Victor Davis Hanson // American Greatness
How often during the last year of woke, have middle- and lower-class Americans listened to multimillionaires of all races and genders lecture them on their various pathologies and oppressions?
Million-dollar-a year university presidents virtue signal on the cheap their own sort of “unearned white privilege.”
Multimillionaire Meghan Markle and the Obamas, from their plush estates, indict Americans for their biases.
A question to Professor Hanson: if, as appears more likely with each passing day, the left suffers a landslide defeat in 2022, and indeed even if the right wins across-the-board in 2024, do you expect a reversal in the social trends you so-aptly describe? Will the right push leftward, or will the left push at least a bit more in the direction of the center? This reader’s suspicion is that the left, through its stranglehold on the contemporary levers of power (especially, tech), will find ways to co-opt the high-end of the right – and that we are in the midst of a permanent drift toward deep social schisms, with a permanent underclass of people without the means for achieving mobility. I believe the social mobility that was America’s defining marker has been permanently lost, that the vast majority of those who are genetically-equipped to excel have already become members of the higher class. America is not Lake Wobegon, where everyone is above average. Can we handle this?
Pessimism is usually rewarded with confirmation. I.e., if you think you can, or you think you can’t-you’re probably right;) Have a little faith…it couldn’t hurt?
Outstanding commentary. The late Roger Scruton referred to himself as a “reluctant capitalist.” I would say the same of myself now.