Michael Shellenberger

Well, yeah, I mean, I think that there was this forgetting, there was a hubris that we didn't need these thousands of years of inherited virtues and values anymore. The hedonism manifests, you know, the feeling of power is sort of the ultimate hedonistic thrill. And as you said, it's empty, and it's also completely free of all of the wisdom of these past traditions.

I mean, every wisdom tradition, I think by definition, has in it that lesson of the line between good and evil runs through the hearts of all men, right? You know, be careful when fighting with monsters that you not become one. You see the speck in your neighbor's eye. Beware of the attractions of power. Right.

I mean, every wisdom tradition, I think by definition, has in it that lesson of the line between good and evil runs through the hearts of all men, right? You know, be careful when fighting with monsters that you not become one. You see the speck in your neighbor's eye. Beware of the attractions of power. Right.

I mean, every wisdom tradition, I think by definition, has in it that lesson of the line between good and evil runs through the hearts of all men, right? You know, be careful when fighting with monsters that you not become one. You see the speck in your neighbor's eye. Beware of the attractions of power. Right.

The true wisdom traditions are always emphasizing our mortality, warning of hubris, emphasizing humility and honesty and these really simple basic virtues. And yes, do they change over time? Of course. But yet they also mean the same thing. That all gets forgotten, and so you get this kind of secular post-Cold War establishment. And I mean, you know, just exactly what it sounds like.

The true wisdom traditions are always emphasizing our mortality, warning of hubris, emphasizing humility and honesty and these really simple basic virtues. And yes, do they change over time? Of course. But yet they also mean the same thing. That all gets forgotten, and so you get this kind of secular post-Cold War establishment. And I mean, you know, just exactly what it sounds like.

The true wisdom traditions are always emphasizing our mortality, warning of hubris, emphasizing humility and honesty and these really simple basic virtues. And yes, do they change over time? Of course. But yet they also mean the same thing. That all gets forgotten, and so you get this kind of secular post-Cold War establishment. And I mean, you know, just exactly what it sounds like.

Media, university, foreign policy, intelligence community. Because remember, the intelligence community is full of very intelligent people, and they're the children of light. Just exactly what Reinhold Niebuhr warned against in his famous... lectures from the 1940s that liberals imagine they're children of light. They can do no harm. We're just going to go into these countries and help them.

Media, university, foreign policy, intelligence community. Because remember, the intelligence community is full of very intelligent people, and they're the children of light. Just exactly what Reinhold Niebuhr warned against in his famous... lectures from the 1940s that liberals imagine they're children of light. They can do no harm. We're just going to go into these countries and help them.

Media, university, foreign policy, intelligence community. Because remember, the intelligence community is full of very intelligent people, and they're the children of light. Just exactly what Reinhold Niebuhr warned against in his famous... lectures from the 1940s that liberals imagine they're children of light. They can do no harm. We're just going to go into these countries and help them.

Just going to go in there and help them. Then we're going to help them decide who to get elected. And you got married to some of the darker forces, which was the CIA and starting to try to control who gets elected in Italy and then in Greece. And you go all the way from the 40s on. And, you know, it has a huge moral victory with the fall of communism. You know, the U.S.

Just going to go in there and help them. Then we're going to help them decide who to get elected. And you got married to some of the darker forces, which was the CIA and starting to try to control who gets elected in Italy and then in Greece. And you go all the way from the 40s on. And, you know, it has a huge moral victory with the fall of communism. You know, the U.S.

Just going to go in there and help them. Then we're going to help them decide who to get elected. And you got married to some of the darker forces, which was the CIA and starting to try to control who gets elected in Italy and then in Greece. And you go all the way from the 40s on. And, you know, it has a huge moral victory with the fall of communism. You know, the U.S.

foreign policy has this huge moral victory. We then have 9-11 and a kind of You know, an early sense of moral righteousness, and then it descends into the horrors of Iraq. And then, frankly, we went and overthrew a bunch of governments in the Middle East, surreptitiously, Eastern Europe. And it was a maniacal, I think it was just a power trip, as we would say.

foreign policy has this huge moral victory. We then have 9-11 and a kind of You know, an early sense of moral righteousness, and then it descends into the horrors of Iraq. And then, frankly, we went and overthrew a bunch of governments in the Middle East, surreptitiously, Eastern Europe. And it was a maniacal, I think it was just a power trip, as we would say.

foreign policy has this huge moral victory. We then have 9-11 and a kind of You know, an early sense of moral righteousness, and then it descends into the horrors of Iraq. And then, frankly, we went and overthrew a bunch of governments in the Middle East, surreptitiously, Eastern Europe. And it was a maniacal, I think it was just a power trip, as we would say.

These guys are getting off on their power. And so that when Trump gets elected, I mean, they just couldn't. They just couldn't allow a nationalist and populist to just rule. They just couldn't allow it. They had to invent this elaborate story about how he was Hitler and it was fascism and it was and there was going to be, you know, this was just like, I mean, it was insane.

These guys are getting off on their power. And so that when Trump gets elected, I mean, they just couldn't. They just couldn't allow a nationalist and populist to just rule. They just couldn't allow it. They had to invent this elaborate story about how he was Hitler and it was fascism and it was and there was going to be, you know, this was just like, I mean, it was insane.

These guys are getting off on their power. And so that when Trump gets elected, I mean, they just couldn't. They just couldn't allow a nationalist and populist to just rule. They just couldn't allow it. They had to invent this elaborate story about how he was Hitler and it was fascism and it was and there was going to be, you know, this was just like, I mean, it was insane.

There was like no evidence to support any of it. It was a complete projection of their own totalitarian fantasies on Trump. And, I mean, it's just out of Shakespeare.