Academic Agent vs Keith Woods and the Misunderstanding of Elite Theory
I’ve been considering getting started here on Substack for some time, but I wondered if I had anything relevant to add to the conversation. After reading Keith Woods’ rebuttal of Academic Agent
and then Academic Agent’s counter-rebuttal
I felt like I just should start right now. This is an argument that has gone back some time between these two “stars” of the Alt-right or whatever we are calling non-mainstream right-leaning dissidents these days. When Academic Agent put out his video explaining Elite Theory a year or so ago, I found that it made sense and explained something that had always bothered me about politics and political outcomes: Elite theory explains why political decisions and policies that a majority of the general public do not want, nor agree with, end up being enacted and pursued vigorously as policy. The cliff notes version: the Elites use their power and influence to push whatever policy they want and justify this to the public afterward. This actually mirrors what studies have found about how people in general make decisions. In general, most people make a decision based on gut feelings or emotion, and only later justify the said decision with logic and reason.
What Academic Agent has done with his video and further essays is simply explain a process. The disconnect between his work and Keith Woods’ essays and videos is that they are talking about two entirely different things. While Academic Agent is describing a process, Keith Woods is describing motivations and ideologies that people in the process might or might not have. This is a problem, because the process of Elite Theory is totally independent from ideology, and in fact, if one were to put it to the test would find that this process works with virtually any ideology. One could compared it to human ethics. In this case, Academic Agent is like some anthropologist describing the process of how human ethics develops in societies and Keith Woods is arguing whether a particular moral code is good or bad. In other words, they are not discussing the same thing.
Going back to Elite Theory, it should be clarified that Academic Agent did not invent it, he is simply explaining how it works and making the argument that it best describes what we have seen happening in the political and social order since modernity began. To be up front, I agree with his take on the matter. Elite Theory does not care what the ideologies or motives of the elites are, but it clearly shows that for power to be taken and exercised one either needs to be among the Elites or promoted by the Elites (hence moving up into the status of elite in the process of being promoted). Power flows from the top, not towards the top.
This can easily be demonstrated through two quick logical reflections. One is to find an example of power being taken away from the existing political order by a grassroots or popular movement that has not been started, directed, or financed by an opposing group of elites. I’ll wait while you look, but since I like spoiling the ending I might as well tell you that you won’t find one. There is no case of a political movement making any significant changes to the social or political order that was not financed, promoted or created by anyone who was not already an elite. And before you bring up something silly, such as the American Revolution, think about it for a moment. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, etc., were all financial and political elites here in the colonies before the revolution began, who were motivated by the twin grievances of not being allowed to have more political power and suffering high taxes on top of that former indignity, as they saw it. The American Revolution was never a popular movement—that is, until the local elites pushed the popular masses into it.
The second item to reflect upon is a study that Alternative Hypothesis discussed in a recent video entitled “They Don’t Care What You think”. https://www.bitchute.com/video/jeroq1tZ2v6W/
The video is a summary of studies which show that Elites and special interests (which are simply other groups of elites) do what they want despite what the wishes of the middle class or population might be on any given subject. As an example, consider the problem, both in Europe and the U.S., of illegal immigration. Even most liberals—barring the small fanatical minority who favor open borders—want some sort of border control and policy to restrict immigration to Western countries. Adding in the strong majority of conservatives who want the same thing, it should be a slam dunk to get a coherent, strong and ethical border control policy in place and enforced. Yet, for decades this has been only wishful thinking for the population at large and a matter or hand-wringing and pointing fingers by politicians. Why is it that a policy that clearly would have overwhelming popular support, and indeed is something the population wants, apparently never going to materialize? Because the Elites do not want it. It is as simple as that. I will not get into the reasons why Elites of liberal and conservative ideologies want to open our borders, it is enough to recognize that this is a bi-partisan issue that the majority of the public wants yet will seemingly never get.
The bottom line is that policy and action on both the political and social level starts with the Elites and flows down from them into the popular politics and culture, not the other way around. What the people want does not influence the Elites to action, except in the rare cases when it seems the public is getting to excited in the direction that the Elites do not want, necessitating that they take some action to put the plebs back in their place (see Covid Vaccines, election irregularities, etc.). In those cases the action might be to doxx certain people or censor certain points of view (unofficially in the U.S. through surrogates, such as the ADL or social media platforms, officially in the E.U. and Britain through hate speech laws). Rarely is it necessary to use full state power to quash dissent, unless the Elites feel it is necessary to send an unmistakable message (Jan. 6 “insurrectionists”). Elite Theory works equally for both left and right, liberal and conservative, Theocracy or Socialism. It simply recognizes that power always resides with Elites, regardless of ideology, and when power is changed it is simply being transferred from one set of Elites to another. It never comes from the grassroots.