Some people talk about the Cathedral, other people the Brahmins. In doing this, they mean the people who, in a post modern society, set the agenda for what is considered righteous and good: what they often call progressive. More importantly they say what is unwanted, unliked, and to be hated.

Tom Kratman calls them  the Tranzis, a transnational cosmopolitan progressive elite. Their belief is secular, socialist, and against all things traditional.

I prefer to use the soviet term: nomenklatura.

In recent years, the Brahmin elites of the world have begun to display quite a puritanical streak in any number of arenas. While the original scarlet letter was the letter A, meant to signify adultery, today’s Progressive puritans have added to that list exponentially. There’s R for racist, H for homophobe, T for transphobic, and so on. For the purposes of this post, we’ll focus on S for sexist, and M for misogyny. I’m sure if we worked hard enough, we could use the entire alphabet for any number of thought crimes that our moral superiors disapprove of…

Enough of TheDen. Compare that description with the Kratman.

This is perhaps the only real difference between a current day Marxist and a current day Transnational Progressive, or Tranzi. The Marxist expects a different result from doing everything important the same, as if there is any freedom that doesn’t include economic freedom, as if there is any path to socialism that will not be paved with bodies, as if socialism has ever managed to create anything beyond corpses, poverty and oppression — oh, and lots of pieces of third-rate military equipment and a new entrenched upper class backed by a ruthless secret police and outrageous propaganda, too, of course.

The Tranzi, on the other hand, expects to maintain and expand modern, enlightened, prosperous, liberal society while opening up the borders that shelter that society to unlimited numbers of the least assimilable and most reactionary, most traditional and hidebound, least economically productive cultures on the face of the Earth. This wouldn’t be so bad, or so insane, did they not at the same time insist that nothing be done to even try to assimilate the immigrants from those cultures to modern, enlightened, liberal values. (Do you suppose there were pro-Vandal, pro-Hun and pro-Goth immigration public interest groups in ancient Rome? Societies usually rot from the inside out so it does seem likely.)

The Tranzi also insists on enlightening the rest of the world, but rejects any and every means that might actually work.

So why nomenklatura? Because it is accurate.

• The nomenklatura had cultural authority. All music, all art, all publications had to appeal to their taste. Everything was censored. All had to contribute to a sense of, if not education, propaganda in the production of the correct patriotic and soviet spirit.
• The nomenklatura ran a publick religion. The ceremonies of the state — from May Day to Winter Solstice — had to follow their rules and liturgy. They see themselves as benign priests, nudging us into certain acts for our own good. But true belief is to mistrusted. The only clergy they like are those who do not believe in the power of religion, keeping the form only, and who talk vaguely about spirituality and tolerance.
• The nomenklatura’s children inherit their status.  Being raised as an activist and the child of activists was seen as a good thing, and allows access to elite schools and elite courses — be they Moscow University, the Ecole, or modern greats at Oxford. Unlike an aristocracy, the nomenklatura consider that they have earned their places, pay great credence to credentials and correct process, and lack the humility to accept that it was mere luck that led them to have privilege.
• The nomenklatura consider all other groups beneath them.  In the Soviet union, others were called Narod — peasants. Theden talks about vaisya — the farmers. There is a suspicion and underlying contempt of those who work in the factories, grow food, and in particular those who service such types — professionals from teachers to physicians (who make up the most hated class — the bourgeoisie). The masses need to be educated, be it by priests, political officers (zampolits) or Social Justice Warriors.

Although the socialist model has been tried and found wanting (let us give the Bolsheviks some credit. They were serious about trying to make a socialist state, at whatever the cost), the idea that we can by a sheer act of will make ourselves better, newer, brighter, and gain control over nature remains.

But it is an error. Lysenko tried to extend the growing season by exhortation and regulation: it did not change.

We are not infinitely adaptable. We are humans: we have limits and this is good.

So beware of the yeast of the nomenklatura. Do not be them, and do not be like them