Comment on the Belmont Club "The second derivative"

Some effects of the collapse of the old Liberal order will be real disasters, people dead as trade implodes and totalitarians rage unchecked and migrating peoples desperate to escape bring diseases and grievances with them. Some effects may turn out positive. We will not return to the 19th century and forget everything that has been invented since. Resources can be redirected to productive work, Gender Studies and Community advocacy departments will go away and Engineering and History will be revived.

We will never be rid of the tendency of society to divide itself into those who work, those who fight and those who pray. The difference is that the mechanisms that kept those who pray concerned with the welfare of those who work will need to be revived. The role of those who rule has shifted from being entrusted to those who fight to those who pray. The later are now found in the Universities or other institutions but they serve the same role as Medieval clergy. There is always a struggle between the two subgroups as to who controls the levers of power. The record seems to be that the fighters stay more loyal to the workers but each needs the other two to keep them all honest.

What tools are available to socialize the clergy that have been stripped away over the last century? Perhaps a period of military service, a period of productive labor and adjustments to inheritance laws may help. Other practical ideas may come to mind.