The Umman Manda

Thirty years ago, most Americans felt they could, to some degree, relate to the people who ruled over them. The politicians did not tool around in armored vehicles or have armed men in mirrored sunglasses guarding them. The so-called “public servants” were not highly compensated, even if they did not work hard. The members of the commentariat were few in number and they worked hard to present themselves as normal people. There was a gap, for sure, but it did not feel like a huge gap.

A lot has changed and today it feels to most people like we have been colonized by pod people from another planet. They sort of look like us and make familiar noises, but they are not us. They are alien. Every day they say things that suggest they are just visiting our planet. President Obama makes the sort of “gaffes” a person makes when they have been trained to sound like a person, but maybe did not pay strict attention in human class. Hillary Clinton often sounds like a stroke victim learning to talk again.

Today, of course, there is an army of chattering skulls, experts and commenters we see on TV and on-line. Unless you live in one of the guarded combines around Washington or in a swank building in Manhattan, you will never run into these people on the street. They live apart from the rest of us. That is why they sound like graduate students on an anthropology study. They peer out at us and then describe to each other what they think is happening. To them, we are just talking monkeys in a game park.

The foreignness Americans now feel toward their rulers is rather weak compared to the alienation the rulers feel toward the people. Decades of telling each other scary stories about racist, misogynistic and bigoted Americans has left most of them fearful of normal Americans. The universal response from both the Left and the so-called Right, to the rise of Trump, has been to compete with one another for who can produce the vilest epithet they can fling at the Trump voter.

Some elements of the ruling class still think they just need to adjust some settings in the enclosures and things will calm down. They write long letters to one another about “connectedness” and how Trump is really just leading a rear guard action of losers and misfits. When that gets boring, it’s back to telling campfire stories about how Hitler has come back from the dead and is organizing the Final Final Solution on twitter. Listen to the mainstream press and you would think the streets are teaming with skinheads, brown shirts and Klansman.

If you are a normal person, you can’t help but feel like an alien in your own country when you see stuff like this on twitter. A normal person at a Trump rally is set upon by a mob and our so-called betters howl with approval. All those lectures we used to hear from the ruling class about free speech and protest being the highest form of patriotism suddenly ring a little hollow. So-called conservatives care more about democracy in Iraq than in America. The liberals care more about the foreign invaders than the safety of Americans.

This great divide that has opened up between the ruling classes and the people is largely the result of globalism. The source of the great fortunes is no longer tied to countries or cultures. Global money bankrolls government and the petty royalty that lives off government. The result is the people in charge have divorced themselves from the people over whom they rule. The Cloud People define themselves by their opposition to and essential difference from the Dirt People.

Over the last few decades as this has evolved, it was one big party for the government class. No matter which party won the election, the money still poured into the Imperial Capital to finance the petty royalty that lives in the suburbs around the city. Six of the ten richest counties in America are connected to DC. Two are outside the financial capital of the world, New York City. Good times or bad, the last three decades has seen their wealth and prosperity grow.

For the people in charge, particularly the commentariat, the American people have become the Umman Manda. These were people who poured south into Mesopotamia in the second century BC. The name, depending upon the source, means “the horde from who knows where” or, and my favorite, “the scourge of the gods.” To the people peeking at us through the windows of their car services and telescopes, the public is just a formless mass of savages that threaten the established order. It is why they hate what is happening. It is why they will stop at nothing to end it.

30 thoughts on “The Umman Manda

  1. About 15 years ago I was in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and I hopped on a tour bus there to check out the town. Next seat over was an older man accompanied by a girl, possibly a niece. He was explaining some of the town wonders to her. I was shocked to learn after listening, that he was Speaker of the Wyoming House of Representatives. Imagine, a member of the state ruling class, acting just like an ordinary peon. But then, the Wyoming legislature runs for only about 4 weeks per year, and Wyoming is about 50 years behind the times anyway. The old guy did not act much like the lizard people running Washington D.C. these days.

  2. Excellent essay and, for the most part, I’m in complete agreement. However, I’m having a hard time feeling bad about vile epithets being hurled at Trump voters since the most vile epithets that have ever been hurled at me was by Trump voters when I had the audacity to support Ted Cruz and say it out loud.

