I wrote some time ago about a video channel called the Academic Agent, at the time the identity of the host was secret (hence the word agent in the title I suppose). Since then however his identity has been revealed as Neema Parvini and apparently he is (or was) a senior lecturer in English at the University of Surrey (he lectures about the works of Shakespeare among other things I think). He has written a book called The Populist Delusion which sounds interesting I might take the time to read it:
I think at least one of his parents is Iranian but this fact hasn’t stopped BLM activists from accusing him of being a white supremacist. I don’t know if it’s true but there are some suggestions online that he was fired in 2020:
He has had a couple of articles published at websites that are familiar to forum members I think:
Here’s my article from 2018 (note he doesn’t really look like George Sanders of course):
Interesting, but depressing.
I think Cogito has mentioned “the iron law of the Oligarchy” before. They could be right.
I don’t know if it would solve the entire problem, or even how it could be done, but it seems to me, with so much of politics being about who can put the most money into it, that money should be taken entirely out of the picture. A certain equal amount be allowed for each candidate.
But people would probably find ways around that, too…
I always enjoy reading the comments under articles, and found this interesting one from Don Benson, who also reasons that Democracy is the imperfect best for potential freedom:
The intentional subversion of Western democracies by well known groups and individuals is now obvious beyond dispute. And it hardly needs saying that those things which support and enhance individual intelligence and morality are exactly the things which are under greatest attack by the new authoritarians. It won’t be until a far greater number of people come to understand that we are witnessing a direct attack on the human soul that the necessary and urgent …fightback on behalf of our democratic freedoms can happen.
Douglas Murray has a new book out “The War On The West” where he chronicles the “war.” Haven’t bought it yet, but intend on doing so.
I think that we must beware of all others that trivialize what has been happening in the US in the 21st century. Those that seek to continue as a Constitutional Republic should stand against having our desires so belittled.
He is not wrong about what ails our culture. But his prescription for curing it (if the reviewer reports it accurately) is more dangerous than any of the Covid vaccines. Religion? Has anything in the history of humankind been more destructive of human happiness, health, and survival than religions?
Isn’t Leftism - the most destructive “ravager of culture” in our time - itself a religion?
The “race experts” and the “deconstructing historians” are all Leftists.
I’ve quickly browsed the contents for instances of “Trump” (of which there are many) and surrounding text. It looks like a valuable insight. One of the dismal handicaps that conservatives, Republicans, MAGA supporters have is their attitude towards political power as something of a dirty idea. Parvini’s thesis seems to be that real power is exercised by an elite cadre of players who are not averse to its exercise, and don’t think of it as dirty work. Or, even if they do, would realize that “It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it”. A related issue is the question of morality in politics. It seems to me that the successful players are the ones who accept that those two domains need to be treated as independent, apples and oranges, skew lines not even in the same plane. As in war, if you want to advance the good, there are some unpleasant things that will be needed. Politics is civil war on a (seemingly) less kinetic scale.
But how do you prevent the “elite cadre of players” from becoming authoritarians and deciding that you will live in a box, eat bugs, own nothing and be happy?
Very interesting article, Chauncey!
Yes, we need more debates on so many subjects.
The article on Harris and Murray is interesting also. Funny that Sam Harris, supposedly so intelligent, was so easily swayed by people who he just assumed must have the correct opinion about Murray.
What a dupe!
Probably the same type of gullible acceptance of the anti-Trump propaganda spouted by all the “cool” people is what made him anti-Trump.
I think this paragraph almost gets to the heart of the problem:
Jouvenel’s On Power (1945) contends that, far from being immune to the centralising state, democracies are ‘the broadest highway to tyranny that has ever existed’ (once, I would have bristled).
I would amend that to say universal suffrage is ‘the broadest highway to tyranny that has ever existed’. Universal suffrage has in my opinion allowed the very richest to gain too much power, because the majority of people have neither the time nor the inclination to look beyond the propaganda spewed out by the mass media, which those very richest people have complete control over. In my view some degree of suffrage might be viable but probably only if we consider restricting the vote to taxpayers, as I’ve mentioned here recently.
The problem is that it’s too late to reverse that change, universal suffrage was a mistake that cannot be easily undone. I fear all the trends that we have been talking about, mass immigration, the erosion of our liberties, identity politics etc. are therefore all going to continue exactly until either the richest decide it’s time to stop or other rich people emerge to intervene.
This is not to say that the views of people like us (who think outside the box as it were) are not important and even influential, it is vitally important that we continue to speak our minds on all these subjects as long as we can. I say this because again as I mentioned before, I believe that rich and powerful people who might turn the tide may well emerge in time and transplant the current elite with another - cometh the hour cometh the people and all that. I have seen some evidence that this is the case actually.
There is a disturbing trend among conservatives in Europe generally to look towards a revival of Christianity as some sort of solution to the problems of our current times. Examples of people expressing this kind of view include James Delingpole of late, Peter Hitchens, Lord Pearson and most writers at TCW unfortunately (they often have articles which seem to have been written by clergymen). The comment section often takes on a decidedly religious tone there as well. Lawrence Fox seems to be another one influenced by this trend.
Anyway I don’t of course agree with that but I thought that Parvini was provoking an important debate with his book nonetheless, as I say I may try and find the time to read it. I also thought that it was worth publicizing the work of someone who had been affected by cancel culture, regardless of whether I agree with everything he says or not.
I think he’s just daydreaming there though to be frank, there isn’t going to be any sort of coup in the UK. For one thing the military leadership are very much establishment people whose thinking is (generally speaking, pardon the pun) in the same group-think bubble as the civil service and the media and political mainstream, and such a coup would have to have their support.
Even entertaining this very remote possibility for a moment the outcome of such an event would be extremely unpredictable, as it would be down to that handful of people to decide where we go from here.
Where I do see a glimmer of hope is in the pursuit of legal avenues against the COVID-19 fraud, particularly if we could get the truth about jab harms fully exposed so that the MSM could no longer ignore it, this could sway public opinion greatly against the current elite. A recent article I shared here from the Daily Telegraph I think indicates that such an event is not beyond the bounds of possibility, there are still enough people in the media with a conscience to force the truth into the daylight.
Yes, so the trick is to be able to keep “checks and balances” on those guys, because “absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
That’s what the Constitution was designed to do, but it seems to be overwhelmed by corruption at this point.
Yes, the “disturbing trend” of conservatives to look toward a revival of Christianity is frustrating, but understandable. Of course they are going to see a lack of religion as the root of the problem.
It’s becoming really tiresome to listen to a good commentary on how to counter the Left get derailed as they declare “this is a spiritual battle!”, blah blah blah…
Jillian, that was Don Benson, who commented on the original article. I certainly know what that term means. It is that “thing” that makes us different from the animals.
