Forecast for the foreseeable future: Overcast

I must be the only Civilian "in the Counter-Jihad" who doesn't irresponsibly flirt with Real-Problemerism (let alone indulge in it with grim enthusiasm). Not only do I abstain from such flirtation; I positively counsel against it. Am I being naive for doing so? Perhaps. Nevertheless, I can't help detecting in its varied strains the telltale odor of conspiracy theory.  The ingredients are all there: the amorphous claims of a Sinister Cabal "really" controlling all significant sectors & institutions of the modern West for nefarious ends; the claims implying amazing, almost supernatural powers wielded by this Cabal; and the implied disdain for (or paranoia against) those who question the organic tissue of more or less implausible inferences that hold this theory together.

So, when recently I commended Baron Bodissey over at Gates of Vienna for his "sunbreak of sense", I thought he actually showed some actual sense & sensibility by articulating the Problem of the Problem in such a way as to avoid the typical locutions of Real-Problemerism.  Apparently, that absence was an artifact of his particular focus in that essay he wrote at the time; for more recently, he has penned two essays going deep into the "Deep State" as though it were an unquestionable reality of uncontroversial, yet (of course) never quite specified contours & contents.

The primary essay by Bodissey had the telling title, "We're Being Played" -- further clarified in the essay, if there were any doubt, in terms such as:that "those who were attempting [at the Charlottesville rally] to create a broad-based conservative coalition... [and who thought] it was a good idea to include neo-Nazis and the Klan... were played like a fiddle by the permanent government, a.k.a. the Deep State."

His essay went into deep detail about the various effects of this Deep State; but he never actually articulated what the Deep State is, institutionally and demographically, as a concrete, coherent entity it must be, to be able to exert such effects.  Apparently, Bodissey, like most who traffic in such rhetoric, assumes his readers already "know", in a kind of vaguely gnostic way, what the Deep State is.

I don't deny there are influential and powerful individuals and organizations (or at least, portions of organizations) out there with grand, utopian designs and agendas. What I object to is the notion that this diverse, "loose affiliation of millionaires and billionaires" (hat tip to Paul Simon) is a single entity controlling the direction and program of the West's major arms of sociopolitical influence.  Part and parcel with this is the tendency among various indulgers in Real-Problemerism to impute outright evil to the agents of this Deep State, rather than the "good intentions" that nevertheless may well conduce to paving the road to Hell.

Four factors act as solvents for the amorphous tissue of this theory:

1) The reasonable likeliood that the agents of this so-called Deep State are not concerted nor omnipotent, but attempt to realize their goals in tension with prevailing (Western) reality that is neither nefarious nor coherently organized for evil ends.

2) That the motives and designs of most of them are not evil, but rather utopian in a starry-eyed way, deformed by the worldview of politically correct multi-culturalism.

3) That this worldview of politically correct multi-culturalism extends out to the general demographics of Ordinary People who are neither members nor directors (if there's a distinction between these two) of this so-called Deep State.

4) That it is this broad, albeit amorphous, consensus (of worldview), developed culturally and organically over the past two to three centuries in Western history, that allows that "loose affiliation" to pursue its various agendas in relative harmony with the will of the People (despite frictions that seem to portend critical fissures but which are more often than not compromised by the deeper -- speaking of "depth" -- psycho-cultural agreement between the "Elites" and the People).

Once these solvents are applied, the tissue of the theory tends to fall apart.  We are still left with the various effects which frustrate, annoy, and increasingly anger many of us Ordinary People; but if we probe more deeply, we may find that we are doing our part, in a kind of cultural biofeedback loop, in keeping these effects coming. 

The apparently prevalent tendency of the Counter-Jihad (and the wider, amorphous demographic of disaffected White Guys in the West) to indulge this Real-Problemerism with seeming abandon, and no solvents in sight, indicates a gloomy extended forecast, if not precipitation expected.