts that reflect negatively on Leftist ideology, political leaders and non-profit organizations. Well-educated people are often the most entrenched in their support for Leftist causes, because they’ve been more exposed to, and relentlessly indoctrinated by, higher education and the media. These culture-shaping institutions frame everything from, and even celebrate, Leftist perspectives, while simultaneously vilifying and suppressing Conservative viewpoints.
As much as I hate to admit it, Gramsci was accurate. Russian Revolution vs Mao vs The US Left. Seems to work better when beliefs influence law. I don’t think the civil rights laws would have been extended beyond their intent had not the left had their beliefs about regulating beyond political equality.
I also think it goes further back to the through line of the Enlightenment deism - when you remove transcendent reality, people are going to look for it somewhere. The Age of Utopia looked for it in future man, making him god. The Age of Nihilism is the extension of that and our reality today. As Yuri commented earlier to this article, make reality cool again. And God.
Please read Thomas Sowell on the harm civil rights legislation did for the very people it meant to help. He is brilliant, insightful, and relies on facts to support his points.
The insane dedire for utopia is a significant cause for Wokeness. That is in the face of the failures of communism and progressivism, which has brought with it a resentful tear it all down mindset. Yet, the utopian impulse does not want to face facts. That may be because of Neo Marxist gnosticism (see James Lindsay) which blames the world for the ills of humanity. It is kind of utopianism by the back door of denial.
Ultimately it is satan behind woke but it is certainly with the help of his human henchmen in the form of culture curators. I agree that this requires an all-hands-on-deck approach including culture and law and most importantly, a return to Christianity. Our country was built for people of faith and without that faith the seams unravel. That you for answering the call to take on the beast. We wholeheartedly support you!
This analysis does not consider the "S-curve" product cycle that starts off slow initially with pioneer adopters, then curves up and accelerates as the product achieves adoption by broader user groups, reaches mass acceptance at a high level, and then becomes irrelevant to users and crashes. The left hates history because after achieving dominance in the 1890s, 1930s, and 1970s, the movement suffered existential collapses. The left hates history because their economic policies cyclically fail and the movement crashes. The social turmoil right now is the harbinger of the left's next crash.
Ultimate cause is religion, defined as 'the system by which you gain (and lose) value'.
People are woke because it gives them value. Find a better way of giving them value, and they will flock to it.
Bureaucrats get value out of using their power to help the state/make themselves feel important. Reward them for rooting out DIE, and the culture will change, along with the rules.
Anti-DIE bills in Florida and Texas were great starts. But the bureaucrats and administrators need to fear DIE. Right now, they're just hiding it, and rearranging departments. And all the diversity hires are still there.
We need some sustained journalism focused on revealing the Marxists that are trying to hide in TX and FL universities, and take them down. Any journalists interested in exposing them, please hmu.
Culture. Culture is the ultimate cause of woke. And the prince of darkness owns the culture. This war between kingdoms will need to be fought on our knees.
As lawlessness increases Civil Rights laws are ignored or reinterpreted. This requires a change in our culture and a recognition that we have been overcome by deep Marxist ideology that most often goes unrecognized by the public including those in politics. Many leaders of industry, education, politics, entertainment, media etc. have already been knowingly or unknowingly been captured. Western Civilization is being replaced by Marxist ideology brick by brick.
My belief is that the communists were right about their assumptions. Take control of the education system and force it on the population, then you control the population. In the late 1940's one of the top goals of the Communist Party USA was to take control of the education system. In the 1960's the fear of nuclear war with the Soviet Union caused the communists to fall out of favor in this country and most of the CPUSA members joined the Democrat party. By the middle 1980's they had attained their goal of controlling our education system. With truancy laws most children are forced to attend government schools. With that many years of indoctrination, the majority of the next generation will believe it because they will have heard no other side to the story.
Thus, to change the game the right has to change those who control the education system.
Politics is downstream of culture. Even if you won the elections and changed the laws, demoralized people will still find ways around them. Make reality cool again, be a rebel start a family.
I’d take changing the law over eliminating woke ideas if it involved not just civil rights law but universal school choice, defunding higher education, etc. As you've written, these people largely don't exist without government funding!
But either way, what’s good to focus on is that we’re political writers. Law is what we can hope to influence. If people want to make movies or TikTok videos or whatever to influence the culture, they have my full blessing.
Agreed. Culture and laws are complementary, not exclusionary, in western society. To put it very simple terms, a constitution (like ours) is worthless if the culture to keep it intact does not exist. The exception would be the authoritarian who replaces culture with draconian laws. A long term effort, no doubt, is needed for us to recapture our culture. That is why cleaning up education is so important.
Family culture is the heart of society. Reinforcing traditional marriage and cohesive, responsible families would change everything. Fatherless homes and irresponsibility promote lawlessness and destruction of basic human value. Reigniting the family structure would change the nihilistic trends we are currently experiencing.