    As a lifelong conservative, what I consider to be a Constitutional conservative, I’ve been a little–lot–taken aback to be accused of being a Hillary supporter, an elitist member of the establishment–HA I’m about as opposed to present day government anyone can get and still remain somewhat sane–and anything else a monkey minded Trumphumper could think of to throw at me and in the nastiest way they possibly could. Which not only makes me question their sanity but their mental capacity.

    Yes, Hillary is evil and must be destroyed and I’ll do my bit but this “poor little Trump voter” nonsense just doesn’t pass muster.

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  4. Z-Man, you think too much. There is nothing unusual going on here. These are not the end times or the apocalypse or any such thing. It’s just the regular changing of the guard that we do every generation or so. I remember 1952 and 1980 and 2008. The atmospherics are the same. For the old guard, the guys with the microphones and the pens and the limos, it’s the end of the world. Their world, not ours. The new guys are full of piss and vinegar and ready to set the world right, only to find out that that’s not near as easy as it looks. In the meantime the real folks get up, go to work, come home, watch a little TV and take the family to the beach on the weekend.

  5. “These were people who poured south into Mesopotamia in the second century BC”. I think you mean the second *millenium* BCE.

  6. Once again Trump trumps the media and Republican bedwetters –
    Here’s a little more on Obama appointee, Judge Gonzalo Curiel:

    ” United States District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel, the man presiding over the class-action lawsuit against Trump University, is a member of the La Raza Lawyers of San Diego and oversaw the gift of a law school scholarship to an illegal alien.

    In his 2011 judicial questionnaire to become a federal judge, Curiel revealed his history with La Raza. GotNews.com originally reported this Tuesday, and The Daily Caller has independently verified.

    Curiel lists “La Raza Lawyers of San Diego” as a legal association he has been a part of in the questionnaire. Curiel’s office at the United States District Court for the Southern District of California confirmed to TheDC the judge’s membership in the group.
    Curiel reveals more ties to the group in his questionnaire. He has spoken at two receptions held by La Raza Lawyers of San Diego, the most recent being in 2011. Last year, the group also held a reception for Curiel. The description of the event says, “This year we are proud to be honoring Judge Gonzalo Curiel at our reception and recognizing him for his leadership and support to the community and to our Association!”

    http://gotnews.com/megyn-kelly-lying-judge-gonzalo-curiel/

    http://dailycaller.com/2016/06/01/judge-presiding-over-trump-university-case-is-member-of-la-raza-lawyers-group/

    15 things you should know about “The Race” By Michelle Malkin
    http://michellemalkin.com/2008/07/09/15-things-you-should-know-about-the-race/

    • The other interesting factoid? The judge served in the same government office as the mayor of San Jose. They remain friends.

  7. Back in the early 80’s I caddied for my Dad when he played in a pro-am golf tournament. As we were going down our fairway on one hole, a fat man came rolling towards us in a cart, hopped out and hit (a terrible shot) back into another fairway. It was Tip O’Neil with absolutely no security!

    Now most of the country club crowd despised his New Deal politics, but they were happy to wave and say “hi”. Tip was having a great time out there mingling with the public. He came across a regular Boston Irish guy who made it to the top of his profession – not a cloud person with a wall full of Ivy-League degrees with an armed entourage.

  8. It is not just that they don’t relate to us. They despise us. They sneer at us. They are the cult of the Harvard educated, where your intelligence is based on the degree you have. They are uneducated idiots, parroting back whatever the smart people have to say this week.

    Back when I used to do farm work, I would run into interesting people. Some of them were well read and could discuss topics intelligently. But they must be cretins because they don’t support the candidate we do or they didn’t get a college degree. And heaven help you if you live in flyover country! We’ve gotten rid of many of the groups that made different classes mix together. It’s now possible for the Cloud People to isolate themselves in a way that they couldn’t do in earlier times. We need to see how they would like losing their jobs, being impacted by illegals dumped in their towns. We need to show them the error of their ways.

