There is a school of thought that, over the past decades, has crept into the mainstream from academia, and we are now witnessing both its devastating effects, and the difficulty in rooting it out.
This ill-conceived and dangerous philosophy is known as post-modernism or post-modernist theory.
Post-modernism rejects key Enlightenment principles (like the use or reason and logic), and even goes so far as to suggest that there is no such thing as objective truth (click the link above for a more in-depth analysis of the philosophy and its principles).
Modern Monetary Theory ("MMT") is a salient example of a post-modernist theory. MMT proponents suggest that debt levels for the USA do not matter and, as such, advocate that the endless printing of money by the Federal Reserve is a consequence-free activity.
These same experts also claimed that this wouldn't be inflationary.
We all know how that turned out just by looking at a recent grocery bill, notwithstanding the countless historical examples of the destructive power of runaway inflation and debt.
Post-modernism and its progeny are dangerous because they give followers permission to ignore clear factual evidence, and instead elevate "feelings" to the highest evidentiary weight. Hence the toddler-esque temper tantrums by so many "activists" in recent years, the virtual elimination of traditional debate, and the push to defer in all things to "the experts".
This is reductive and create the possibility for manipulation (which politicians are only happy to oblige).
Yet, over the past several years we've had many "The Emperor has no clothes" moments, followed by comical levels of ass-covering and gaslighting by the same self-proclaimed experts who continue to throw gas on the fires they lit with awful policy decisions.
Why is this all important? Well, post-modernist theories have been poisoning the university system for many years, and those graduates are now in key roles in the public and private sector. This destructive theory is no longer confined to the classroom. Moreover, they are reaching into the high schools and elementary schools now.
The Orwellian nature of this can't be understated, as experts tell you to ignore your eyes and ears and all the hard evidence of their repeated failures (for example, see "the climate emergency").
The suggestions that truth is subjective and that values and morality are relative create a highly dangerous precedent, and history has many examples of how dangerous theories like post-modernism lead to dire outcomes.
The dangers of this theory are not limited to monetary issues.
Other destructive elements of post-modernism include the rise of identity politics, the destruction and obfuscation of language, and the explosion in the use of reductionism, relativism, and sophistry (especially in politics).
Leadership philosophies should focus on empowering people and improving things. Post-modernism does neither of these things. Rooting out and eliminating it from our schools and our institutions is essential if we are to avoid repeating some of history's worst mistakes.
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