I think Christopher is correct. Politics is downstream of culture. Way downstream. Now Christopher and a few politicians like DeSantis have helped enormously in some states. However, there has been relatively little cultural change. I am a professor and high end business consultant. One can see how much culture has impacted academia easily but it has impacted premier business consulting a great deal as well. Just take a look at articles by McKinsey, BCG and Bain. One might think almost all of what businesses care about is DEI and ESG. Crazy. And these folks know that - but they dare not say it.
I also have an MFA from one of the best art schools in the world. In the art sphere, many/almost all exhibitions and articles are by or about women, minorities and the LBGTQI+ alphabet project. There are articles and exhibitions focusing on a few white man - so long as they are dead. In short, we are making almost no progress in this important aspect of culture. This needs to stop. Being human - whatever colour, gender or sexual preference - is the primitive. The Creator created everything and everyone. Let's start there. Let's celebrate that! We need to support excellence in whomever and wherever we find it. This seems like a way to start changing culture - for the better. And we have made scant progress in the last 30 years. It's going to be hard, especially if we don't start.
I agree with Rufo, over the past 5 years, the acceleration of woke culture and identity politics has happened primarily because of the Left’s “long march” through, and ultimately capture of, America’s institutions, especially academia and the media. Ordinary Americans are largely unaware of current events and historical facts that reflect negatively on Leftist ideology, political leaders and non-profit organizations. Well-educated people are often the most entrenched in their support for Leftist causes, because they’ve been more exposed to, and relentlessly indoctrinated by, higher education and the media. These culture-shaping institutions frame everything from, and even celebrate, Leftist perspectives, while simultaneously vilifying and suppressing Conservative viewpoints.
As much as I hate to admit it, Gramsci was accurate. Russian Revolution vs Mao vs The US Left. Seems to work better when beliefs influence law. I don’t think the civil rights laws would have been extended beyond their intent had not the left had their beliefs about regulating beyond political equality.
I also think it goes further back to the through line of the Enlightenment deism - when you remove transcendent reality, people are going to look for it somewhere. The Age of Utopia looked for it in future man, making him god. The Age of Nihilism is the extension of that and our reality today. As Yuri commented earlier to this article, make reality cool again. And God.
no god: no sense of purpose or direction
Know God: reveals a sense of direction and purpose from a higher power
barbara
Please read Thomas Sowell on the harm civil rights legislation did for the very people it meant to help. He is brilliant, insightful, and relies on facts to support his points.
The insane dedire for utopia is a significant cause for Wokeness. That is in the face of the failures of communism and progressivism, which has brought with it a resentful tear it all down mindset. Yet, the utopian impulse does not want to face facts. That may be because of Neo Marxist gnosticism (see James Lindsay) which blames the world for the ills of humanity. It is kind of utopianism by the back door of denial.
Ultimately it is satan behind woke but it is certainly with the help of his human henchmen in the form of culture curators. I agree that this requires an all-hands-on-deck approach including culture and law and most importantly, a return to Christianity. Our country was built for people of faith and without that faith the seams unravel. That you for answering the call to take on the beast. We wholeheartedly support you!
This analysis does not consider the "S-curve" product cycle that starts off slow initially with pioneer adopters, then curves up and accelerates as the product achieves adoption by broader user groups, reaches mass acceptance at a high level, and then becomes irrelevant to users and crashes. The left hates history because after achieving dominance in the 1890s, 1930s, and 1970s, the movement suffered existential collapses. The left hates history because their economic policies cyclically fail and the movement crashes. The social turmoil right now is the harbinger of the left's next crash.
Ultimate cause is religion, defined as 'the system by which you gain (and lose) value'.
People are woke because it gives them value. Find a better way of giving them value, and they will flock to it.
Bureaucrats get value out of using their power to help the state/make themselves feel important. Reward them for rooting out DIE, and the culture will change, along with the rules.
Anti-DIE bills in Florida and Texas were great starts. But the bureaucrats and administrators need to fear DIE. Right now, they're just hiding it, and rearranging departments. And all the diversity hires are still there.
We need some sustained journalism focused on revealing the Marxists that are trying to hide in TX and FL universities, and take them down. Any journalists interested in exposing them, please hmu.
Culture. Culture is the ultimate cause of woke. And the prince of darkness owns the culture. This war between kingdoms will need to be fought on our knees.
As lawlessness increases Civil Rights laws are ignored or reinterpreted. This requires a change in our culture and a recognition that we have been overcome by deep Marxist ideology that most often goes unrecognized by the public including those in politics. Many leaders of industry, education, politics, entertainment, media etc. have already been knowingly or unknowingly been captured. Western Civilization is being replaced by Marxist ideology brick by brick.
My belief is that the communists were right about their assumptions. Take control of the education system and force it on the population, then you control the population. In the late 1940's one of the top goals of the Communist Party USA was to take control of the education system. In the 1960's the fear of nuclear war with the Soviet Union caused the communists to fall out of favor in this country and most of the CPUSA members joined the Democrat party. By the middle 1980's they had attained their goal of controlling our education system. With truancy laws most children are forced to attend government schools. With that many years of indoctrination, the majority of the next generation will believe it because they will have heard no other side to the story.
Thus, to change the game the right has to change those who control the education system.