    • Over the weekend I was thinking how Donald Trump could win easily in November – go to war with the Federal bureaucracy. The unaccountable regulators at the EPA, IRS, and every other alphabet agency. Put them through some serious downsizing and toss half of them out into the street. Slap-down the ones that remain and make them accountable again.

      That would earn my vote.

      • He will. He says he will bring jobs back. You can’t bring jobs back without killing the agencies making all the regulations. The problem will be getting the GOPe to back him up.

  9. “This great divide that has opened up between the ruling classes and the people is largely the result of globalism. The source of the great fortunes is no longer tied to countries or cultures. Global money bankrolls government and the petty royalty that lives off government. The result is the people in charge have divorced themselves from the people over whom they rule.”

    This is one of the best insights on your blog, ever.

    Tim

    • I went the the California La Raza Lawyers website and read their list of scholarship candidates. One was explicitly a “dreamer” and the person writing the bios strongly hinted that the rest were.

      What does that tell you about the organization’s goals?

        • If Trump sticks to his MO, he will follow up soon with facts like these now that he has everyone’s attention with the seemingly racist remarks.

          • Yep. There’s an old adage in the law. Never ask a question unless you know the answer. Trump never picks a fight that he does not think he can win. It’s been a pattern in this race. At some point, potential critics are going to get nervous about jumping to these conclusions. Suddenly, he will have a lot of room to maneuver.

  10. I think it is important to recognize they are afraid of us for what we will do to them for what they are doing to us. You don’t require an army of armed badged militarized police forces if your not trying to screw over the dirt people. Dirt people don’t withdraw consent, resist, revolt, defy, secede, or even begin a revolution because of ideology, they do those things when they are victims of wonton corruption and usurpations over their simple and essential elements of basic primal rights and freedoms. Nothing complicated in this. Period. Our political class are RULERS now, because essentially the rules do not apply to them, because rules do not matter to them, because the only rule is it matters they rule to begin with. And that works for the nice DMV lady all the way up to the president. It works because they all consent to being some part of that system, and in that way their collective power is combined and untouchable by the dirt people and reasoned redress. It works splendidly, the proof abounds all around us. Where it gets interesting and the rule of rules changes to the rule of defience is when the ruled figure out there are no rules to begin with. Only rights of Men. And the dirt people are no longer bound to those rules. That right there is a legitimacy all it’s own that can not be denied.
    The ones who presume to rule over us now exist to survive it’s usurpation of power and its itinerate illegitimacy. It is an incredible thing to see the scope of that firewall between us dirt people and that usurped power they have created to retain the throttle hold of control on that coercive power they think is their purview, their entitlement. Kind of makes the the ultimate entitlement class doesn’t it? What they can not control now is their crisis of legitimacy. Illegitimacy is corrosive, where the more force and application of violence used to retain the fig leaf, creates a logarithmic scale of diminishing returns on that investment in force and violence. And it becomes plainly evident to the dirt people all the rulers really have, all they ever had, was not a mandate of the governed, but the threat of and use of power to coerce the dirt people into complying with that fictitious power. And as they approach the nadir of that one seat of power over everything and everyone, that power becomes ever more fragile and unstable, requiring ever more desperate and onerous methods to retain it. All along it is the decay of appearance of legitimacy and in this vacuum of cultural loss of good will of the governed, withdrawal of consent for those rulers, grows stronger, the dirt people become manifest in defying then resisting, because the dirt people make for very poor slaves once their tolerance is worn out. At some point then the power of manipulation of lies and false narratives evaporate like a fart in a hurricane, and naked force and use of violence is all those rulers have, but it is all they ever had to begin with, the fig leaf of legitimacy and an illusion of consent of the past is ripped off, and resistance to it becomes the order of the day of the dirt people. There are signs of that defiance and resistance everywhere. It is very cold anger, quiet and restrained, it takes every myriad form imaginable, but fuck the sonofabitches sums it up rather succinctly. I see it everywhere here in WV. This dirt people country here if there is such a place. People simply have had quite enough. It is a smoldering prelude that permeates, something that once ignited, well those rulers, they are finished, because nothing will stop it till it is finished. I would eat my hat if that weren’t so in many places among many people. It is the kind of cascade of preference and plurality that is indomitable. Cultural marxist not withstanding, in fact in spite of them.

