The 21st Century is a New Dark Age
An open letter to the intellectual community.
Dear Intellectuals,
I mean, what would a modern intellectual Dark Age look like? If you had to imagine it, you might imagine institutions of higher learning being reduced into cultural disrepute, charlatans substituting for thought-leadership, selling validation of prejudices in exchange for a buck. It might look like the democratic populaces thinking so lowly of the intellectual class that they install reality TV show stars into the highest offices of public trust.
People think the cultural forces that led us here, will simply go away once Donald Trump is gone? Are you mad? My dear fellow friends of intellectual arts, hear me now: you are living from inside a new Dark Age.
You are holding on to a false pretense, that the possibility remains open that a wary public, bruised in their error of embracing charlatanism, that we’re just a moment away from Mitt Romney throwing his hat into the race for 2028, and zap, we’re in Reaganism 2.0.
It’s very cute that you think this. But what about all of these features of the political economy, the cultural conditions, and the current state of the epistemic environment are you ignoring that allows you to believe, O, intelligentsia-in-exile, that indeed, makes you believe that “Trust the Experts” will return as the new “Hope and Change” in this disenchanted Dark Age? Why do you persist in thinking this.
Your persistence in this act of self-delusion blinds you to the necessity of action. The necessity that you must not act to persuade. You must show moral leadership. You must recognize that you are in an epistemic battle to reclaim the commons.
I know, you don’t take me that seriously, because I am outside the Academy. But it is precisely that where it is, I find myself, to its exterior, that I can share this perspective with you.
This is not merely an intellectual emergency. It is a moral emergency. Because the intellectual tradition—ancient, perserverent across history—has been our guiding light towards enlightenment and moral progress. Even within religious traditions, the intellectual tradition has provided tension towards reform. Surely the religious among us can concede that.
So I say to you now: now is the time to fight. Now is the time to recognize that you are in an argument. And it be one you must win. The stakes are too high.
— Mike
Oh, I believe you. The problem is how do we fight such ignorance when our education systems have been gutted? It will be a long road back.
Disilllusionment is not an excuse for not recreating a culture rooted in Nature and emotional self-mastery, a culture of "enough" and high intelligence rather than materialism. Wealth and power are great distractions, but not life. We have done and can do better than this. It starts by finding a grounding and divesting your hubris.