General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTHE RULES OF THE NEW ARISTOCRACY (by JMS, creator of Babylon 5)
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=760992300602302&id=139652459402959&stream_ref=10You live in a Company Town; we pay you to work for us, while making sure that we own all the stores in town that sell our goods, the doctors offices where you go in town, the restaurants where you eat, and that we charge you just enough to make sure that at the end of the week you dont have any leftover money to squirrel away, so you can never leave the company town, can never get ahead, and can never risk criticizing the company town. You work for us. We own the town where you live. We own you.
If one of you takes a hundred dollar bill from the cash register, you will go to jail. If we take billions out of the savings of ordinary people then crash the economy, costing thousands of jobs, not one of us will ever be prosecuted. Because the New Aristocracy is above such things. So well just keep on doing it. Enjoy the ride.
Your local police belong to us now. We have militarized them into soldiers who treat you like terrorists. If you speak against us, we will ensure that you are tear gassed and beaten and handcuffed and caged into free speech zones designed to make you forget that the whole country was supposed to be a free speech zone. But now you have free speech only when and where we say you can have it. Meanwhile, we can say and do pretty much anything we want, to you or anyone else, and get away with it.
Thankfully it seems these ideas have been gaining traction lately, I think our party can still get in front of these issues and lead the American people out of our current quagmire of gross inequality, exploitation, and economic depression.
DJ13
(23,671 posts)We own the White House. We own Congress. They pass the bills we write for them. They make the laws we want them to make, and make sure that they only limit you, never us. We own the courts. We own the lawyers. They are the club we use to beat you into submission.
There are no Democratic or Republican Senators, or Congresspeople or Presidents. Those parties have not existed for decades. There is only the Party of the New Aristocracy. The rest is Kabuki theater. It is Mexican Wrestling. It is the illusion of choice, of difference, of democracy. This is not a democracy. It is a monarchy of money. In that monarchy, we are the Aristocracy, the royalty, and what we say, goes.
If you dump trash illegally, you will be fined and potentially arrested. If we dump hundreds of tons of toxic waste into rivers and streams, none of us will ever be arrested and if we are fined, we will simply raise our prices so that you are the one to actually pay for what we did.
We are the New Aristocracy, and we do not pay fines.
We are the New Aristocracy, and we are immune from prosecution.
We are the New Aristocracy, and we find your poverty and your powerlessness and your struggles disgusting. You are beneath us.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)much applause for your words of truth.
erronis
(15,250 posts)And we demand all that is unto US. And everone else is blasphemous and should be toasted.
Sadly... that sums it up perfectly.
The only way to WIN is NOT to play.
Its not for everybody.
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)Just this week...
Michael Bloomberg (billionaire and former NYC Mayor) was asked about income inequality. His reply was redistributing wealth from the top 20% to the bottom 20% doesn't work. "Look at Russia." We can't look at income inequality, he said, from results. The best we can do is level opportunity. And sometimes people are lucky. That's just the way it is.
Warren Buffet just said he doesn't support raising minimum wage. He thinks "Earned Income Tax Credit" is best, a Federal-subsidized program. Very convenient for a billionaire who doesn't pay income tax and doesn't want to pay higher wages. Let "the little people" fight for the scraps.
The question is, what are we going to do about it?
Or is it game over? We already lost the class warfare.
fasttense
(17,301 posts)I stopped going about the time Occupy was squelched by the Obama administration.
I feel that we have lost. When Obama turned out to be nothing more than an enabler for the oligarchy, I just gave up. The Oligarchy is so powerful that millions of Americans will have to respond to every provocation from the rich elite. But America is NOT there yet. Maybe with the 2nd crash they will be. If/when Americans start to fight back, I'll be there but until then I will focus on my farm. My produce may not change the world but how I grow it will.
Babel_17
(5,400 posts)Krugman, writing in the New York Review of Books, says Piketty's work will "change both the way we think about society and the way we do economics".
