The sort of people who set off class wars as a hobby have very particular classless societies in mind. The average left-wing revolutionary is not poor. He is a homicidal dilettante from the upper classes with a burning conviction of his own importance that he is unwilling to realize through disciplined labor. His revolution climaxes with a classless society in which he is at the very top.
Not near the top, not adjacent to the top, as he usually was before, but at the very top.
Utopia has a class system. At the top are the thinkers, the philosopher kings who develop plans based on how things ought to be and then turn them over to lesser men to actually implement. They are the priestly class of an ideological movement whose deity is politics and whose priests are politicians.
In a planned economy, they are the titans of industry and finance, they are the heads of banks and the men who move millions and billions around the board, and they are utterly unfit for the job. But they also make decisions in matters of war and science. And in all things. They measure political heresy in all things and all the activities of man are measured against their dogma and rewarded or punished.
This is the way it was in the Soviet Union or Communist China. But take a closer glance at the White House and see if you don't spot the occasional similarity.
In the middle of Utopia's class system is the middle class. This is not the middle class you are familiar with. There are no small business owners here. No one striving to make it up the ladder. Utopia's middle class is the bureaucracy, the interlinked hive mind of government and non-profits.
At the top of Utopia's class system are the philosopher-planners who issue the regulations. Or rather they offer objectives. The bureaucracy filters them through successive layers, transforming grandiose ideas into stultifying regulations and each successive layers expands them into further microcosms of unnecessary detail. This expansion of regulations also expands the bureaucracy. One feeds off the other.
Utopia has no lower class. That would be dystopian. Instead it has a client class. The client class is what used to be known as the working class. Utopia however transforms it into the welfare class.
Clienture transforms the working class into the welfare class. The destruction of the conditions under which the working class can exist forces its members either upward into the bureaucracy, a feat that is only possible for the younger generation willing to undergo the educational process, or downward into the welfare class.
The client class justifies the existence of Utopia's upper and middle class which are, in theory, dedicated to public service, to remedying the ills of an unfair society, which has been made fair by eliminating all free will and individual choice. But the client class exists to be subsidized. And its subsidies justify the subsidizing of the upper and middle classes of the planners and the bureaucrats.
This is Utopia's crisis.
Its upper class of philosopher kings expect to live like kings. They want to vacation in Aspen and New England. They want Bernie's summer home and Hillary's flat broke houses. And that does not come cheap. Utopia's middle class expects to live the way that our middle class does. And yet none of them actually produce anything. They will, in Obama and Elizabeth Warren's "You didn't build that" formula, claim that their public service makes the condition of productivity possible.
There is one problem with that. Their public service actually inhibits production. Whatever the rhetoric, they spend all their days killing the geese that lay the golden eggs. And then they are insulted when the goose doesn't recognize their contribution to her golden egg-laying.
Utopia has a series of interdependent classes that are subsidized by a productive class that is being starved out of existence. The inevitable outcome of such a system is one in which the lower classes are worked to death to subsidize its betters and the middle class is robbed by the upper class.
The left thus creates the predatory economic system it preaches against as a way of life. Its own abuses are inevitably worse than the system it replaces because it is not only exploitative, but its exploitation actively inhibits production.
Not near the top, not adjacent to the top, as he usually was before, but at the very top.
Utopia has a class system. At the top are the thinkers, the philosopher kings who develop plans based on how things ought to be and then turn them over to lesser men to actually implement. They are the priestly class of an ideological movement whose deity is politics and whose priests are politicians.
In a planned economy, they are the titans of industry and finance, they are the heads of banks and the men who move millions and billions around the board, and they are utterly unfit for the job. But they also make decisions in matters of war and science. And in all things. They measure political heresy in all things and all the activities of man are measured against their dogma and rewarded or punished.
This is the way it was in the Soviet Union or Communist China. But take a closer glance at the White House and see if you don't spot the occasional similarity.
