Masters of the universe and titans of tech converged on Sun Valley, Idaho last week for deal-making, fun in the sun, and expert panels on world events. And, according to Variety, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett, and their billionaire buddies spent Thursday afternoon at Illuminati summer camp learning about campus culture wars:
In his commencement speech at Purdue in May, Mitch Daniels—”the president America needs,” per George Will—had congratulated his flock of graduates for their hard work. Daniels said that “earned success” such as theirs is the truest happiness, in stark contrast to President Obama’s words to Howard grads, “you’ve worked hard, but you’ve also been lucky.” Daniels also told graduates, “[A]mong many pernicious notions of our time, perhaps the most dangerous is the idea, sometimes implied and sometimes express, that life is more or less a lottery. That we are less masters of our fate than corks floating in a sea of luck. Or, even more absurd, that most of us are victims of some kind, and therefore in desperate need of others to protect us against a world of predators and against our own gullibility.”
It’s easy to ridicule the weakly reasoned discourse of “trigger warnings” and “safe spaces,” but the consequences of self-imposed victimhood are no laughing matter. The ready denial of individual agency cheapens the foundational ethic of American innovation and poses a very real threat to a prosperous, secure national future—or so the Sun Valley agenda suggests. The other major panel that day addressed global terrorism: Former director of the CIA George Tenet and a former head of Mossad moderated the panel, briefing billionaires on the rise of ISIS.
