What the One-Percent Jokes About When They Think No One Else Is Listening

[DonViejo]

BEN COSMAN

It’s easy to call the wealthiest individuals in America out of touch, but it’s another thing to see it in action. In an excerpt from his new book Young Money, New York writer Kevin Roose goes inside a meeting of Kappa Beta Phi, “the secret Wall Street fraternity” that's home to the richest men in America, and shows just how bonkers the world of the one-percent really is.

While working on his book in 2012, Roose snuck into the group's annual induction ceremony, of which he claimed, "No outsider in living memory had witnessed the entire proceedings firsthand." Like any other frat initiation, new Kappa Beta Phi inductees are asked to do all manner of ridiculous things, like don leotards, skirts, and wigs and put on a show for the fraternity's current members. The only difference is, these "neophytes" are some of the richest, most powerful business people on the planet.

Roose, who snuck into the event simply by donning a tuxedo and strolling past security, details the "comedy skits, musical acts in drag, and off-color jokes" that target liberal icons like Hillary Clinton, Barney Frank, and even the academic honor society Phi Beta Kappa, which the group takes its name from.

The jokes ranged from unfunny and sexist (Q: “What’s the biggest difference between Hillary Clinton and a catfish?” A: “One has whiskers and stinks, and the other is a fish”) to unfunny and homophobic (Q: “What’s the biggest difference between Barney Frank and a Fenway Frank?” A: “Barney Frank comes in different-size buns”.

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http://www.thewire.com/business/2014/02/what-one-percent-jokes-about-when-they-think-no-one-else-listening/358210/

[Warpy]

1. Juvenile and banal

That's why some of them adopted me as a pet when I was young and cute. I never said anything too predictable. It gave me an enormous opportunity to analyze the masters of their corner of the universe.

Also remember that these guys are the hired help. They're the ones charged with making the 1%'s balance sheets look rosier every quarter. If they don't manage a certain percentage of paper gains per quarter, out the door they go, hope you didn't go too deeply into debt for that Manhattan condo and the trendy furniture because you thought you could skim the economy forever.

The whole system is sad, sickening and unsustainable. Gotterdammerung is going to be spectacular this time around.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. he has identified some important characteristics..

He points out that they are NOT self aware, but I disagree, because he reports that once found out, they KNEW what
outsiders would think of them. That certainly speaks of self awareness.
He also points out they are fear based, and I totally agree, but for different reasons.
No one comfortable in their own skin would have the ego needs of financial security, of group think, of the need for power, that these guys have.