Coronavirus Has Unmasked a Hostile Ruling Class That Does Not Deserve Our Obedience

"For a ruler’s authority truly to be respected, ultimately he must demonstrate some concern for you, your family’s welfare, and the general flourishing of people like you"

“All of our major institutions—universities, corporations, government, and media—are now ruled by an increasingly insular managerial class that is defined by its credentials and common opinions. …They are mediocre by design, prone to ambition and groupthink, and, lately, naked self-interest.”

The spate of restrictive measures aimed at the coronavirus has revealed a crisis of authority. A lot of Americans are not following the rules, and they do not recognize the right of the rulemakers to command them. Masks and social distancing have become partisan issues, with many on the Right actively resisting restrictions and questioning their underlying wisdom.

Young people, for no particularly ideological reasons, simply want to live and are also ignoring most of these restrictions. While half the people have had enough, the other half are aghast at what they consider a rebellion against common sense and common decency.

The vacuum of respected authority means that we cannot do what other countries have done more easily in the name of public health. We cannot do much of anything these days: have safe streets, build a wall, or preserve our industrial power.

Someday when something more drastic occurs—a war of self-defense, a more virulent public health crisis, or a natural disaster—it’s doubtful that what is necessary can or will be done. Americans no longer trust the government and the ruling class to advance the common good during a crisis.

Roots of Authority

Where does authority—and its corollary, obedience—come from? There’s more than one kind of authority; that of your parents is different from that of your boss, and both of these are different from the authority of a policeman. Societies of course differ in how they are ruled. But all of these figures—kings and dads, governors and constables—depend upon their authority to accomplish the tasks of their jobs.

Whether it is rooted in experience, wisdom, courage, birth, or virtue, all political authority derives from a belief that a leader is fit for the job. Which is most important depends on the culture of the society. But, in every case, authority derives from a belief that those in command deserve the job, are better at it than the common man, and, therefore, have the right to rule.

Authority rises and falls based on perceived responsibility and empathy. For a ruler’s authority truly to be respected, ultimately he must demonstrate some concern for you, your family’s welfare, and the general flourishing of people like you. Someone who is superior and hostile may be feared and even respected—in the same sense one respects a capable adversary—but he would not have authority.

Societies will endure curfews and rationing during a crisis. Soldiers will suffer great privation and near-certain death out of a sense of duty to their mission. But no one willingly suffers for things they consider meaningless. A stupid, unnecessary risk is an affront, a squandering of trust. If the rulers do not appear concerned for your welfare, do not share your burdens, and are willing to sacrifice the general welfare to advance their personal interests, they put their authority in jeopardy.

Finally, there must be some justice. Rewards and honors should flow regularly, predictably, and to the right sorts, just as punishments and dishonor should be dispensed to wrongdoers. If the rules and the application of them is wholly arbitrary, the only lesson for the little people is “don’t get caught” and “there’s no way to get ahead.”

This is what Sam Francis had in mind with his concept of anarcho-tyranny. In such a regime, the full weight of the government is simultaneously applied against one group, while completely loosened from another. One type of person is given a heavy sentence for vandalism, while a violent thug is freed to commit more mischief.

If one group consistently is favored at another’s expense, the out-group may deem it “necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another.”

America’s Hostile Ruling Class

While democratic government pays homage to the people as rulers, that’s always been something of a fiction in practice. Along these lines, conservatives used to be fond of saying America is not really a democracy, but a republic. But over the last 100 years, it has moved far beyond even that. All of our major institutions—universities, corporations, government, and media—are now ruled by an increasingly insular managerial class that is defined by its credentials and common opinions.

Urban, degreed, conformist, and operating within a closed system, they lack the independence of a true aristocracy, the courage and practicality of warriors, or the noble birth and sense of stewardship that used to be expected of kings. They are mediocre by design, prone to ambition and groupthink, and, lately, naked self-interest.

The ones doing the voting and the buying are not the same as those doing the ruling and the selling, and everyone knows it. Whether it is geographywealth, or tastes, the people in charge and those being ruled have little in common.

The coronavirus crisis is just the last in a series of events that have undermined the authority of the ruling class. After 9/11 and Iraq, the American people endured and accepted a great deal of inconvenience to make us safer. But when weapons of mass destruction didn’t materialize in Iraq, and we heard the umpteenth defense of mass immigration from places filled with people who want to kill us seconds after they actually did so, the gap between the official line and reality was impossible to conceal. Clearly, another logic was at work.

Similarly, after the 2009 economic crisis, in spite of all the talk of belt-tightening and the need to reform a risky financial system, we instead saw tons of money poured into connected enterprises, while homeowners and small businessmen were devastated. The Obamacare system further crushed those outside the managerial system, particularly small businesses, sole proprietors, and young people starting their lives.

Just as things started to seem better, the coronavirus hit. We were told the entire country needed to shut down so we could “flatten the curve.” Stay home and save lives. People accepted this, more or less. Like increased airport security after 9/11, it had a certain logic to it. The virus looked serious, and the experts were making increasingly dire predictions.

