http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/16/americas-ruling-class-and-the

Quite a few snippets I could post from there but it's worth a read. I really don't have a good place to start the discussion as there is a good bit of meat to it.

7/20/2010 5:05:58 PM

Quote :

"the term "political class" came into use"

Quote :

"the American people started referring to those in and around government as the "ruling class." "

Quote :

"The Republican Party did not disparage the ruling class, because most of its officials are or would like to be part of it. Never has there been so little diversity within America's upper crust."

I'm not sure the class distinctions talk started in 2008 like this author seems to think it did. Also, what does he mean by diversity? There aren't enough lower middle class rich people?

I'm posting comments as I read through (so that I don't lose any thoughts/questions) before I get to page 6, but since I'm only part of the way through page 1 now, I may end up finding answers to some of these questions as I go.

Also, it says the ruling class care too much "sins against the environment" then goes into this:

Quote :

"The two classes have less in common culturally, dislike each other more, and embody ways of life more different from one another than did the 19th century's Northerners and Southerners -- nearly all of whom, as Lincoln reminded them, "prayed to the same God." By contrast, while most Americans pray to the God "who created and doth sustain us," our ruling class prays to itself as "saviors of the planet" and improvers of humanity."

I want a government that will regulate big oil to prevent disasters like BP. Maybe that makes me pro-ruling class to be against such a sin against the environment. Heck, I was put off by how President Obama's national address was too much of a prayer that god will fix this for him.

This article goes from one paragraph saying there's not enough diversity, and then into the next paragraph and say we don't have enough in common. The author needs to make up their mind.

[Edited on July 20, 2010 at 5:26 PM. Reason : .]

7/20/2010 5:17:08 PM

It is a bit wordy and almost stream of consciousness-like in its presentation.

Ultimately, this is a conservative rag, it makes the point that the ruling class are more often than not intellectual progressives. He informs you of that later so I suppose it's mildly confusing on the first page.

He answered your diversity question right after the statement.

[Edited on July 20, 2010 at 5:22 PM. Reason : .]

7/20/2010 5:21:05 PM

So I saw.

Quote :

"just as the social science and humanities class that rules universities seldom associates with physicians and physicists."

Lol, the ruling class ignores average folks just like psychology majors ignores an astronomy majors. It all those damned humanities majors, making their big bucks, ruling the world.

I love it that wealthy "Texas oilmen" are part of the average folks being oppressed by the ruling class with their masters degrees in English.

Quote :

"And it is an open secret that "the best" colleges require the least work"

Shit, I should have gone to a party school like Harvard.

Quote :

"By 1853, when Sen. John Pettit of Ohio called "all men are created equal" "a self-evident lie," much of America's educated class had already absorbed the "scientific" notion (which Darwin only popularized) that man is the product of chance mutation and natural selection of the fittest. Accordingly, by nature, superior men subdue inferior ones as they subdue lower beings or try to improve them as they please."

Okay, I made it through to part of page 2, but that is as far as I can go Believing in evolution proves you don't believe people deserve equal rights is as much as I can take. Pulling out some Leviathan

Quote :

"Nature hath made men so equal in the faculties of body and mind as that, though there be found one man sometimes manifestly stronger in body or of quicker mind than another, yet when all is reckoned together the difference between man and man is not so considerable as that one man can thereupon claim to himself any benefit to which another may not pretend as well as he. For as to the strength of body, the weakest has strength enough to kill the strongest, either by secret machination or by confederacy with others that are in the same danger with himself. "

It is clear that someone can believe that even if people aren't exactly equal in all ways, that doesn't make unequal in a broader sense.

[Edited on July 20, 2010 at 5:49 PM. Reason : .]

7/20/2010 5:33:46 PM

Quote :

"Ultimately, this is a conservative rag, it makes the point that the ruling class are more often than not intellectual progressives."

What is an intellectual progressive? Since when is progressivism intellectual? To me, progressivism shows a shocking lack of understanding of either economics or political science.

