elitism (or all about the benjamins)...

the other night some friends and I were discussing elitism. it was a fascinating conversation, the kind that you can only have when you get great minds together...and it made me re-examine what I consider to be elitism, and why I have problems with it in some contexts and not others. I should begin with a disclaimer...I am an elitist, I am also by no means wealthy - I live as too many do, barely holding on to the "middle class" lifestyle, one small accident away from being a pauper (despite having played the game right, gotten degrees, turned professional, etc.). I also consider myself intelligent, educated, well-read, cultured (to the shock of some, especially those that are suprised to find I was aware there was a picasso in daley plaza), and engaged. hence, I consider myself an elitist...because I find those qualities to be quite nice, and very much prefer those I associate with to hold them as well - what I call the "citizen elite." somewhere along the line we got our elites confused though...and the educated, academic and professional elite which help to lead the progressive movement got thrown in with the monied elite - the fuckers that are screwing you, me and everyone we know.

we all know who the monied elite are...Big Business, Big Drug, Big Insurance, Big Tobacco, Big [insert your corporate enemy here]. they run the damn place...hell, they run the damn world. they have been forcing shit down our throats ever since the republican majority came into being thirty plus years ago. they have ripped the social structure of our society to pieces, our communities are in shambles, our children go without medicine and books, it is nigh impossible to afford an education, and they are only getting richer. these elite are nothing but bad news for anyone but themselves...and they are the reason that we should fight against anything elites tell us. they know this, which is why they needed to muddy the waters...they needed to confuse the issue by making the progressive elite (the intellectual and academic leaders that have pushed to make this a better world by representing everyone's right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness) the enemy.

just another example of how the conservative movement has lied to you. they want it to be ok to hate the elite...as long as that includes the people that are actually looking out for society as a whole - because then they can throw out "moral" issues that they never plan on addressing and that they don't give two shits about to maintain a stranglehold on politics. it isn't the professors and trial lawyers you need to be concerned with...its the wall street tycoons that don't pay taxes yet reap all, and I do mean ALL, the benefits while you and I get shit. they swim in their oceans of cash, oceans filled by the trickle upwards that has become a tidal wave, and rant and rave against the elite that are only seeking justice in this world. and so we fight against each other over issues that will never be resolved as long as they continue to control the process...and so they perpetuate their control...and the cycle continues...

which is why I have come to so respect Dean's campaign of a few years back...it took the monied elite out of the equation. and it scared the living hell out of them, and so he was made to look like an extremist nutjob (amusing if you ever looked at his actual record) and an "east coast elitist." meanwhile, the real elitist got thrown into the fray against the slightly more elite elitist candidate...and we got pissed on again by the uber-rich.

but it does provide hope...hope that maybe, just maybe, we can break this cycle of greed and corruption which has so uglified what was supposed to be a shining light upon a hill. maybe, just maybe, we can retake control of our politics...we can force the system to re-engage the common man. the beautiful irony of it...we can take the system away from the monied elite with money. then, with a true commitment to education, equality and opportunity, with a true commitment to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we will expand the citizen elite...and we will thumb our noses at those lowly monied types...

...every road takes us farther from home...