Mainstream, Establishment, Obviously Wrong in a Particular Way. This Never Changes

Last updated on: June 18, 2020 at 9:12 am by John Mark N. Reynolds

Mainstream, Establishment, Obviously Wrong in a Particular Way. This Never Changes 2020-06-18T09:12:27-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

We must trust the experts, except when we cannot, and there is a particular kind of expert that is too often wrong: the expert who distills consensus opinion and makes it normative for all, smoothing out all the cranky dissent in every discipline. If one goes back one hundred years, this kind of expert opinion about what is happening, what is moral, or what we should believe is hopelessly wrong.

I have yet to find an era where these homogenizing experts are not wrong. In my grandparent’s era, Wilsonian hubris and scientific racism were the evil rage. In my parent’s era, traditional Christianity was doomed, because the “experts” missed a revival happening as they wrote and confused Western Europe and the USA with the world.

Orthodox Christianity goes on losing century after century, just to someone new. We are the intellectual anvil that outlasts all the hammers.

At least, we should be.

When we team up with a particular kind of “expert” or develop our own inbred culture of expertise, we can be just as clueless. Doubt this?

Try reading a book from one hundred years ago such as “The Second Phase of the Great War.” This is a heavily illustrated text and fairly detailed for a popular level account. If you think paintings of Russian cavalry charges are anything but sad, this is the book for you. There is a fantastic painting of a Russian priest blessing troops with an icon, only the priest is using a crucifix, Latin style. The War is Great War, because it will end war. Britain is noble and the lads are ok.

They were not all right, as any reading of CS Lewis or JRR Tolkien will tell you. The lads were in the muck, fighting a war without fundamental chivalry, a post-Christian, social Darwinian horror show. The secularism of Western elites with a lazy scientific racism was combined with “Christianity” for the workers. One wonders if that was not to keep us in line. We would fight for King and country (and we should fight for King and country) when in reality we were fighting for decadence and the power of these elites: All for the homeland, nothing for colonialism.

These sentiments, genuine enough to be found from ancient Greece to Aksum to West Virginia are pure, but the powerful, rotten to the moral core, used to manipulate the masses. We will go fight for the Orthodox Tsar while those around him party away the Empire. We will stand for Great Britain while the powerful reckon Darwinism (not science, but secular sociology) will cull our numbers and so leave the fit to breed. We will fly for them as Tuskegee airmen only to have them use us in their wicked experiments.

The expert we should doubt is the man who will not tell us what he really believes, but gives the truth to us in a manner “we” can understand. West Virginians have one hundred and fifty years of being told what we want to hear by people who laugh at us when the doors are closed. Does this happen? I have seen it. I have seen Republican leaders tell a crowd what the crowd wished to be true only to laugh at them when the event was done.

Meanwhile one can read the previous generations Mainstream Expert Opinion written books explaining why this Great War is the last war, chivalric, and fine. All the while, these dunces were opening the door for the Bolsheviks, the Nazis, and an ever expanding vile empire. As for the hobbits, we are used, mocked, and consumed.

The grift continues, because if you grew up “conservative” the “liberal” (or “socialist”) elite opinion will placate you with your awakening. If you grew up liberal or socialist, the so-called conservative or Christian elite will sooth you with how wise you are. The fierce dialectic that challenges all, the justice of Mary’s Magnificat, will go missing. Why?

Any integrity, any reality, will expose the decadent, the overly hasty expert, quickly.

Beware the “expert” who is really just a quick regurgitation of elite opinion. The nuance we miss could have saved us from World War I, colonialism, the Confederacy, and killing Jesus.

Culture

On Books

Previous Post

June 17, 2020

On Commencement

Next Post

June 19, 2020 Juneteenth! Let Freedom Ring!

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Apologetics Art Culture Education On Books On Education Philosophy Politics Pop Culture Spiritual Reflections Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 July 2025 June 2025 September 2024 July 2024 June 2024 December 2023 June 2023 September 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does Paul tell the Thessalonians to do without ceasing?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Pray Rejoice Study the word Give thanks

Books by This Author John Mark Reynolds

See All Titles »