It’s Time for the Elites to Rise Up Against the Ignorant Masses

Foreign Policy ^ | James Traub

[AC Beach Patrol]

The Brexit has laid bare the political schism of our time. It’s not about the left vs. the right; it’s about the sane vs. the mindlessly angry.

[jjotto]

Foreign Policy (foreignpolicy.com) is the Washington Post, which says everything needed.

[captmar-vell]

Their so blindly arrogant they don’t even realize how they sound, we’ve recently heard a number of similar such statements from the so called ‘elite’

Having voters act in a way contrary to their evil globalist schemes seems to be a new experience for this latest generation of them,

[COBOL2Java]

The schism we see opening before us is not just about policies, but about reality. The Brexit forces won because cynical leaders were prepared to cater to voters’ paranoia, lying to them about the dangers of immigration and the costs of membership in the EU. Some of those leaders have already begun to admit that they were lying. Donald Trump has, of course, set a new standard for disingenuousness and catering to voters’ fears, whether over immigration or foreign trade or anything else he can think of. The Republican Party, already rife with science-deniers and economic reality-deniers, has thrown itself into the embrace of a man who fabricates realities that ignorant people like to inhabit.

Did I say “ignorant”? Yes, I did. It is necessary to say that people are deluded and that the task of leadership is to un-delude them. Is that “elitist”? Maybe it is; maybe we have become so inclined to celebrate the authenticity of all personal conviction that it is now elitist to believe in reason, expertise, and the lessons of history. If so, the party of accepting reality must be prepared to take on the party of denying reality, and its enablers among those who know better. If that is the coming realignment, we should embrace it.

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"people are deluded and that the task of leadership is to un-delude them"

How 1984 of him...

[fella]

It’s more like a slave revolt.

[Flag_This]

So many lampposts could use some decoration.

[Paulie]

“One of them is under investigation by the FBI for exposing classified data to the world. She is sick physically and mentally. She is married to a (child) rapist and has been covering up for him for years. She has no accomplishments to speak of.”
____________________________________________________

Unfortunately that makes no difference to half the electorate. And don’t forget Hillary has the illegal vote, the cemetery vote, the multiple vote, and the vote counters are also in her corner.

[cgbg]

The elites have traditionally used the Intelligence services to bury the masses with disinformation.

The immigration nightmare (Europe and US) is a classic case—every major media outlet is telling you this is good for you—and every citizen with an IQ above room temperature knows it is not.

As a general rule it is harder to successfully use disinformation when the victim (that is us) has hard evidence that the disinformation is false.

[AC Beach Patrol]

“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American people believe is false.” CIA director William Casey (CIA director, 1981-1987)

http://mobile.wnd.com/2015/06/how-much-media-fraud-will-america-tolerate/

[Ken H]

I'll read the piece, but how, pray tell, does the author propose to give force to this uprising of the elites? The usual, propaganda? Or something more meaty?

I think the old school playground taunt applies here - 'Them and what army?' :)

[NTHockey]

One basic error condemns both the writer and his writings to the same utter disregard that he has for people - ignorance. That error is assuming that globalization is the be all, end all of all societies. The wonders are too great for the unwashed masses to comprehend.

[COBOL2Java]

The elites have traditionally used the Intelligence services to bury the masses with disinformation.

The immigration nightmare (Europe and US) is a classic case—every major media outlet is telling you this is good for you—and every citizen with an IQ above room temperature knows it is not.

As a general rule it is harder to successfully use disinformation when the victim (that is us) has hard evidence that the disinformation is false.

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I had an extreme left-leaning (I'd say Communist) co-worker once, who told me that the internet was an awful societal development, because it gave the masses the opportunity to find out information for themselves rather than having to rely on the centralized media. He told me it was imperative that the government wrest control of the web.

[bert]

-——If Donald Trump loses, and loses badly——

There will be war, a civil war to root out and eliminate those that want to continue the destruction of America

It will be 1792 in America

[COBOL2Java]

And there will be those who will profit handsomely from this chaos

[bert]

Soros will die soon, he’s old.

[COBOL2Java]

He has children just like him

[Former Proud Canadian]

And that's why the businessman/showman/newly minted politician/energetic septuagenarian will pound her negatives. There hasn't been a more unqualified candidate for potus since BHO.

Donald Trump is a freaking genius. Do not underestimate him. This guy had a highly rated television reality show. He knows how to communicate with the masses. The last time the republicans had a candidate with these communication skills was 1980. BTW, that candidate had also been in show business. He won.

[FreedomPoster]

Thomas Sowell well-covered this type of thinking 20 years ago in

The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy
https://www.amazon.com/Vision-Anointed-Self-Congratulation-Social-Policy/dp/046508995X

Sowell presents a devastating critique of the mind-set behind the failed social policies of the past thirty years. Sowell sees what has happened during that time not as a series of isolated mistakes but as a logical consequence of a tainted vision whose defects have led to crises in education, crime, and family dynamics, and to other social pathologies. In this book, he describes how elites—the anointed—have replaced facts and rational thinking with rhetorical assertions, thereby altering the course of our social policy.

Highly recommended, as spot-on today as it was then.

[COBOL2Java]

An excellent book

[rawcatslyentist]

give force to this uprising of the elites?

Simply start another war and let us thin our own numbers.

[AC Beach Patrol]

Funny, liberal elites previously had such devotion to democracy. Like when they were all giddy about the increasingly diverse (i.e., Democrat-voting) electorate. But when the indigenous white people go against the wishes of the elites, well, something is wrong and must be rectified.