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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 8, 2024

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The current battle lines of elite and counter elite in the west are once again drawn on a precise difference between two modes of dealing with modernity. And that difference is quite exactly the one we are talking about here, between an individual desire of transcendence, escape and a collective desire of management, control.

...To no end. This is whence the conflict comes.

Then I have no idea what you are trying to say. Which side of the struggle corresponds to (A) individual desire of transcendence, escape, and which corresponds to (B) collective desire of management, control ?

It's all of course more complicated and blurry than this one simple cut but broadly:

A is the Paypal Mafia, accelerationists at large, the dissident right, class reductionist Marxists, private capitalists and generally people at the top and bottom of company org charts.

B is the professional managerial class, neoliberals, the DEI complex, state administrations, NGOs, various social clubs the likes of Davos, public fund managers and generally people in the middle of company org charts.