{"id":13231,"date":"2021-04-27T12:00:29","date_gmt":"2021-04-27T19:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=13231"},"modified":"2021-04-25T12:12:03","modified_gmt":"2021-04-25T19:12:03","slug":"eeyores-cabinet-where-does-it-all-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/eeyores-cabinet-where-does-it-all-end\/","title":{"rendered":"Eeyore’s Cabinet: Where Does it All End?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Private Papers<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eeyore could continue, but what we are witnessing is unapologetic nihilism. We are engaged in a suicidal impulse to delight in primaeval tribalism, to destroy the entire concept of merit\u2014and to erect in its place a Sovietized system largely overseen by middle-aged,\u00a0\u00a0privileged white people and minority elites, who as bureaucrats, lawyers, politicians, media functionaries, and academics dream up these apartheid systems, apply them to less well-off others, and then traverse around the very consequences of their own ideologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not cynical, but I do expect that homeless camps will not pop up next to Silicon Valley prep schools (as they do near Seattle public schools), that the walls of Montecito and Malibu were better erected than the pre-Trump rickety border fence, and that the pilots of John Kerry\u2019s or Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s private jets were and will be selected only on the basis of meritorious records of flying, period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where does it lead? A vast Lord of the Flies nation, worshiping a Boar\u2019s Head, with victory going to the strongest tribe? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortified hamlets and pockets similar to the world of Augustine in the 4th<\/sup> Century AD, outside Hippo Regius? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our major downtowns now the weedy streets and rubble-filled agoras of the abandoned heartland city-states of Roman-era Greece, as described by Pausanias and Plutarch? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The medieval keep and the peasantry hugging its outside walls?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A return to 1970s and early 1980s, popularized by Dirty Harry<\/em>, Death Wish<\/em>, and Escape From New York<\/em>? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or the Time Machine\u2019s<\/em> Morlocks and Eloi?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or just our same old, same old juxtaposition of the pre- and post-modern slow decline, in which the rule of law has been replaced by the rule of the tribe. But then again as the great economist Adam Smith warned us, there is a lot of \u2018ruin\u2019 in a successful state to bank on, as we consume the inherited gifts from the hard work, investment, and sacrifice of our betters now long dead\u2014and maligned for their generous inheritance to us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Private Papers Eeyore could continue, but what we are witnessing is unapologetic nihilism. We are engaged in a suicidal impulse to delight in primaeval tribalism, to destroy the entire concept of merit\u2014and to erect in its place a Sovietized system largely overseen by middle-aged,\u00a0\u00a0privileged white people and minority elites, who as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-3rp","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11731,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ivy-league-schools-wither\/","url_meta":{"origin":13231,"position":0},"title":"Ivy-League Schools Wither","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 19, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review A\u00a0\u00a0number of liberal bastions are daily being hammered \u2014 especially the elite university and Silicon Valley. 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Why not use the thousands of currently half-empty residence halls\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Liberals"","block_context":{"text":"Liberals","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/liberals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2816,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-obama-administration-and-the-monopoly-on-education\/","url_meta":{"origin":13231,"position":2},"title":"The Obama Administration and the Monopoly on Education","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton First Principles Part two of a symposium on the educational impact of Obama and the New Progressivism. Read\u00a0part one\u00a0on the economic prospects and\u00a0part three\u00a0on culture. What changes might we expect in higher education from an Obama presidency? The answer is easy: none. What we will get\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3548,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/back-to-school-blues\/","url_meta":{"origin":13231,"position":3},"title":"Back to School Blues","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Last week I went shopping in our small rural hometown, where my family has attended the same public schools since 1896. Without exception, all six generations of us \u2014 whether farmers, housewives, day laborers, business people, writers, lawyers or educators \u2014 were given\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "August 2007"","block_context":{"text":"August 2007","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2007\/august-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1015,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/2011-politically-incorrect-resolutions\/","url_meta":{"origin":13231,"position":4},"title":"2011 Politically-Incorrect Resolutions","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media The Pride of Solvency I think the American people are not only scared of collective state and national debt, but sick of it as well. I mean by that abhorrence in the psychological sense \u2014 of reading that their governments are broke, of seeing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "December 2010"","block_context":{"text":"December 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/december-2012\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3186,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-humanities-move-off-campus\/","url_meta":{"origin":13231,"position":5},"title":"The Humanities Move Off Campus","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson City Journal Autumn 2008 Until recently, classical education served as the foundation of the wider liberal arts curriculum, which in turn defined the mission of the traditional university. 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