But the pain was spread unevenly. Millions, mostly in the private sector, lost their jobs and couldn’t pay their bills. Those who still had jobs lived like people under house arrest. We were all in this together . . . but we were not.

We were soon reminded of the privileges of the ruling class. The left-wing mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, decided she needed a haircut, even when she forbade others to get them. “I felt like I needed to have a haircut,” she said, barely defending her actions.

CNN’s Chris Cuomo gave a star performance as an ailing victim of the coronavirus, constantly criticizing Republicans and the president for their more laissez-faire attitudes. But, in his spare time, he was gallivanting off to the Hamptons. When confronted by an overzealous local, Cuomo protested, “I can do what I want!” Indeed, he can; he’s not one of the little people.

On a larger scale, the media and political class’s apologies for rioters shouting messages favored by the progressive elite, while lambasting beachgoers and shutdown protests, was simply too much to bear. Reflexive exceptions for themselves and their friends are the marks of a ruling class buttressed by callow disregard for ordinary people and deception.

The Coronavirus Crisis Breaks the System

The ruling class purports to base its authority on science, but science doesn’t mean much without some basic honesty. First masks were bad, then they were good. Were we not supposed to notice? They said we had “15 days to flatten the curve.” It did not do much good, so instead of revisiting the assumptions behind this inhumane policy, some cities have been shut down for months.

A handful of red states, including Florida and Texas, decided to reopen. People went out to the beach, got haircuts, got a drink, and saw their friends. Jobs came back. In spite of predictions, deaths kept dropping throughout June and July. Old deaths had to be unearthed to keep the narrative going.

Now that the parade of horribles is not materializing, new goalposts are being erected—such as the number of cases. New outlandish predictions, much like those we endured only a month ago, are being repeated constantly. When is it over?

The people in charge are barely affected by what they have imposed. While millions are unemployed, very few government workers are experiencing pay cuts or layoffs as a result of the coronavirus. Internet multinationals have thrived, while brick and mortar businesses have foundered. There are winners and losers in this crisis, and they align closely with those already favored or disfavored by the ruling class.

There are times when a society must do something drastic, costly, and painful in order to avoid greater costs and greater pains. Wartime restrictions are the most prominent example, but extreme measures to preserve law and order and public health are close seconds.

None of this can happen, however, without genuine authority, and we can’t have that without some trust. Recent events have squandered whatever trust was left in the people for the ruling class. It’s worse than the boy who cried wolf. It’s the boy who cried wolf in order to enrich and empower himself and got caught.

While there have always been disagreements about what exactly constitutes the common good, it is now a question of whether there is even such a thing as a common good. We live in the same nation and are similarly situated to the rest of the world. We stand together when facing the faceless brutality of nature, including its deadly diseases. But we are not similarly situated to the legal regime, our economic vulnerability, or our values and priorities. Thus, the ruling class does not command the respect or obedience of nearly half the country.

To the extent the government commands any obedience and respect, they will find it chiefly among the managerial class and its clients, who are concentrated in the blue states and the blue cities. This includes the very rich, the very poor, and government workers.

On the other side are the productive members of the private sector, for whom these various rules and restrictions range from annoying to devastating. In other words, the ruling elite and its clients are engaged in a pincer movement against the property-owning middle class with meddlesome bureaucrats harrying them on one side and wild mobs coming for them on the other. The middle class is becoming self-conscious of the fact that it is now an oppressed group. This is not a tenable situation.

There are solutions to this. A more robust federalism might solve the problem, as we could each live according to our own lights in our respective corners of the country. But the progressive ideology does not allow for deviation or diversity, ironically enough.

The Declaration of Independence is a storied document of America’s founding and a powerful testament to the values of a young America. But it also is a story of things being so intolerable, that the old authority is lost, and separation is the best course for mutually hostile neighbors. The coronavirus and its mask mandates have unmasked a hostile ruling class that does not deserve our obedience.

Source: American Greatness

14 Comments
  1. cechas vodobenikov says

    the amerikan worship of money long ago destroyed the authority of the father—only in amerika is the father vestigial–the amerikan mind and conscience is feminine—amerikan males passive, feminized—observed by many….covid isn’t required to comprehend this. anti-authoritarian children throw tantrums

  2. disqus_3BrONUAJno says

    Considering the ubiquity of masks, they already have our tacit obedience.

  3. restless94110 says

    With 4 proven, cheap, plentiful, generic cures for COVID, there is absolutely no reason to quarantine or to wear masks. People are starting to see through the veil.

