The Folly Of Invincible Elites

Consequences are what humble us, what give us pause when we are about to make a rash mistake. Our losses teach us about the limits of humanity, and those who do not learn from the wisdom they impart are usually setting themselves up for an even bigger disaster. The liberal world order that rules the West has been so dominant for so long that our elites cannot imagine a scenario where there are serious and lasting consequences to the decisions they make. Cultural and economic hegemony have allowed Western leaders to impose incoherent policies of global governance while insulating themselves from any costs those policies might exact. This has granted our elites an illusion of inevitable victory which makes it impossible for them to change course, even when the disastrous results of those policies come crashing through the walls of their ivory tower. 

This is why Western nations have been willing to outsource energy production to hostile nations like Russia, and then turn around and fight a proxy war with that provider over a client state like Ukraine. Western powers have been seeking to isolate and antagonize a weakened Russia for decades through economic sanctions and NATO expansion, yet they did not hesitate to make that nation key to their energy supply. Our leaders assumed it was safe to push forward with their own domestic green energy agendas because they would always be able to draw more reliable fossil fuels from foreign sources. The ambitions of nations like Russia could always be contained by the “international community” and so even as Putin made it clear he intended to defy the West and send troops into Ukraine, European and American leaders continued their march towards green energy without hesitation. 

The liberal world order felt confident that its economic superiority would break Putin’s resolve and quickly moved to expand sanctions, boycott Russian energy exports, and isolate the rogue nation from international financial services. Again, Western countries had actively chosen to make themselves dependent on foreign energy, but this did not cause them to hesitate for a moment when it came to playing chicken with a nuclear armed nation in Eastern Europe who was providing a large amount of their fossil fuel. The West was confident that Russia would blink, everyone always blinks eventually under the social and financial pressure. But Russia called the bluff, sold its energy to nations like India who had no interest in joining the international boycott, and the ruble has rebounded in value above its pre-war levels.  

Europe and America, on the other hand, have faced an energy disaster. The average price of gasoline in America skyrocketed to over $4 a gallon, and while that cost has come down somewhat from its record highs, the cost of electricity continues to climb. Energy grid operators in California are urging customers to reduce power use or face rolling brown out. The situation is far more dire in Europe where some customers are seeing energy bills of more than ten times the normal rate. Many businesses that have been open for hundreds of years are saying that they will need to close due to the outrageous increase in operating costs. It does not matter what the average European will lose in this reckless game of Russian roulette, Western elites cannot imagine a scenario where their strategy fails and so all they can do is urge their people to freeze and go bankrupt in the name of democracy. 

Despite these devastating price increases and the faltering reliability of Western power grids, our elites refuse to slow their push towards electric vehicles. They are, in fact, only interested in accelerating the process. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has said repeatedly that higher gas prices have the positive effect of forcing the average American to purchase extremely costly electric vehicles. In a time where California is increasingly unsure that it will be able to deliver basic electrical services to its residents, the state is enacting a policy that will ban the sale of gasoline cars by 2035. The ruling class already set these plans in motion years ago, and have invested both their financial and political capital in their success. These elites cannot imagine a scenario in which they fail, in which they suffer a consequence for their hubris, and so all they know how to do is double down.

This folly of invincibility can also be seen in the current domestic politics of the United States. In a country that was already experiencing radical political polarization, President Biden has chosen to accelerate the rhetorical arms race by referring to his political opponents as semi-fascists. The barely coherent commander-in-chief now regularly mentions in his public appearances how easy it would be to bomb the citizens of his own nation with F-15 fighter jets. Just in case anyone was not getting the hint, Biden reinforced his message by giving a national primetime address this week in front of a blood-red backdrop flanked by uniformed marines where he declared MAGA Republicans a threat to democracy and a danger to the country. Anyone who was not trying to destroy the United States would understand that this escalation of divisive rhetoric is extremely dangerous, but that is exactly what the American Left are banking on. They hope that by repeatedly kicking the dog hard enough they will be able to make it bite, and then use that reaction as justification for expanding their power. 

Our ruling class has an unbroken string of victories reaching beyond their living memory, and they cannot imagine a world in which they are not the undisputed masters of the universe. The political machine our leaders inherited has always worked no matter how hard they have pushed the boundaries, and they believe it always will. Any evidence of failure is only an indication that they are not applying sufficient pressure. Increasingly, moderation or course correction are simply not an option. These leaders see no problem with removing all the off-ramps that could save their nations from political and economic ruin because they can only envision a scenario where they emerge more powerful, more dominant, and more wealthy.