George Soros laments his crushing defeat on multiple fronts

This is nice to see. Soros licking his wounds. Looking for a reason for the disintegration of the world he so sought to see. A world in which the EU countered the evil United States. A world in which the bureaucrats and financiers ruled over the rest of society forever marginalizing the “deplorables” whether in Texas, the South of France, or The MIdlands. A world of “Davos Man.” Of “enlightened” philosopher kings. A world where the serfs knew their place and the “smart” charted the way in government and business.

Now at 86 Soros has lived to see this dream crushed.

It has always struck me as interesting that Soros lauds “open societies” when he appears very much opposed to open societies in many ways. His version of “openness” always struck me as similar to how some universities talk about “diversity.”

Like the universities which are only open to their version of “diversity” not actual diversity, Soros is interested in his version of “open society” not actual open societies. In actual open societies the average person is treated with respect, not contempt. His or her views are considered valid on the world stage and worthy of a hearing. (At the very least.) In Soros’s European Union the average person was systematically marginalized. Brussels ruled and rules from an insulated bubble populated by a nomenklatura. The same can be said of Washington DC. Laws are handed down. The public coffers pillaged. The Brahmans enriched by the pitiful and backward “deplorables.” Because, well, the bubble people are “smart” and know how to work the system. (Or perhaps more accurately lack the moral compass to do the right thing.)

This is Soros’s “open society.” A classic bit of newspeak if there ever was an example. We are happy to see Mr. Soros politically and intellectually prostrate. He, frankly, deserves it.

(From Project Syndicate)

I was an avid supporter of the European Union from its inception. I regarded it as the embodiment of the idea of an open society: an association of democratic states willing to sacrifice part of their sovereignty for the common good. It started out at as a bold experiment in what Popper called “piecemeal social engineering.” The leaders set an attainable objective and a fixed timeline and mobilized the political will needed to meet it, knowing full well that each step would necessitate a further step forward. That is how the European Coal and Steel Community developed into the EU.

But then something went woefully wrong. After the Crash of 2008, a voluntary association of equals was transformed into a relationship between creditors and debtors, where the debtors had difficulties in meeting their obligations and the creditors set the conditions the debtors had to obey. That relationship has been neither voluntary nor equal.

Thing is, Soros is obviously smart enough to understand that this is what would happen. Yet he pursued the EU dream anyway.

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