The pain of knowing

This excerpt about the last days of USAID, courtesy of DOGE, is, of course, infuriating. Elon Musk has a body count, as do many of his lackeys whose names will probably not be passed down through the ages (excepting perhaps “Big Balls”). What sticks out most to me is not the particulars of this situation as much as the general dynamic, which is playing out in institutions everywhere: government, corporate, and educational. We’ve come to a place where knowing what the fuck you’re talking about is considered an impediment to gettin’ shit done.

Everyone who’s ever had a new boss kick down the door, particularly if they’re backed by new ownership, has seen this in action. You’re all dumbasses. The grown-ups are in charge now.

Somehow the new regime’s ideas are never very different from the old regime’s, although they frequently have a new name. The core idea is that you, the person with expertise and judgment, are blocking true progress. A new way of thinking — which may, perhaps, be not thinking at all — is needed. It’s time for action.

Umberto Eco wrote in his essay on Ur-Fascism: “Irrationalism also depends on the cult of action for action’s sake. Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.” In the parlance of our times: doing something is per se better than doing nothing, and thinking about it first is gay. Get moving!

The worst part about this is when you do know what the fuck you’re talking about and it counts for nothing. The confident guys who are full of bluster would sound the same no matter what they were talking about. To pick a random example, say there were a very rich and successful guy who talked a big game about electric cars and rockets, and you assumed he must indeed be an expert in these topics because of both his confidence and his material success, and then one day you heard him talking about his Elden Ring loadout with the same braggadocio and you realized that he had less than no idea what he was doing. That hurts.

I don’t have a way to wrap this up but we’ll call it a success because I did it.