It's incredible that anyone still places absolute faith in the American political elite or assumes government "experts" are competent and impartial.
Some people desperately need to believe they're ruled by the best and brightest, despite all evidence to the contrary.
Some people desperately need to believe they're ruled by the best and brightest, despite all evidence to the contrary.
The quality of our political class and bureaucracy declined in tandem with the decline of faith in everything *but* the State. So much of our hunger for meaning, our deep need to *believe*, was redirected to the government, which grew steadily more arrogant and corrupt.
Now we have generations of people who simply cannot handle the idea that the Church of the State and its clergy - politicians, high officials, state-friendly media - are corrupt, incompetent, and unworthy of their trust. They're literally terrified to accept that obvious truth.
Not even years of clumsy fumbling, corruption, and pure idiocy with the coronavirus can shake the faith of the State's congregation. They HAVE to keep believing, because losing faith would be terrifying, and they've been taught nothing OUTSIDE the State is trustworthy.
Most importantly, they were taught nothing outside the State is SELFLESS. Everyone else is a liar, a cheat, a predator. Only politicians and government functionaries are truly selfless, impartial, compassionate, and pure. Only they truly CARE about YOU.
You can see this demonstrated in the limitless allowances people grant to their favored politicians and government agencies for having good intentions, no matter how hideous their failures are. They really TRIED. Their noble efforts were probably thwarted by saboteurs.
This boundless belief in the good intentions of statist politicians and agents of the Leviathan State is simply faith reflecting faith in an ideological mirror. "We believe in you, so you must care about us." Together we'll find paradise one of these days.
It is incredibly difficult for a sizable portion of the American population to accept that their favorite politicians are every bit as greedy, selfish, and blockheaded as the worst Evil Corporate Honchos. The even harder truth is that the politicians are worse.
They're worse because power, privilege, and unlimited government spending insulate political fatcats from the forces that tend to improve private-sector entities. Political elites live in a world where failure is REWARDED, not punished. Their enterprises can never go bankrupt.
How can anyone get past that obvious truth and keep believing statist political elites are men and women of surpassing virtue and towering intellect - no matter how many times they get caught lying, cheating, stealing, and utterly failing at every scheme they force on us?
Well, you've got to have faith. Total, unwavering faith that winning elections will somehow sanctify and elevate politicians into saints. You can't let that faith slip the tiniest bit, no matter what, or reality will come crashing down like an avalanche to smash your worldview.
That's why statists are so obsessed with credentials and awards - they're instruments of faith, shorthand ways of signaling THIS person, THIS agency, THIS publication deserves your faith. It's a way of making their faith seem scientific and quantifiable instead of irrational.
What is faith, if not the boundless belief in possibility? Never mind the string of trillion-dollar failures lying behind our ruling class - just look at all the top schools the latest generation of rulers graduated from! Look at their awards! Surely THIS crew can work wonders!
There has to be someone who can fix everything. There have to be scientific means of perfecting society - we just have to give the scientists enough power. There must be impartial authorities writing intelligent rules. Someone must be able to deliver "justice." Someone must CARE.
And there must be demons - unbelievers, heretics, deplorables, the unworthy. The Church of the State's congregation wants to believe it is superior, so there must be inferiors out there for them to sneer at. They will not listen to criticism from demons and heretics.
Their faith will not shake, no matter how badly and often Big Government delivers failure, stupidity, and corruption, because losing faith would mean admitting those deplorable inferior heretics were right. Hatred will sustain faith in the State when hope is hard to come by. /end
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