  11. I agree that the elite live in their gated worlds, fed and watered by the state and transported — free of charge — in armoured cars. They talk to each other in complex hide-my-intent language, and those chats are with well-heeled folk who no doubt outwardly agree with them (on such important topics as age of consent in Bigdogistan, and whether you can tax people because the sun may have a hole in it) but privately they seek to wrest power from their fellow Cloud people. There is no disloyalty greater than can be conjure dup by a politician or civil servant. There are knives behind the oily smiles and affectionate handshakes.

    But for me the interesting aspect is who do these people, cut off as they are from reality, think are their friends? Not the people who elected them, that’s for sure. Other than the numbers involved they aren’t considered people at all. Perhaps the people who give them money from foreign oils-rich kingdoms are their mates, or maybe they think their new friends are the people who don’t speak English and flock in to crap in the streets. If you can fix the postal voting, you are sure to get their vote. At least, for now.

    In fact, maybe that’s it: our ‘leaders’ talk about ‘plans’ and ‘hopes for the future’ but all they care about is where the next paycheck is coming from. Like the postal votes, your bribe is in the post.

  12. Great article. You have a wonderful way of explaining what’s happening. The English speaking world’s history seems to move in cycles. I think we’re coming up to another climax. May God help us.

  13. The issue of Judge Gonzalo Curiel’s possible bias against Trump is an example of how the two parties gang up on the Dirt People. The usual Republicans have condemned Trump for his comments. The Democrats are smirking. There is plenty of law on both sides of the issue of whether or not to unseal documents that may or may not contain trade secrets. Curiel could have as easily and justifiably denied the Washington Post’s request as granted it. From what I’ve read about him, I’m at least suspicious of his motives. My suspicions are rooted in my understanding of human nature, my noticing things about tribal loyalty and other motivating factors in human behavior, which nowadays makes me a racist.

    • If this judge was name Smith and belonged to an all-white country club, he would be thrown off the bench and possibly disbarred. But, he has a Spanish name and belongs to the Mexican KKK so it is OK. He’s the hero of the tale.

      The gutless “conservatives” would never point this out because they fear being called racist more than anything. They will give away everything to avoid it.

      • What they should point out is that the judge is a Democrat and a Democrat judge will NEVER find in favor of a Republican, Conservative or anyone else who isn’t a card carrying communist/Democrat. But, as you say, the North Eastern Corridor elitist Republicans won’t make a peep.

    • The judge is a member of La Raza lawyers and has given scholarships to illegals. The lawyers for the plaintiff (who is no longer part of the lawsuit) gave $675,000 to the Clinton Foundation. I realize that Trump did not handle this well. What he should say to John Dickerson is “You’re a reporter. Why don’t you do a little investigative work on these people?”

  14. Here is one way to explain it that gets even left wingers agreeing with you. Simply ask how a geriatric, old school Socialist like Bernie Sanders has crashed Hillary’s party. He and Trump represent the collective realization that the inter-bred Washington elite has been peeing on everybody’s leg and blaming a cloudless sky. And the elites still don’t seem to get it. Funny watching all the “Bernie it’s time to quit” pleadings from the pundits. No, actually it isn’t time, and Sanders knows it. What is happening is a fundamental shift. No idea which way it will break, though I don’t like the odds of a peaceful resolution.

  15. For all their “intelligence” what these so-called elites don’t get is that they are dependent on a symbiotic relationship within an eco-system. They think they can rape and pillage and live apart without the “rabble” but then the tables turn and you get revolution of one form or another. Heads will roll. They are not immune. They are not infallible. They are not immortal, no matter how smart they think they are. Actually many of them possess attributes that run amok making them a detriment to civilization at large. Just as with the Brexit issue. I’ve been saying for a long time “Just who the hell do those people in Brussels think THEY are?” “Who elected them?” Well, I hope the Brits are smart enough to choose their own way.

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