Have you caught this? Melissa Fleming, U.N. under-secretary-general for global communications, at a recent World Economic Forum (WEF) panel on disinformation declared, “. . . we own the science and we think that the world should know it.” Who’s the “we”? They are the claque sitting atop our cultural commanding heights with their narrow-minded and nearly uniform biases. This is a group who claim the privilege to announce the “science” not because the science says so but because they do (watch Fleming below). On the law, it’s the same approach by the same isolated and mentally constrained practitioners in our law schools – forget about popular sovereignty, federalism, diversity of opinion by state, separation of powers, and even the rule of law. It’s their way or the highway. It’s the rule of arrogance by the same aggrandizing and increasingly undeserving few, not the rule of law or real science.
In that sense, it’s nihilism because this privileged and tiny cluster reject overarching and universal standards which could restrain their actions leaving their biases as the only guidance. Thus, the whole mental state devolves into a naked exercise of power. Reason, logic, morality, constitutional restraints, and the scientific method must bend to their will. It’s the will to power. Ummm, where have we heard that before? (Hint: See Leni Riefenstahl’s “Triumph of the Will” on the 1934 National Socialist rally at Nuremburg.)
Fleming goes on to extoll the collaboration of the U.N. with Google to suppress dissenting voices on climate-change orthodoxy as if the only views allowed are those in accord with their prejudice to force conformity to their lifestyle choices. She goes on, “We partnered with Google. For example, if you Google ‘climate change,’ you will, at the top of your search, you will get all kinds of U.N. resources.” She was driven by surprise at the fact that there might be others who disagreed with her: “[We, U.N. officials, were] shocked to see that when we Googled ‘climate change,’ we were getting incredibly distorted information right at the top.” Distorted information? Cut to the chase: Disagreeing with her and the Google boardroom and lunchroom is the equivalent of a thoughtcrime.
Bear in mind, I don’t think that there are too many climate scientists filling the ranks of Google or the UN’s communications department. Fleming herself is a graduate of Oberlin College in German Studies and an MA in broadcast journalism, and a penchant for hobnobbing with transnational organizations. For sure, she can rely on a gaggle of scientists corrupted by grants and government subsidies. Meet the nest of Big Global Governance, Big Tech, Big NGO’s, Big Academia, and DC. Remove the pretense and what you have is an end to scientific inquiry if it contradicts the approved dogmas. Just label the insights of those with contrary views “distorted information”, then strip the nonconformists of their positions, tenure, and ability to publish and get notice. Somewhere in a Google search you might find divergent outlooks from the little hivemind, but they’ll be relegated to page 10 and beyond.
Refuseniks in Stalin’s gulags would recount how Stalin “had the power to say what reality is”. Their refusal to accept his omnipotence explains how they ended up as zeks (gulag inmates). Right now, our cultural nomenklatura is content with vocational excommunication and muzzling opposition; though, don’t expect the current cultural junta to remain so “mild” in their punishments for straying from the party line.
The sight of refuseniks to the UN/Google’s grand vision produces the same conniptions in the law school professoriate when confronting originalists on the bench. Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern in his piece “The Supreme Court Is Blowing Up Law School, Too: Inside the growing furor among professors who have had enough” (Oct. 2, 2022) describes a typical reaction:
“When the [Dobbs] decision came down, [UC–Berkeley School of Law professor Khiara Bridges] got a migraine for the first time in a decade. The image of the court as a majestic guardian of liberty was, she concluded, ‘a complete lie.’” Stern continues, “Now [Khiara Bridges] had to teach her students about the work of an institution that made her sick to contemplate. . ..”
These people can’t handle disagreement . . . or maybe it will be tolerated only if the dissenters are ostracized and powerless. Like their ideological cousins in the Big Tech/UN cartel, debate and disagreement is beyond their cognition. They’ve had a jolly good time for the past 70 years with the courts granting carte blanche to the regulation-happy wing of their movement, shunting orthodox Christianity out of public view, limiting legislation to the social preferences of libertine jurists, inventing rights, making eunuchs of state governments and centralizing power in DC, etc. It was their glory days, but jurisprudence didn’t begin or end with Earl Warren and Roe v. Wade. The past 70 years is a blip in history.
These boosters of the rule by judicial oligopoly were ecstatic when the black robes sided with them. They thought it was the end of history. But two recent decisions in particular incensed them: Citizens United (2010) and Dobbs (2022). The first stopped their power grab to curb political speech and the second resuscitated the states’ police powers which are guaranteed in the Constitution’s 10th Amendment. No more can the Constitution be used to silence their political opponents (Citizens United) or prevent a state from responding to the will of its electorate to restrict the wanton destruction of the generations-to-be (Dobbs). Now, the shoe is on the other foot and they’re having a nervous breakdown.
This statist priesthood exerts its control and influence from inner-city, academic, and bicoastal blue redoubts. If you live under their sway, woe will befall you. And it is only getting worse. Heralding more troubled times ahead, doubling down on stupid, the governors of California, Oregon, Washington, and the premiere of Canada’s British Columbia inked an agreement to further impoverish their residents. They promise to impose more greenie energy with its blackouts and escalating rates; more discomfort in herding their populations into impractical EV’s; and more public spending to accelerate the dystopia. Arrogance reaches toxic levels when it is combined with idiocy.
RogerG
Read more here:
* “The Supreme Court Is Blowing Up Law School, Too: Inside the growing furor among professors who have had enough.”, Mark Joseph Stern, Slate, Oct. 2, 2022, at https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/10/supreme-court-scotus-decisions-law-school-professors.html .
* A rebuttal to Stern: “The Emotional Meltdown in American Law Schools”, Dan McClaughlin, National Review Online, Oct. 4, 2022, at https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/10/the-emotional-meltdown-in-american-law-schools/ .
* Search Wikipedia for “Melissa Fleming” for her background.
* “West Coast leaders sign bold new climate agreement in San Francisco”, Edie Frederick, MSN/KCBS Radio San Francisco, Oct. 6, 2022, at https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/west-coast-leaders-sign-bold-new-climate-agreement-in-san-francisco/ar-AA12G1J4 .