Sunday Smiles

David Strom 2:30 PM | February 11, 2024
Meme

The core of the modern American establishment is composed of knowledge workers. Even in big business, the people with power are upper management (and HR), and except for relatively new entrepreneurial enterprises, the credentialed class has almost all the power. 

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Credentials are manufactured in academia, and academia's graduates acquire power and ensure that credentialism expands. It is very much in the interest of the credentialed class to bolster the power of credentials to create a hierarchy where the most and best-credentialed rise to the top. 

One of the results of this culture is an obsession with the power of ideas and stories. In this, the intellectuals are not entirely wrong. Ideas, stories, and knowledge shape how we think and make sense of the world. Telling stories about how things are or should be is a powerful tool for reinforcing a power structure. 

But because our Elite exists in a world where manipulating information is their key skill set, they have developed an excess faith in the malleability of truth and the credulousness of the average person who doesn't spend all their time in the Elite's world. 

People who do things get far more feedback about actual reality than people in the Elite, who live in a world where their thoughts really do shape their reality. 

If you are a member of the credentialed class, being wrong rarely matters. Journalists don't pay a price for being wrong. Neither do bureaucrats. Celebrities, influencers, actors...everybody in the world of cultural "work" never pays a price for much except annoying or contradicting their peers. Woe to those who do contradict the Narrative, but if you comply with the consensus you are just fine. 

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For instance, The Washington Post and the New York Times shared a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of Russiagate, and almost everything they wrote was a hoax. But it was the right hoax spread mainly to and believed by people who wanted to hear that story, so they were rewarded. 

Occasionally, though, the Establishment and Cultural Elite need the acquiescence of ordinary people whose world is bounded by reality and come in for a rude shock. 

Such is the case with Biden's presidency, particularly Biden's failure as a president and his cognitive decline. 

As I read the coverage of Special Prosecutor Hur's report on Biden's classified documents scandal, I was struck by how many in the media keep talking about how Biden has to change the narrative. Hur "exonerated" Biden by declining to prosecute him, but he did so by stating a truth: Biden is too old, infirm, and mentally mushy ever to be convicted. He is incompetent to stand trial. 

That story is a danger to the Elite's power, so it has to be changed. 

While not every media outlet has denied these obvious facts, the consensus is that Biden has to "change the narrative."

They actually believe the problem is "The Narrative" because, for them, actual truth doesn't exist. It is a creation of the stories they tell, so they need to do a better job selling the story that Biden is smart, vital, successful, and everything is perfect in every way. 

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Unfortunately for them, those of us who live in a world where reality still exists, we can see with our own eyes that this story is bulls**t. Because of this, every repetition of The Narrative undermines the cultural power of the Elite because, for once, we are not at their mercy in getting the news. 

We can see it with our own eyes, as people eventually did with COVID. When reality deviates enough from the Narrative, the Narrative actually crumbles. 

Everybody knows Biden's not up to the job. That should mean that he is toast in the next election, right?

Unfortunately, the Establishment still has its hands on the levers of power, and it will take a herculean effort to wrest it out of their hands. People no longer buy what they are selling, but it will take a long while for ordinary people to take the power away from those who currently have it. 

Getting rid of Joe Biden would be a good start, but only a start. The swamp dominates every level of government, and as we saw in 2020, the Establishment has a lot of tools at its disposal when it is willing to abuse its power. 

Still, the power of The Narrative has diminished dramatically, and that is a very very good thing. 
















































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