The great conservative thinker William F. Buckley in 1963 wrote that he would rather “live in a society governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the 2,000 faculty members of Harvard University.” Buckley recognized the great “brainpower” among the university’s faculty, but feared the “intellectual arrogance that is a distinguishing characteristic of the university which refuses to accept any common premise.”
I thought of that oft-quoted line four years after the COVID-19 panic. It was a very real public health threat, so much so that it enabled Americans to transfer wide-ranging and largely unchecked powers to the experts. For two years, it was exactly as if Buckley’s fears came true and we were ruled by the type of people found in the faculty lounge.
It’s no secret that American universities are dominated by progressives, who don’t typically accept the “common premise” of limited governance. A core principle of progressivism, dating to its early 20th century roots, is the rule by experts. Disinterested parties would reform, protect, and re-engineer society based on their superior knowledge. Although adherents of this worldview speak in the name of the People, they don’t actually trust individuals to manage their own lives.
Looking back, COVID-19 shows the nation’s founders—rather than intellectual social engineers—had it right. The founders created a system of checks and balances that made it hard for leaders to easily have their way. “A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions,” wrote James Madison. The pandemic stripped away those precautions, albeit (mostly) temporarily.
In fairness, the response to COVID by many ordinary Americans left much to be desired. Social media provided a megaphone for conspiracy theories and idiotic home remedies. Instead of acting responsibly by voluntarily embracing the best-known practices at the time, many Americans defied even the most sensible rules and acted out against store clerks and others. I was left disgusted by the edicts of our leaders and the behavior of many of my fellow citizens.
Nevertheless, the skeptics generally were correct. “The coronavirus shutdowns have created a dichotomy between those who tend to trust whatever the authorities say—and those who don’t seem to trust any official information at all,” I wrote in May 2020. “It’s not even slightly conspiratorial, however, to question the forecasts, data and presuppositions of those officials who are driving these policies. They have shut down society, forced us to stay at home, driven businesses into bankruptcy, caused widespread misery, and suspended many civil liberties.”
Yes, many of us told you so.
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