7/20/2010 7:43:55 PM

Quote :

"that is as far as I can go Believing in evolution proves you don't believe people deserve equal rights"

This is where you stupid fucking liberals always fuck up.
NO ONE IS SAYING THAT EVERYONE SHOULDN'T HAVE EQUAL RIGHTS,
WE'RE JUST SAYING THAT EVERYONE SHOULDN'T HAVE EQUAL OUTCOMES.

7/20/2010 7:58:21 PM

Sorry, I meant to put intellectual in quotes. He writes at length about progressives feeling intellectually superior and this gives them their ammo for deciding what is right/wrong for everyone else.

^ Agreed. Supplanter, you didn't even comprehend correctly what you quoted, which was

Quote :

""all men are created equal" "

not

Quote :

" people deserve equal rights"

I read it again and I am mildly annoyed at the blame (for lack of a better word) laid on the feet of progressives. I've long held that both sides are out to screw us, it's just their forms are slightly different. But, you really can't mistake the case he has made that at the core of the progressive movement is that their opinions and "plans" for the country are somehow the correct ones with no real basis for this feeling of entitlement at all.

7/20/2010 8:44:39 PM

I'm a firm believer in the philosophy of a ruling class. Especially since I rule.

7/20/2010 10:23:15 PM

We do not live in a monarchy or a caste system. In the United States of America, it is entirely possible--with hard work and good judgment--for those in lower classes to move up. Many do this every day and tens of thousands wouldn't be risking their lives to come here every year if it weren't the case. So, I don't accept the premise implied or outright stated in the OP article.

And I can't stand the typical class warfare agitprop and the thinly veiled threat of the "No justice, no peace" types. Furthermore, the "ruling class" are always portrayed as stereotypical Monopoly Man types--just as the cartoon in the linked article depicts:



While the class referred to in the linked article and the following class may not be entirely mutually exclusive, we don't hear a lot about these elites and how their sociopolitical attitudes and life stations affect policy:

Poll: D.C. elites a world apart
July 19, 2010

Quote :

"In their opinions on policy and politicians ranging from President Barack Obama to Sarah Palin, elites in Washington have a strikingly divergent outlook from the rest of the nation, according to a new POLITICO poll released Monday."

Quote :

" The survey also reveals to a surprising degree how those involved in the policymaking and the political process tend to have a much rosier view of the economy than does the rest of the nation — and, in some cases, dramatically different impressions of leading officeholders, political forces and priorities for governing."

Quote :

"Only 27 percent believe the country is headed in the right direction, compared with 61 percent who think the nation is on the wrong track. Likewise, when asked whether the national economy is heading down the right or wrong track, just 24 percent chose the right track, compared with65 percent for the wrong track. Yet among the 227 Washington elites polled, more think the country is on the right track, 49 percent, than the wrong track, 45 percent. On the economy, 44 percent of elites think the country is on the right track, compared with 46 percent who believe it is not. To qualify as a Washington elite for the poll, respondents must live within the D.C. metro area, earn more than $75,000 per year, have at least a college degree and be involved in the political process or work on key political issues or policy decisions. Washington elites seem conscious of the fact that they have a different point of view than the rest of the country, as 74 percent said they have felt the current economic downturn less than most Americans."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39809.html

7/21/2010 5:45:40 AM

Huh? Those are precisely the elites he is referring to. The ones that think the country is on the right track because they think they have an intellectual monopoly on the proper prescription for how to run things versus the rest of the country who pretty much assumes they are getting it wrong.

7/21/2010 6:49:37 AM

The cartoon above and this quotation. . .

Quote :

"But they are no wealthier than many Texas oilmen or California farmers. . . ."

. . .had me thinking the author of the article was referring specifically to an even higher stratum.

[Edited on July 21, 2010 at 7:06 AM. Reason : I just skimmed the first couple of pages--it's a long article. I'll read the entire thing. ]

7/21/2010 7:03:10 AM

The elites are more in favor of the free market; this is a good thing: http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=another_culture_war_no_thanks

7/21/2010 7:22:48 AM

I'm not sure you read anything form either link.

7/21/2010 8:52:35 PM

What I just said came from the link I posted

7/21/2010 9:45:02 PM

Then you read nothing from my link.

7/21/2010 10:06:46 PM

I read from your link

and I wanted to add one of my own, from a libertarian no less

7/21/2010 10:30:57 PM