5 Comments
User's avatar
Belte's avatar

This is a brilliant portrayal of Ellul’s insights and explains to me why the amorphous blob of organizations seem never to be held accountable personally. Without a definite head if the problem, the people cannot rally against it and focus their true grievances. I think this is in part why the Bud Light ad campaign with Dylan was so catastrophic for the company. They gave a definite figure (who has an uncanny valley appearance) for the masses to throw all of their pent up frustration about the militant trans movement coming for their culture and their children. This is also why drag queens at story hours at libraries make parents so incensed. There is a definite figure who is pushing for these campaigns to introduce trans to their kids. It’s very different than a parent walking into a library, seeing all the trans books in the kids section and not knowing clearly who put them there, which librarian or faceless bureaucrat in a state or local office made those books appear. Thank you for your great writings!

Expand full comment
silentsod's avatar

I think we all have a similar sense of being incensed and having no one and nothing to strike out at when it comes to much of modernity: "The gelatinous body of bureaucracy could only respond that it needed to follow the process lest the process not be followed. This takes time to ensure that every step of the process is followed as written and codified, and that all inputs are properly accounted for as, if they are not, the process must begin anew to make sure that the process is followed properly."

It's a good insight that AB gave a sharp target both in terms of product but also in terms of actual people with two of them being fired and the pressure still on them.

Expand full comment
κρῠπτός's avatar

Yes. That is it exactly. This is one the challenges we face in opposing the regime. What do you oppose, exactly? Who can you punish?

Expand full comment
silentsod's avatar

The tension between revolt and revolution is interesting as is the idea that the revolution is, largely, pre-planned and waiting. I don't see unity amongst the eRight, but I do have notes jotted down somewhere that for America the appeal needs to be uniquely American in ethos. Unfortunately much of the terminology to do so has been co-opted by gross misrepresentations and that presents a puzzle. How do you disentangle freedom from libertinism which is how it's largely understood today - for instance.

Expand full comment
κρῠπτός's avatar

As we go deeper into the book, we will see that a new “revolution” is really an untenable position. The best alternative is to build something new and parallel and wait for the whole thing to implode. I think you will enjoy part 2.

Expand full comment