Perspectives: Harvard, Empire, Revolution In America

This is real big picture stuff—so big that I don’t really feel able to offer an opinion. Except this. Pay attention to the concept of “elite cycling”. We tend to think of revolutions as being agenda driven—fueled by ideals, right or wrong. Thus we see malign forces at work in the current Trump regime, we see the corruption of Trump’s “allies” in Congress, etc., and we wonder how this could be a revolutionary regime—or, at least, the one we were hoping for. But maybe we’re misunderstanding revolutions in general.

So we start with Harvard. Arnaud Bertrand and others are calling the war on Harvard insane. There’s real irony in this. This war on Harvard—symbol of elite privilege—was initiated by Jewish Nationalists decrying “anti-Semitism”, defined as criticism of the Zionist Entity, not of Jews. The irony is in privileged and ueber-wealthy Jewish Nationalists attacking Jewish dominated prestige credentialing institutions that have empowered Jews in America. Insane? But much of the rest of the country is more or less OK with any and all attacks on such institutions—attacks which can tend to take on a life of their own. Most Americans don’t see these credentialing institutions as embodying what these Americans see as the “real America”. Are they right, or are they themselves part of a revolution against the trajectory of American history toward a anti-human globalist empire—against the capture of America by a neo-liberal elite with little affinity for the republican ideals of our constitutional order? Who have hijacked America for their own agenda?

Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand

Unbelievable, they banned Harvard's ability to enroll international students.

It's batshit insane, there's no other way to put it.

"We have the best university in the world that's been standing for 400 years, let's kill it"

Secretary Kristi Noem @Sec_Noem

This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus.

I’m having major problems with X-Twitter this morning so I’ll summarize what Arnaud is arguing. He maintains that Harvard’s foreign student program has been a mainstay of US global hegemony—training foreign students in American neo-liberal ideology and sending them back to become the ruling elites of their countries of origin. Or remaining in America to serve as the ideological bridge of the Anglo-Zionist empire to the rest of the world. One way or another, these foreign students become part of an Anglo-Zionist global elite that reflexively sees the world and reality itself through neo-liberal colored glasses. Tearing down this structure, argues Arnaud, is actually a big win for the rest of the world in terms of liberation from Anglo-Zionist hegemony. So, he argues, from an Anglo-Zionist perspective this attack on Harvard is “batshit insane” because it’s self defeating in the big picture of maintaining global hegemony. Which brings us full circle to the irony of Jewish Nationalist elites supporting this—but these are people who always have difficulty distinguishing the short term from the long term.

Anyway, Philip Pilkington has a distinctly different perspective. He argues that, properly understood, this is a true revolutionary moment. PP argues that those who find themselves in an incipient revolutionary moment rarely recognize that moment as revolutionary. That also applies to those who instigate these revolutionary moments—the results of their actions often, even usually, lead to consequences well beyond what they intended. Think of Trump in those terms. PP argues—or simply asserts—that the Trumpistas understand all this. I’m not so sure, but in the end it doesn’t actually matter—except for the inevitable historical arguments. All of which, in the big scheme of things, offers hope for those wishing for a New American Revolution. In what follows I reproduce the text, but if you follow that link PP has a graphics and quotes for each of the 15 separate tweets:

1/ The @Harvard foreign student ban is the clearest indication that America is in the midst of a serious revolution right now - easily comparable to the end of USSR. But our preconceptions - political and intellectual - prevent us from seeing this reality.

2/ Let’s start with @Harvard. It is the keystone on the entire US elite class. The American system is a “credential aristocracy”. Harvard is the top of the credentialising pyramid. Without Harvard the rest of the system - populated with Harvard grads - starts to fail.

3/ This system encompasses the Global Liberal Empire the US sustains. Harvard graduates - or those trained at the feet of Harvard graduates - are the American liberal vassals that are placed in positions of power globally.

4/ The Trump administration’s increasingly aggressive attacks on Harvard are undermining the credibility of the system. It is not dissimilar to when a King - say, Henry VIII - starts to attack the Church.

5/ Does the Trump administration understand this? 100%. The administration is full of young radicals most of whom have been through the Harvard or Harvard-adjacent credentialising process. @JDVance is the most visible of these but there are many more.

6/ It is quite typical for revolutionaries who overthrow political systems to be produced by the system. Robespierre, for example, went through the Ancien Regime’s credentialising system with support from King Louis XVI’s state.

7/ Revolutions are almost never started from “outside” the system because those outside do not know how to attack it. That is why real revolutions are always an insider game.

8/ So why can’t most people see that the situation in America is revolutionary? Firstly, because politically we have come to associate revolutions with the political left.

9/ But this is misleading. Revolutions are simply a rapid cycling of elites, where an incumbent elite - usually one that is dysfunctional - is eliminated and replaced with a new elite. They have happened throughout human history, long before the left-right divide emerged.

10/ The second reason we cannot recognise the nascent revolution is because we think revolutions must have a new vision of society - communism or Jacobinism or whatever - but again the reality is just one of elite cycling.

11/ But it is imperative that people recognise what is happening in America as a revolution because revolutions are forces of nature. They are not driven by intellect but by instinct.

This addresses, briefly, the phenomenon of Trump’s continued good standing in polls of the American people, despite objective missteps. For Americans in general it’s a matter of not sweating the small stuff. Of course, Trump may be—in PP’s perspective, despite his argument to the contrary—riding the tiger of revolution to come.

12/ Judging political outcomes of revolutions in terms of success, failure or even morality is pointless. Revolutions destroy. Their aim is to focus energy to destroy the institutions that were too rigid to integrate desire for change and which thereby provoked the revolution.

13/ Watching, say, @LHSummers talk about the attacks on Harvard in terms of “outcomes” is like watching a man screaming at the tide to stop washing up on the beach.

Summers argues, as does Arnaud, that these attacks are “bad for America.” PP, of course, has his own outcome preferences. He believes that the fundamentals at work militate toward the rise of a “Postliberal Order”. Me, I’m cautious and am reminded of the be-careful-what-you-wish-for adage. Best to prepare.

14/ Likewise when the revolutionary forces inevitably lead to chaotic outcomes, anyone saying “I told you so” is just being a bore. The revolution happened because the socio-political forces necessitated it. The elite had a chance to address the causes. They failed. End of story.

15/ It is too late for the revolutionary moment in America to be contained - probably a decade or so too late. Smart people will accept the revolutionary forces for what they are. Dinosaurs will dig in and get steamrolled.

Think it over.