There’s a wonderful scene in The Fellowship of the Ring where Frodo tells Gandalf that he wishes the Ring had never come to him. Gandalf replies, “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” After reading Auron MacIntyre’s recent release, The Total State, I found myself feeling a bit like Frodo.
MacIntyre, who is a BlazeTV host and entertaining tweeter, makes an extended case that our liberal democracies — which we are constantly told are the freest societies in human history — are in fact forms of soft totalitarianism, a “total state.” Like so many, Covid was MacIntyre’s “red pill” moment. He watched as constitutional protections were swept aside under the pretext of “public safety.” This “state of emergency” lasted three years, notwithstanding mounting evidence that Covid was not nearly as dangerous as it initially seemed. After all the lies and excesses, there were no apologies, fines, or charges. Just a desperate attempt by elites to memory-hole it all.
A Different Political Lineage
The Total State makes some familiar, almost indisputable arguments. Our administrative state has become bloated, unaccountable, and self-interested. The revolving door between public and private service can lead to moral hazards and corruption. Tastemakers at elite institutions — Hollywood, Harvard, Yale, The Washington Post, The New York Times — do not engage in Darwinian competition where only the best art and
