During a Senate hearing to review the FBI’s FY2026 budget request, Director Kash Patel was forced to admit that, despite the law requiring it, he had no such request ready to review.
This surprising development came during an awkward back-and-forth with Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), the ranking Democrat and Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which oversees and approves budget requests.
Senator Murray reminded the FBI Director that the budget request was legally required “last week,” and after the director responded, she surprisedly added, “And your answer is you just understand you’re not going to follow the law?”
Children, in this context, would mean new institutions that arise after the prior generation has fallen. Such as the American government after British rule had been destroyed in the colonies, the assorted dynasties in China, or the conquest of Constantinople by a caliphate. In any case, the scale isn’t particular important. The gist is that institutions become increasingly corrupt and ineffective over time, until fresh blood topples the power structure and replaces it with something that has vitality. Over time, the new becomes old and is replaced in turn. It could be decades or centuries, but eventually stratification simply weighs down a society too much for establishment leadership to continue. The loss of failing leadership is rejuvenating to the people, even if culture is lost in the process.
Obviously not everything would track cleanly, but that is fundamentally the case for anything that involves human action. Be it cults, empires, or households, deterioration tends to be a thing. It is just that the biggest of these have the most research and records, because they are too big and obvious to miss.