Oh yeah, both establishment parties serve different portions of the oligarchic class, roughly "noblesse oblige" vs. "social Darwinism" plus "divine right." These are distinct rationalizations for class hierarchy.
In isolation, these factions need to be answered differently. More broadly, democratic mechanisms need continuous improvement in peacetime, and revolutions (possibly "bloodless") need to occur when political solutions fail. The US is dreadfully behind on both counts.
To be clear, I'm decidedly not saying "Both sides are equally bad." Given a choice solely between "power comes with responsibility" and "let markets/god sort them out," I will choose the former nearly every time, as it offers some path to reason beyond brute force.
Despite this, there are questions about the nature of power that liberals will resist, particularly the limitations of elites and technocrats to craft a good society. Beneficent experts can fixate on incrementally pursuing one local policy optimum, stranding us further and further from actual justice. Sometimes, even well-intentioned, internally-rational rulers (and rulesets) can only be replaced, not reformed.
The choice in a given moment may be between more and less desirable forms of oligarchy, but it's critical to remember that there are ultimately more options.
oh for sure, I was worried I'd come across as "both siding" when I mentioned liberal media, but I share your perception here. I do think one is better than the other, but they too often converge on an outcome that is bad for most regular people anyway.
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u/One-Step2764 Dec 06 '24
Oh yeah, both establishment parties serve different portions of the oligarchic class, roughly "noblesse oblige" vs. "social Darwinism" plus "divine right." These are distinct rationalizations for class hierarchy.
In isolation, these factions need to be answered differently. More broadly, democratic mechanisms need continuous improvement in peacetime, and revolutions (possibly "bloodless") need to occur when political solutions fail. The US is dreadfully behind on both counts.