In the middle of Utopia's class system is the middle class. This is not the middle class you are familiar with. There are no small business owners here. No one striving to make it up the ladder. Utopia's middle class is the bureaucracy, the interlinked hive mind of government and non-profits.
At the top of Utopia's class system are the philosopher-planners who issue the regulations. Or rather they offer objectives. The bureaucracy filters them through successive layers, transforming grandiose ideas into stultifying regulations and each successive layers expands them into further microcosms of unnecessary detail. This expansion of regulations also expands the bureaucracy. One feeds off the other.
Utopia has no lower class. That would be dystopian. Instead it has a client class. The client class is what used to be known as the working class. Utopia however transforms it into the welfare class.
Clienture transforms the working class into the welfare class. The destruction of the conditions under which the working class can exist forces its members either upward into the bureaucracy, a feat that is only possible for the younger generation willing to undergo the educational process, or downward into the welfare class.
The client class justifies the existence of Utopia's upper and middle class which are, in theory, dedicated to public service, to remedying the ills of an unfair society, which has been made fair by eliminating all free will and individual choice. But the client class exists to be subsidized. And its subsidies justify the subsidizing of the upper and middle classes of the planners and the bureaucrats.
This is Utopia's crisis.
Its upper class of philosopher kings expect to live like kings. They want to vacation in Aspen and New England. They want Bernie's summer home and Hillary's flat broke houses. And that does not come cheap. Utopia's middle class expects to live the way that our middle class does. And yet none of them actually produce anything. They will, in Obama and Elizabeth Warren's "You didn't build that" formula, claim that their public service makes the condition of productivity possible.
There is one problem with that. Their public service actually inhibits production. Whatever the rhetoric, they spend all their days killing the geese that lay the golden eggs. And then they are insulted when the goose doesn't recognize their contribution to her golden egg-laying.
Utopia has a series of interdependent classes that are subsidized by a productive class that is being starved out of existence. The inevitable outcome of such a system is one in which the lower classes are worked to death to subsidize its betters and the middle class is robbed by the upper class.
The left thus creates the predatory economic system it preaches against as a way of life. Its own abuses are inevitably worse than the system it replaces because it is not only exploitative, but its exploitation actively inhibits production.
Comments
Great topic in election season, Daniel. We used to believe that Christmas gifts were made by elves at the North Pole. Sadly, too many still think that government largess appears magically or is rightfully seized from the Rich.
ReplyDeleteAnd from where do the goods and services come? Did they not have to be produced "somehow"? Did the producers choose to, or were they forced?
I wish I knew how to call attention to these questions.
ABSJ1136
Post the answers to the questions. The media certainly won't.
DeleteBrilliant analysis as usual, Daniel. Thank you for bringing clarity and understanding to our current situation.
ReplyDeleteGood analysis. I always think of my grandfather, who was a highly competent engineer (chief civil engineer in SF 1930s to 1950s). Got to know some of his peer group, highly competent engineers and such, don't see people like that much these days.
ReplyDeleteThen there is the black market class, Utopia forces the masses into poverty or the black market. Actually most everyone has to cheat somewhat to survive.
Another factor to consider regaring these "progressive" utopias is the way they atomize society by dividing into warring groups whom the ruling clique play off against one another...a version of 'divide and rule'. This is a continuation of Marx's "class struggle".
ReplyDeleteThe ruling clique will pick one group and favor it, giving it extra privileges and handouts while taking things away from another group. A good example was seen in the recent debate with Hillary, and in Bernie Sanders campaign where "rich people" are demonized and "poor people" and blacks are favored and so the promise is made that they are going to take money away from these "rich" and give to these "poor". This is instead of taking the path of saying "a rising tide lifts all boats" and that having the economy grow across the board benefits which everyone instead.
This is also seen in the attitude seen in socialist countries that the state is viewed as controlling all the money and assets of the country, and then it divides it up, giving more to those "deserving" (which is usually their friends and relatives). This is instead of respecting private property. In other words, according to this view, the state has the right to reach into everyone's pocket and take their hard-earned money.
