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mediocracy

inversions & deceptions in an ‘egalitarian’ society

08 April 2008

Decline and Fall

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the concept

mediocracy is a condition in which culture is subordinated to pseudo-egalitarian ideology. Symptoms include: dumbing, jargonism, infantilisation, vacuity, phoney democratisation and authoritarianism.
A key weapon of the mediocratic agenda is the Orwellian redefinition of words and ideas.

the book



‘In a mediocracy, the views of the elite dictate every area of life ... Culture is redefined to be whatever receives approval from those licensed by the state apparatus. It is required to promote the ideology, i.e. be reductionist about the individual and support intervention.’ [more]

the author

Fabian Tassano is a British academic.
A summary of his views on contemporary academia can be read here. More information here.

elsewhere

Celia Green
Educational Conscription
Heraklites
The Custodian

Oxford Forum

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Markets and banking
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Culture and markets
The theory of the second-best

Politics
Any colour so long as it’s left
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The meaning of ‘liberal’
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Medicine
Depressed? You need medication
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“All your organ are belong to us”

Free speech
No deviations tolerated
Keeping out the wrong views
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Tintin must be banned!
Dangerous literature is illegal

Ideology
The disappearance of ‘character’
Sex in a mediocracy
All shall be elite
Western values: worth defending?
The state will give you your identity
Critics will be punished

Art
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The state demands ‘radical’ art

Movies & TV
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Michael Haneke: evil genius?
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BBC murders Pullman

Culture
Politicising sports
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Journalism
Sex and The Times
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Samuel Brittan on Mediocracy
The trivialisation of Orwell
Daniel Finkelstein on ideology

‘Economics’
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Cognitive bias and ideology
Chris Dillow and ‘liberal’ economics

‘Philosophy’
A C Grayling on happiness
Jamie Whyte: must try harder
Steven Pinker the apologist

Academia
Academic vacuity
Academic vacuity (part 2)
Terry Eagleton and the Left
The pseudoscience of well-being
Columbia and the President of Iran
Gobbledygook in theoretical physics

Education
Coercive ‘education’ of adults
Gordon Brown’s schooldays
No bourgeois students please
Student loans
Comprehensives: worse than prison

Interventionism
The politicisation of medicine
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Politics masquerading as science

Dysfunctionality
Terminal 5
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Satire
Two solutions for inequality
The top 10 political blogs of all time
Decline & fall
To the next Conservative leader
A short history of the human race

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Freedom and what to do with it
High culture and the blogosphere
The 'evils' of inheritance