Burnham, Orwell and Obama, Part Two...

Force. Fraud, and Managerial Big Brother

When last we discussed these topics, we had laid the basic framework beneath both Burnham's Managerial Revolution, and Orwell's 1984. This time, we're going to demonstrate how Managerialism, coupled with the government monopoly of force, and the political system's penchant for fraud, brought us to President Titanic...err...Obama.

Burnham began with a basic premise: that the nature of all societies has been Hierarchical, consisting of a High, a Middle, and a Low; that these three groups have competing aims, and that politics can never be conducted honestly, nor without varying degrees of violence and coercion.

The Presidency of Narcissism and Managerialism...

Professor Hanson on the narcissism and the "presidential survival" instinct of our recent crop of so-called "leaders". 

I think, though, what the Professor has missed -- and he's not alone in this regard -- is that we aren't being led astray so much by defective personalities, as we are being deliberately hijacked by a professional class of Managers; the sort identified by James Burnham in his 1940's books The Managerial Revolution, and The Machiavellians.


If this is true, then it is not so surprising that the Professor can dissect the administrations of both Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, and not only find startling similarities, but also a hollowness of character, and shallowness of personality.

Somewhere, James Burnham is Laughing His Dead Ass Off...

Cronyism 101 in the Age of Obama.

Actually, it's more like Managerial Socialism, but that's sorta-kinda redundant.

(H/T PowerlineBlog)

UPDATE: Already have received a couple of e-mails asking for clarifications, such as "Who is James Burnham?", and "What does he have to do with Obama?". Okay, here's some background:

James Burnham and the Managerial Revolution

Here's what George Orwell had to say about Burnham.

Read, and expand your horizons.