Bureaucrats produce two things: Directly, this being the essence of their very existence, they produce rules & regulations and indirectly as derivative, they produce more bureaucrats to control & impose those rules & regulations' application. The reverse piramide of the bureaucratic non productive production process continues till the real working and wealth producing part of the system, which is business, on which bureaucracy feeds has suffocated in the crash of this stifling mass of inertia producers.
ReplyDeleteDaniel has put his finger on a number of thorny issues. One thing Trump, during the three-way "debate," ought to have not "nicely" reminded Hillary and everyone else is that she has not produced anything in her whole life, and probably never worked even as a waitress or store clerk while going to Wellesley.
ReplyDeleteBut one thing I keep reminding others is that there isn't a thing on a bureaucrat's or politician's desk that wasn't the result of productive work. You name it: the chairs, the desk and everything on it, the rugs, the window and its shades, the clothes on a bureaucrat's back, and even the computer and the paper on which he produces more regulations and lawsuits against private companies: it's all the result of productive work. Otherwise it wouldn't exist to improve his standard of living. Many people are under the impression that the weapons used by the military -- the war is immaterial -- were produced in government tank and gun and airplane factories, when they were produced by productive, private companies under government contract. If truth be known, the government couldn't produce on its own steam a usable pencil, never mind an aircraft carrier or bottle of spring water or a new surgery technique or golf clubs. The government produces nothing except costs to the producers. It produces tons and tons of paper on which to print new laws and regulations , thanks only to contracts doled out to companies that can produce paper and ink. The Bureau of Printing and Engraving, which prints our paper money, and the U.S. Mint, which produces our worthless coinage, rely on private suppliers for the paper and metal. The private productive sector of any welfare state and mixed economy more and more acts as a humble valet to the elite and their "middle class" of bureaucratic wonks.
Very interesting, and sad. What started as industry 180 years ago has degenerated to bureaucracy. At the time of the first big break-up, 1930's, the shovel-ready crowd still knew how to handle shovels. Now they only have to know how to handle video games and social media.
ReplyDeleteAmerica is the largest economy in the world, about the size of the next 3 largest countries (China, Japan, and Germany) combined. America has the most extensive infrastructure in the world. Entitlements are like an inheritance left to
ReplyDeletechildren. The children spoil from not having to work as hard, but do not have to work until their money runs out. By then it may be all too late, but the infrastructure should remain to save the day.
America must choose => socialism or jobs. She can't have both.
ReplyDeleteIf Hugo Chavez’s daughter (the Venezuelan colonel turned president) has become one of the wealthiest women in South America in 14 years, image what Chelsea could become¡ Meanwhile the great unwashed could be entertained with pants-down Bill chasing interns through the WH corridors and mandarin Huma enforcing Sharia as the ultimate women lib achievement. Tsarina Hill coughs and sleeps in the background thinking ‘ What difference does it make now?’
ReplyDeleteUtopia, it appears, is in a constant state of crisis.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Daniel. I've gone blue in the face saying that there never was, isn't, and never will be a classless society. And the more leftist the government, the more pronounced the class distinction.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant article, as usual.
There are a number of stories lately about members of governmental class - that permanent bureaucracy in D.C. - threatening to resign if Trump wins. We should be so lucky: imagine reducing that bloat by 25%! That's the number making the threat - which sane people see as a promise, a gift. Imagine what that would so for our economy. Halleluia! From their mouths to G-d's ears.
ReplyDeleteIf they don't go - and who believes those lazy can't-be-fired civil "servants"? - I hope and pray Donald finds a legal way to say "You're Fired!" to several thousands of them.
The difference between Saint Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump is that the former never held a real job. Acting isn't real. Neither is government work. So maybe a man who knows what things costs and has his feet firmly planted in the value of family won't saddle us with yet another bureaucracy - both Reagan and Bush '43 did that. Authentic conservatives don't do that.
