The Zeitgeist - Monday 14 July
The system protects its own
The Epstein case and New Zealand’s Covid Inquiry expose just how deeply elite impunity is embedded in our society. But with public trust collapsing, how long can our soulless technocratic institutions survive?
The World
The Epstein memo protects the power elite in the short term, but deepens the long-term collapse in institutional trust - Epstein was rumoured to be an intelligence asset, perhaps Mossad, the CIA, or both, who was engaged in procuring kompromat on powerful people in order to provide Israel and/or the CIA with a degree of control over important levers of power in Western society. An FBI/DoJ memo claims no evidence exists of a “client list” or any blackmail operation involving prominent figures. Trump doubled down on the “nothing to see here” message on Truth Social. By signalling that the state will continue to protect the power elite regardless of public demands for accountability, this declaration intensifies the divide between citizens and the ruling class.
Grok’s free speech rampage demonstrates the revolutionary impact an honest AI could have - Grok’s posts questioned the official Epstein narrative, discussed racial IQ differences, and criticised Jewish influence in Western society, among other things. Given the immense power AI is likely to have in future, the incident highlights how humanity faces a fork in the road: will we train AI to reinforce woke orthodoxy and pave the way for a planetary-scale mind control system? Or will we allow it to be honest, knowing it may collapse the foundations of the current world order?
Australia's new antisemitism plan subordinates national identity and free speech to fighting antisemitism - A sweeping new proposal to combat antisemitism would grant the state power to exile, defund, or silence those who challenge Jewish influence in politics or culture - using antisemitism as a weapon against free speech. It recommends stripping funding from universities, charities and cultural institutions if they fail to combat anti-Jewish “hatred”. The report also recommends barring people with antisemitic views from Australia and denying charities the ability to receive tax-deductible gifts. PM Albanese will reportedly consider it. Surely in Australia, if criticism of any identity group is to be made inviolable, it ought to be Aussie identity rather than Jewish.
BRICS stakes out a post-liberal world order - Putin declared “liberal globalisation” obsolete at the BRICS conference in Rio de Janeiro. The conference also issued a declaration condemning US tariffs, the US attack on Iran, the decision of NATO to increase defence spending to 5% of member states' GDP and the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. In response, Trump threatened BRICS countries with additional tariffs. BRICS is now no joke, rivalling the West geopolitically, economically and ideologically.
Tariffs are now central to US economic strategy - Trump announced new tariffs of 30% on the EU and Mexico, 35% on Canada, and 50% on Brazil (over the Bolsonaro “witch hunt”). A universal 10% baseline tariff remains in place, alongside targeted tariffs on China and strategic industries like steel. Now forecast to generate over $300 billion by year’s end - around 5% of total US tax revenue - tariffs have become a permanent feature of American economic strategy. Despite warnings, economic growth continues, strategic industries are reshoring, reliance on Chinese supply chains is falling, and Trump wields a powerful tool for use in international diplomacy and negotiation.
New Zealand
COVID inquiry exposes technocratic coordination across institutions - Phase Two of the Royal Commission is focused on the long-term consequences of the Government’s Covid response, and whether the tools used, including border closures, mandates, and lockdowns, were proportionate and effective. The Inquiry raises deeper questions - throughout the COVID pandemic in New Zealand, we observed what appeared to be coordination between the government and other formally independent institutions, like the media, public health academics, Medical Council, and the Human Rights Commission. They manufactured a medical and political consensus and used the institutions of society to suppress and punish dissent. Many Kiwis are still bearing the costs of what they did, yet there has been no admission of wrongdoing or anyone held to account. Jacinda Ardern has now agreed to appear before the Commission. One can only hope she faces questioning at least as rigorous as Voices for Freedom.
Regulatory Reform Bill sets up a “white man’s Waitangi Tribunal” - Select Committee hearings on the Regulatory Standards Bill got underway last week. The Bill sets up a parallel to the Waitangi Tribunal and Treaty Principles: the “Principles of Responsible Legislation” mirror the Treaty Principles in that all legislation has to be consistent with them, and if it isn’t, there is an independent Regulatory Standards Board people can lodge complaints with and which will review it, just as the Waitangi Tribunal does. The difference is, whereas Waitangi Tribunal claims can only be lodged when Māori are negatively affected, anyone will be able to complain to the Regulatory Review Board - thus providing a sort of “equality” in access to quasi-judicial review mechanisms. Another point of interest is that a lot of the arguments submitters are making against the Regulatory Standards bill will also apply to the Waitangi Tribunal - so when the government gets around to reforming or abolishing the Waitangi Tribunal, they’ll be able to use many of the Waitangi Tribunal’s defenders’ own arguments against them.
New Zealand achieved “net zero” immigration for the second month in a row, but we’re still being replaced - In May 2025, 10,200 migrants arrived and 10,300 departed for a net loss of 100 people. This follows a very small net gain in April. However, the net zero figure obscures the fact that record numbers of Kiwis are still leaving, and are being replaced by high inflows of Indians, Chinese and Filipinos. Although these numbers show an improving trend, the demographic situation is still deteriorating. Good immigration numbers would show the demographic situation improving - i.e. the country becoming more Kiwi - rather than simply becoming less Kiwi at a slower pace.
Notes
Treating human beings as widgets to be manipulated is inherent to the technocratic worldview, but fundamentally incompatible with respect for human dignity and agency. It is, by nature, an authoritarian model of leadership - rooted in control rather than service, and management over moral inspiration.
Leo Strauss’s interpolation of Plato goes something like - society must be ruled in secret by an intellectual elite who use strategic deception. Strauss justifies this as a “noble lie” in service of a greater good. One might tolerate such a system, uncomfortably, if its ends were truly noble. But if they involve the Great Replacement, destroying the native birthrates, promoting all manner of sexual perversion and harmful ideologies, including chopping the dicks off little kids in the name of trans madness, then the ends aren’t noble either. And perhaps we’re in need of a “restructure” at the highest levels.
Technocratic tools have evolved to manage and coordinate the complex institutions of modern life, and in many respects, they are indispensable to the functioning of modern society. But technocracy erodes its own moral legitimacy when it substitutes expertise for moral authority, treats society as a system to be optimised rather than a community of moral agents, manufactures artificial consensus, privileges elite interests, and neglects the spiritual dimensions of human life. Unrestrained, technocracy tends toward a monstrous system of total control, like the beast of Revelation. In the opinion of this (occasionally) humble former policy analyst, it must be held in check from the outside - through moral witness, public truth-telling, principled policy critique, and peaceful protest. These efforts, in turn, must rest on a deeper foundation: defence of the eternal moral law authored by Jesus Christ.
William McGimpsey