Elites in America

This is Joseph. 

This article got me thinking about the idea of elites. Because I am actually in agreement with one major thread here, which is that the focus in American life has been on intra-state competition and not inter-state competition. This shift in focus to internal competition has often gone poorly for states. Stalin weakened Russia versus the Nazi's by seeking internal purity. Byzantium lost to the Ottomans because they couldn't overcome internal strife. It is generally not a good state of affairs.

But I worry that we've move to an era where this good sense has been lost. For example, what national interest has the trade war with Canada served? Do any of the proponents actually think that it improves matters to put crushing tariffs on a neighboring country? Has anybody held this position prior to 2017 and what would have changed about the fundamentals in 2017? 

What is very much true is that everybody can identify elites that are acting poorly, at least from their point of view. I am even tempted to argue that some of them really are, mostly because of spillover from the culture, probably reached this status objectively. 

But what is really missing is focus on trying to improve obvious things in America. Now, you probably think the next words out of my mouth will be some variation on "both sides should", but I do think it is an actually asymmetrical problem. One one side you have people who have been . . . tentative about holding strong opinions or fighting. The other side appears to have started a war for no clear objectives. Or, if there are objectives, they are amazingly well concealed from everybody who has been thinking about the war. 

And Iran is a good place to end. It's cost a ton of money just as the social security fund is going to need some legislative tender loving care. It has lead to bases being bombed, Americans being killed, and there really isn't a great view of an exit strategy that doesn't start undermining the world's trade infrastructure. Bret Devereaux has a great piece on this topic (and I fear I might be part of the "Eye of Sauron" he was worried would be drawn to this piece) and it's pretty clear that everybody is worse off if the modern trading state is simply broken. 

It's also possible for the collapse of an unjust system to leave everyone worse off. Ask the Italians about the fall of the (slave holding) Roman Empire how great the aftermath was. 

So I think it is important that we go into the fall midterms with some focus about what the stakes are and how we can pull things back towards a better trajectory.