It's true. The Meritocracy isn't coming back, but not for the reasons you think. It has nothing to do DEI, but rather with scale and complexity and the necessary transformations to make both happen.
I find that you raise valid risk assessment concerns in regard to the mission of DOGE.
Vivek Ramaswamy appears enthusiastic when I've heard him talk about scaling down the bureaucracy. He puts me in mind of the Javier Milei video where he says "Afuera! Afuera! Afuera!"
As for Elon Musk, you had only to draw our attention to the 80% job terminations at Twitter to ask what of the knock-on effects if this same measure is applied at scale.
There are preparations in the works for a sweetheart deal for many in the administrative state. I heard about it last night while watching America This Week.
At one point Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn talked about plans in the works to concoct a new kind of legal category - a sort of pre-immunity but sheltered under the name "pardon". There are generous offers from unnamed patrons for high paying positions after leaving the public sector (the high pay is all Trump's fault because these workers have to anticipate the need for funding large legal expenses). Walter Kirn suggested that they were essentially being paid off by people on the side of l'acien regime in whose interest it is that these bureaucrats go away quietly.
While this doesn't address your larger concern of cascade effects, I thought you would be interested to know that DOGE will face no resistance in some corners.
I wonder if retreat from empire, the third option, is what is on offer in the incoming Trump administration. It goes along with "America First" and with President Trump's basic rejection of supranational organizations.
It would have been a bit of a hard sell, I suppose, to have campaigned on end of empire explicitly. Alhough, I do believe many, if not most Americans, would be happy to see exactly that. There is a strong appetite for laying aside the role of policing the world and healing our own country. Personally, I'd be thrilled with walking away from NATO completely as a start.
Granted, this would introduce an element of instability globally, as various nations jockyed for regional position. However, it is clearly American empire itself that is currently the source of great dangers to peace and stability in the world.
Obviously, a strong national defense would be necessary as a deterrent against opportunism at a time of perceived weakness. Also, there are very powerful vested interests who will push back hard.
There is so much to consider in the dilemmas you present here. As a high level starting point, though, do you think a retreat from empire is soon in the offing?
It’s already happening. We will see. There is still a fair bit of excess in the system. Things can change. And there are ups and downs. But a long 100 year decline is probably the best case scenario.
I agree that a long slow decline is optimal. Unfortunately, even players at the highest level do not necessarily get to choose whether or not a slip comes where things spiral out of control.
There was a 500+ page publication by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released December 2, 2024.
It is a good step of them to show the rottenness that was discovered during a testing time to the system.
Look what they say about the NIH:
NIH's procedures for funding and overseeing potentially dangerous research are deficient, unreliable and pose a serious threat to both public health and national security.
I find that you raise valid risk assessment concerns in regard to the mission of DOGE.
Vivek Ramaswamy appears enthusiastic when I've heard him talk about scaling down the bureaucracy. He puts me in mind of the Javier Milei video where he says "Afuera! Afuera! Afuera!"
As for Elon Musk, you had only to draw our attention to the 80% job terminations at Twitter to ask what of the knock-on effects if this same measure is applied at scale.
There are preparations in the works for a sweetheart deal for many in the administrative state. I heard about it last night while watching America This Week.
At one point Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn talked about plans in the works to concoct a new kind of legal category - a sort of pre-immunity but sheltered under the name "pardon". There are generous offers from unnamed patrons for high paying positions after leaving the public sector (the high pay is all Trump's fault because these workers have to anticipate the need for funding large legal expenses). Walter Kirn suggested that they were essentially being paid off by people on the side of l'acien regime in whose interest it is that these bureaucrats go away quietly.
While this doesn't address your larger concern of cascade effects, I thought you would be interested to know that DOGE will face no resistance in some corners.
These kinds of reports do not surprise me at all.
I wonder if retreat from empire, the third option, is what is on offer in the incoming Trump administration. It goes along with "America First" and with President Trump's basic rejection of supranational organizations.
It would have been a bit of a hard sell, I suppose, to have campaigned on end of empire explicitly. Alhough, I do believe many, if not most Americans, would be happy to see exactly that. There is a strong appetite for laying aside the role of policing the world and healing our own country. Personally, I'd be thrilled with walking away from NATO completely as a start.
Granted, this would introduce an element of instability globally, as various nations jockyed for regional position. However, it is clearly American empire itself that is currently the source of great dangers to peace and stability in the world.
Obviously, a strong national defense would be necessary as a deterrent against opportunism at a time of perceived weakness. Also, there are very powerful vested interests who will push back hard.
There is so much to consider in the dilemmas you present here. As a high level starting point, though, do you think a retreat from empire is soon in the offing?
It’s already happening. We will see. There is still a fair bit of excess in the system. Things can change. And there are ups and downs. But a long 100 year decline is probably the best case scenario.
I agree that a long slow decline is optimal. Unfortunately, even players at the highest level do not necessarily get to choose whether or not a slip comes where things spiral out of control.
I know. That is the unnerving thing. Covid exposed how fragile things really are these days.
That's true. Covid revealed such frailty.
There was a 500+ page publication by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released December 2, 2024.
It is a good step of them to show the rottenness that was discovered during a testing time to the system.
Look what they say about the NIH:
NIH's procedures for funding and overseeing potentially dangerous research are deficient, unreliable and pose a serious threat to both public health and national security.