WHOM THE GODS WOULD DESTROY, THEY FIRST MAKE RIDICULOUS: Elite NYC private school updates logo, motto to combat racism as parents cry ‘wokeism.’ “Manhattan’s elite Collegiate School set up a special task force and spent three years debating its ‘Dutchman’ mascot and motto — then issued a 400-page report that’s a lesson in wokeness-run-amok, critics say. . . . After a lengthy design and feedback process, the school announced last week that it will replace its prior motto, ‘Unless God, then in vain,’ with ‘Wisdom, Community, Kindness’ — in Latin. The school also completely refashioned its longtime mascot, the Dutchman, after debate over potential feelings of exclusion and excessive Eurocentrism involving it. The mascot was generally considered to be a representation of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch governor of the New Amsterdam colony.”
Well, the “wisdom” part is clearly aspirational, because they certainly aren’t demonstrating it now.
In fact, while America was losing wars abroad and jobs at home, elites seemed focused on things that were, well, faintly ridiculous. As Richard Fernandez tweeted: “The elites lost their mojo by becoming absurd. It happened on the road between cultural appropriation and transgender bathrooms.” It was fatal: “People believe from instinct. The Roman gods became ridiculous when the Roman emperors did. PC is the equivalent of Caligula’s horse.”
Or at least some part of said horse.