The New Aristocracy Is the Old Aristocracy

Why is politics so important to so many people? I have an ex-wife (and still good friend) who is so wrapped up in politics that she can talk about little else.

I tried to point out to her recently what I consider to be a truism. The rich rule. Always have. Always will. She wasn't having it. She still believes that if enough people get on the "same page," so to speak, and vote for the right people that change would happen and America would be a better place.

The history of the world is the history of powerful and, therefore, rich people. If they weren't rich when they came into power they became rich after they did.

In the last century the so-called communists came to power with a vengeance, spouting the dogma of that so silly and unworkable, but so persuasive quasi-religious dogma.

I call those fanatics so-called communists because true communism has never been practised anywhere in the world. The very concept is anathema to human nature. Only small, well-indoctrinated religious groups can come close to achieving the communist dogma of working according to your ability and taking only taking according to your needs. (Pure and true Christianity, anyone?)

None of the former communist strongmen--Lenin, Stalin, Mao Tse-Tung (Zedong), or Castro, among others, once they came to power, ever lived like the poorest among them. They lived in luxury, like a new aristocracy.

In fact, Milovan Djilas, who fought beside Tito in the former Yugoslavia, against the German Nazis in World War II, realized, shortly after Tito came to power as the Communist dictator of Yugoslavia, that the new class merely displaced the old class. The kings and princes were replaced with the officials and commissars of communism. He wrote a book titled "The New Class," criticizing the corruption of the communist ideals . . . and was thrown into prison by Tito.

So what does all this have to do with the U.S., today. The rich, those individuals, families, and corporations with the most wealth, control the government and what laws will be passed. And the very rich individuals and families are rich, usually, because they are in control of corporations.

I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country. Thomas Jefferson

Unfortunately, that didn't happen. The United States united in a revolution to rid themselves of the aristocracy of a monarchy. The French rebelled and cut off the heads of their aristocracy. The Russians and Chinese lined their old aristocracy up against walls and shot them dead.

And yet, a new aristocracy emerged. Well, not really. It is the same old aristocracy--the rich. The rich and those in power, who then become rich. They have always ruled and they always will rule. If they are smart, they will not rule too oppressively.

But eventually, slowly, incrementally, as is happening here in the U.S., those in power come to believe that they were born to rule and so they will use more power wrongly, violating the rights of the peasants, the peons, the serfs, the average person until a critical point is reached and the common people come together again in rebellion and throw the evil ones out.

The revolutionists will cheer and say that a new day has come. What they forget, however, is that to have their revolution they almost always have borrowed money from some rich entity, some wealthy bankers, some corporation. And, as we all know, he who pays the piper will call the tune.

And so it goes. Is there nothing that we, the average people, can do about this never-ending cycle of power and control by the rich? When the time is ripe for revolution we can join it and feel empowered. The rub is in knowing when the time is ripe. There has to be a critical mass of people who are so fed up with the current situation that they are willing to fight and die if necessary to take out the old aristocracy.

Until then--and it is never easy to judge when the time is right, as history has shown so many time with failed movements and revolutions--it might be best to do all you can to take care of yourself and your loved ones, within the parameters allowed you by those in control. And if you vote, perhaps you should even pretend that your vote counts for something. A little fantasy can make life little easier.

I will make one positive statement, however. To the extent that people are able to participate in the political process--that is, allowed--then the more that do so will slow, not stop, the eventual solidifying of the new aristocracy.