Comment:
And of all classes, “the ruling classes” are usually the least fit. Now, who are the ruling classes today?
Some would say capitalists and corporate leaders.
Here at The Mind Body Politic, where we claim to look more deeply than others into the innards of the political organism, we demur. Our capitalists (that is, the few that remain so among the many more who’ve turned into technocrats) are ruled themselves.
Only look around. Open The Wall Street Journal – Vox Capitis – and check for yourself. Out tumble words and phrases that might as well have come from the Soviet Politburo…. and all of them as soiled, over-handled and badly-fitting as spandex tights in a thrift store: the public good……. democracy… women’s rights…. the national interest….
Now, when have any of these meant anything other than whatever it is any speaker chooses them to mean? (Note: we don’t object to any of these things. We just object to the way these terms are roped into the pursuit of just about any political or economic goal – including those diametrically opposite of the terms themselves”. Remember that “women’s rights’ were a reason we bombed Iraq and Iraqi women and children; we censor political speech for “the public good,” and we want to remake the world “in the national interest.” )
And who, may we ask, shines up these second-hand souvenirs to foist on the average uncritical citizen?
Is it leaders of business….or leaders of opinion ?
My bet is the latter. Over-exposed academics, under-educated journalists, and the whole tribe of professionals experts, prolix pundits and cacophonous commentators who eat up band-width around the planet…..
These are the leaders…as well as the followers…of public opinion.
And it’s public opinion, that great uncouth, whiskered, whisky-soused, splay-footed, smelly-arm-pitted tramp who leads us all around by the nose. High-browed or low-browed, we’re brow-beaten.. one and all… by the chatter of the chattering classes.