Franklin's Focus 8/4/10

Random Thoughts on Elitism in Capitalist Democracies

I have noticed with more than passing interest that blue collar
workers in the industrial democracies are currently being made the
scapegoats for the current financial and economic crisis. In Greece,
they have actually mobilized the army to go after striking truck
drivers. Obama has not called out the national guard as of yet to
assault the American lumpenproletariat, but he probably has dreams of
doing so. His regard for labor is at bottom no better than the regard
for labor being shown by the Greek government. He simply cannot go as
far as the Greek administration has gone in dealing with labor.
Elections, after all are drawing near.

It will be interesting to see if the other so called European
democracies use an iron fist to quell growing labor unrest. There
clearly is a political move toward the right in the traditionally
liberal democracies. It is those of the right who caused the huge
world financial catastrophe. Now those same people are blaming labor,
and Obama's every instinct is to support that explanation. He has
never met a Wall Street big shot he did not cotton to, and I don't
believe he has ever felt comfortable with talking to blue collar
workers or labor union leaders or even the racial minority he himself
belongs to. Let's face it. Obama is an elitist at heart.

Obama is very cozy with the Clintons who have had a large degree of
input into his administration. He obviously feels quite comfortable
with these chieftains of the right wing in the Democratic Party.
Hillary, after all, has performed admirably in destroying the Honduran
democracy and aiding in every way the rise of a de facto military
dictatorship, which has been one step more in seeking to force a
retreat of the movement toward democracies in Latin America.

Did you take note of the wedding given for the daughter of the
Clintons? Every elitist in the land was drooling with hopes of being
invited. That obscene wedding was a classic example of Thorstein
Veblen's 'conspicuous consumption' theory. Such a hugely excessive
display for the wedding of a woman who has not distinguished herself
in any fashion whatsoever was revolting – but it was not unexpected.
Members of the power elite in this country have never had any sense of
shame over their displays of wealth, a shameless arrogance intended to
show the world they are in fact are members of a grand and holy elite.

Today's Quotation

'LIFE INSURANCE, n. A form of gambling in which the bettor wins if he
or she dies before the insurer wagers that he or she will.'

Robert Tefton, noted critic of everything

Warmest regards,
Richard