La trahison des Clercs

(fm the BC thread "The Monkey Trap")

MC,
UK, France Germany Russia,
followed by Italy and spain !

That worked out so well last time.

Subotai Bahdur,
Well done. To add a condiment to your superb steak would be wrong but perhaps a little Weber for spice would be nice. Complex societies are held together by Organic Solidarity. Elites within the West have fallen into the what Julien Benda in 1927 called "La trahison des Clercs", they no longer believe in the values of the society that sustains them. They are asocialized socialists vulnerable to totalitarian enthusiasms from any direction. Also they do believe that they control sufficient institutions and levers of power that they have no fear of being controlled or compelled to conform during a reversion to Mechanical Solidarity.

In America the break between the elites and the community became obvious during Vietnam. As David Halberstam perhaps unintentionally makes clear in The Best and the Brightest the Ivy League elites, who had lead the North American English speaking community for 300 years, brought us into Vietnam but then decided that Lyndon Baines Johnson was just to uncouth to do business with. The rebellion was lead by Robert Kennedy, who was raised in a nest of vipers and who combined the oily charm of Barack Obama with the thuggishness of Rahm Emanuel. The surprise was that his brother Jack, who was not expected to reach high office, did show some affection for the country and the nation's security.

Mongoose,
It was a joy to watch Pat Moynihan and Jesse Helms work together. They had fun playing off each other and the country was better for it. I would add Scoop Jackson to the dynasty of loyal Democrats.

We need a thread on why Democrats are Cat People and Republicans are Dog People, although I know the virtues of both.

My favorite prayer, Oh Lord, make me the man my dog thinks that I am.

In San Francisco at The Presidio there is a pet cemetery down the road from the National Cemetery, under the expressway.