    1. disqus_3BrONUAJno says

      There are way more than 4.
      http://www.orthomolecular dot org/resources/omns/v16n37.shtml

  4. Lucky says

    Generally interesting article but subvertly legitimizes the covid pandemic. For that reason it can be interpreted as controlled opposition. Every journalist actually interested in calling out the ruling class, or better, holding them to account, simply can’t acquiesce to the pandemic notion without scientific proof that the virus sars-cov2 even exists. At this point there is plenty of evidence the whole pandemic, top to bottom, is theatre. Of which the journalist of this article appears broadly knowledgeable enough to grasp. So why legitimize it? The same article could have easily been written without doing so.

    https://off-guardian.org/2020/06/09/scientists-have-utterly-failed-to-prove-that-the-coronavirus-fulfills-kochs-postulates/

    https://fort-russ.com/2020/06/covid19-pcr-tests-are-scientifically-meaningless/

  5. Mark says

    The WHO claimed that masks were of no use in preventing viral infections – which is actually accurate, according to science – but their reasoning was so ordinary people would not buy them all up, leaving none for PPE for the ‘frontline workers’, as labeling describes those who are allowed to continue working. The WHO did not give a fuck for your life then – what makes you think they care about it now? Cloth masks are worse than useless, because they do not offer any protection at all against airborne viral infections, while conveying a feeling of invincibility to the wearer. But now the Powers That Be have decided masks are absolutely essential – cloth masks are fine, and they are on the very cusp of making them mandatory wear so that you cannot get service in a public setting, such as a grocery store, unless you are wearing a stupid cloth mask that makes everyone look like parade of the sock monkeys. Canada has had its first death attributable to the order to wear masks in Ontario, in which a 73-year-old man was shot to death by police after an altercation in a grocery store where he was refused service because he was not wearing a mask.

    https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/controversy-over-wearing-masks-during-covid-19-pandemic-has-escalated-into-rage-and-now-death/ar-BB16PVhn

    There are extenuating circumstances, as usually is the case, and the man had guns at his home where police pursued him and an argument perhaps can be made that he was mentally unstable. However, there is no current reason to believe that if he had simply been served without starting a big fight, he would have not simply gone on his way as he must have done for many years.

    According to Dr. Lisa Brosseau, an American national expert on respiratory illness and infectious diseases, the only breathing apparatus which will reliably protect you from an airborne viral infection is a full or half-face respirator with dual filtration, and it must be properly fit-tested. Surgical masks of the N-95 type have not been demonstrated to protect against airborne viral infection, and the only useful function of a cloth or paper mask might be to keep the wearer from spraying infected snot as they sneeze and cough. Those showing such obvious symptoms should not be out in public, but completely isolated. The authors of the article were, unsurprisingly, asked to remove it from circulation. It would never do to make information available that no science at all backs the wearing of cloth or paper masks to limit the spread of coronavirus.

    https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/04/commentary-masks-all-covid-19-not-based-sound-data

    Newspaper headlines continue to mislead the public with rubbish like ‘Evidence is mounting that masks work”. Evidence is not mounting at all – opinion is mounting, and articles that start off that way include disclaimers in the body of the article such as ‘there’s this theory’, or ‘although unsupported by scientific evidence’ which is nothing more than a warning to do as you are told although no good reason can be provided for doing so. Jason Kenney, Premier of Alberta, actually has the nerve to threaten his voters with another economic shutdown if they won’t wear masks, when the original economic shutdown was never necessary and is still ongoing in some places.

    “My pitch to those folks, if they’re upset about mask usage, the alternative will inevitably be more widespread suspensions of economic activity if we get a second outbreak.”

    https://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/canadians-are-reluctantly-wearing-masks-as-support-for-mandatory-masking-climbs-1.24172794

    1. disqus_3BrONUAJno says

      Regardless of masks, if everyone were getting enough vitamin D3 to raise their blood levels to at least 30ng/ml, there would be no credibility to any viral epidemic.

    2. disqus_3BrONUAJno says

      Infections are not airborne unless you can fly.

      1. Mark says

        ‘Traveling and propagating through the air’, then, if you prefer.

        1. disqus_3BrONUAJno says

          Not without a vector.

          1. Mark says

            I’m afraid you’re losing me. Are you saying that coronavirus is not transmitted through the air by tiny viral particles which float upon the air and are then inhaled by other people?

            1. disqus_3BrONUAJno says

              Tiny viral particles are not viable, not capable of infecting a cell. The minimum viable viral presentation is the spherical package with the spines intact. It is usually carried in a glob of liquid when it is airborne, and 6 feet is a fraction of how far it can be thrown by a sneeze or a cough. The single best way for that package to get into your body is through your eyes. The mucus in your sinuses contain immune cells that will absorb them, if your immune system is what it can be. PCR couldn’t detect them if they weren’t broken into viral “particles.” When it can, they lack the ability to infect a cell. Many investigators have identified 30ng/ml as the minimum level of vitamin D3 in the blood that will support an immune function that will prevent a virus from triggering a cytokine storm.

  6. Brion Adair says

    It’s obvious what our “rulers” in blue states in particular can’t achieve their objective by coercion they attempt through terrorism such as in the case of the recent so called “protests”.

  7. John Joseph Sinclair says

    The same Tribe that has controlled America since 1913 with the establishment of the private Jewish central bank: The Federal Reserve. The Goyim (Jew speak for cattle) will have to wear the Jewish gag face diaper for as long as the Jews dictate. The Goyim will obey.

Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Anti-Empire