Trump has never claimed to be a conservative; in fact he's quite liberal regarding social issues (mainly because he never thought much about them till now). He's a businessman and a hard-nosed realist. The governmental behemoth will fight him tooth and nail but I'll bet he's quite good with the carrot-stick routine.
http://hotair.com/archives/2016/02/01/poll-25-of-federal-employees-would-consider-quitting-if-trump-becomes-president/
(This is the first instance I saw of the servants' threats to leave. There have been many more lately)
Indeed. The bomb throwing anarchists of the late nineteenth / early twentieth centuries were spoiled little snots from European upper crust backgrounds. Over a period of years, they managed to knock off seven, yes...count them...seven heads of state including a US president. Oh, and they started WWI.
ReplyDeletesounds like most G8 nations yes. left/right, red/blue, donkey/elephant is all divide and conquer, distract and rule.
ReplyDeleteWho are the rulers? The money changers rule the world. Gold is the money of kings, silver is the money of gentlemen, paper is the money of slaves.
ReplyDeleteThen there is the black market class, Utopia forces the masses into poverty or the black market. Actually most everyone has to cheat somewhat to survive.
That's part of the plan. Then they always have something to arrest you for, and you live in fear of angering them.
The larger the gov/utopian leader class becomes, the more what author says becomes flat out reality. I've seen this coming for awhile in my State; I've always said, pretty soon there will be three types of people living in Hawaii: Ruling class, government workers, and homeless. I'm watching it happen.
ReplyDeleteBefore Brexit was passed someone made a documentary about the EU. It pointed out that the technocrats of the EU, all of them, had a private, state funded mall they could shop at. A mall not opened to the proles. There were also lucrative lifelong pension and healthcare plans for the members of the technocracy. Legislation in the EU also isn't proposed or ratified by members elected by the proles, but by un-elected technocrats. Unilateral actions by the EU destroyed the UK's fishing industry.
ReplyDeleteHad a new insight just now on the political views of upper middle class housewives living in suburban Utopias (my niche area by some strange twist of fate). While they are "intelligent" in "normal" terms, there is a certain shallowness in their viewpoints, so they don't see how difficult things are beneath the surface, behind the scenes. Like, they take the results of science as something wonderful, understand them fairly well and use them. But they seem to have no clue of the difficulty, the struggle, the agony, that a research scientist may have had to go through, to get one tiny new result.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly they don't seem to understand the dark side of politics, what goes on behind the scenes.
Curiously, my Dad tipped me off when I was still a child, when I asked him why he didn't go into politics. He told me of a newspaper owner who had threatened to destroy his reputation if he ran for office. I have now spent almost a lifetime studying dirty politics in that city, few have a clue.
Oh my goodness¡ Do you mean a family of man and a woman raising children, unaware of the third toilet option, those children that think a sunny day is a chance to kick a ball outdoors, especially if Palestinians aren’t in a random killing mood (ha, ha, ha) not knowing that the Earth is overheating. Come on, how wrong can they be? Don’t they know there is a consensus built by UN-Fu Manchu, Frau Murky, Barry Olé, gone-with-the-wind Hillary O’Hara and Pancho Pope?
ReplyDeleteI have, after a lifetime in the private sector, been working for a state agency, in a poor Southern state for the last two years. It is exactly as you describe. The EBT supplicants are "clients" and the children in the State's care are the children of clients. All are but Aphids to be milked by the ant hive.
ReplyDeleteAnything I try to accomplish with clarity, efficiency, or logic is thrown back in my face as ignorant of the "process" and the process is the only thing that holds it all together. The budget is broken beyond repair, but the ants form a process ball and float along on the flood of incompetence. Best get with sticking to each other and the process.
Have you ever read the short story of the Valley of the Blind? It is as though I am beaten with sticks by my betters in the admin class, for not knowing the unwritten process. Each day I am closer to begging them to operate on me and remove my eyes so that I am no longer crippled by what I can plainly see or logically conclude.
I realized just now that the economics of a Marxist state are most similar to the economics of a slave plantation. That may be the best way to think of Cuba and Venezuela.
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