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)Could they be Vorlons and Shadows? The illusion of choice but the same result?
I can't help it, Babylon 5 is hands down the best Sci Fi series ever!!!!
Could Piketty be the new G'Kar?
I'm stopping, I'm done!
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)We like it so much that we are buying copies to give to our family and friends.
Elizabeth Warren could be the president who would give all Americans "A Fighting Chance."
And don't tell me she isn't running. She will run if we support her and tell her we will support her and work for her if she does run.
Babel_17
(5,400 posts)Wow, good for you and what you're doing!
Dragonfli
(10,622 posts)Disappointingly, I can't find it anywhere online, not couchtuner, hulu, or netflix.
If I am ever in possession of money again I will buy it on DVD (where I am sure it is likely available).
Now back to reading about the actual subject of the OP.
Babel_17
(5,400 posts)#FreeBabylon5
http://freebabylon5.com/
https://www.facebook.com/FreeBabylon5
Reply With Quote
Babel_17
(5,400 posts)I know it predates the JMS post but I was struck by the similarities.
Sign of the times?
Dragonfli
(10,622 posts)Sign of the times? Unfortunately yes.
Thanks for the links by the way, I didn't realize there was a concerted effort to bring the series back.
There is so much garbage in syndication it blows my mind that something so well written can't be found anywhere (well except UK apparently)
winter is coming
(11,785 posts)Babel_17
(5,400 posts)It's a matter of timing. Now's a great time for everyone to speak out.
starroute
(12,977 posts)Only with no easy way out.
supernova
(39,345 posts)DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)...seem to be the people on this board -- who don't happen to be politicians currently in or running for, office. So why should anyone vote for a numbskull who is essentially running to maintain the present system?
- How do you ''un-rotten'' the apple?
K&R
[center]
''Sending a ''Hoper and Changer'' to Washington to reform it, is like sending
a vestal virgin to a whorehouse in order to turn it into a church.''[/center]
Babel_17
(5,400 posts)I got a snail-mail letter from Senator Bernie Sanders today, though I haven't read it I know if I go to his website or google his name I can find that he speaks to this issue.
https://www.sanders.senate.gov/
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)"Hey, I know. Let's turn education into a profit making operation. Let's outsource the jobs. How about we privatize the water supply, you know, after we poison most of it. And then we'll compromise the internet so they can't complain about the reaming they're getting."
otherone
(973 posts)blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)NBachers
(17,108 posts)are agreeing, too.
Babel_17
(5,400 posts)Last edited Sun May 4, 2014, 10:58 AM - Edit history (1)
What's happening here isn't unique to the USA.
Edit: Thanks for that heads-up, I hadn't read the responses to any great length.
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)If you happen to figure out our game and talk about it, we will accuse you of Class Warfare, in order to distract anyone from realizing that yes, there was a class war, that it was against you, that the war is over, and we won.
Yes, you get a chance to vote for congresspeople and senators and presidents. But only after weve decided, long before the first ballot is ever cast, which candidate we will finance. Those we like, those who will give us what we want first and foremost, we will finance and you will get to vote on one of the two pre-screened candidates we have given you. If we dont like them, if we think they will challenge us, we will not finance them and you will never have the chance to vote on them. Because you dont get a real vote in the New Aristocracy.
We own the White House. We own Congress. They pass the bills we write for them. They make the laws we want them to make, and make sure that they only limit you, never us. We own the courts. We own the lawyers. They are the club we use to beat you into submission.
There are no Democratic or Republican Senators, or Congresspeople or Presidents. Those parties have not existed for decades. There is only the Party of the New Aristocracy. The rest is Kabuki theater. It is Mexican Wrestling. It is the illusion of choice, of difference, of democracy. This is not a democracy. It is a monarchy of money. In that monarchy, we are the Aristocracy, the royalty, and what we say, goes.
If you dump trash illegally, you will be fined and potentially arrested. If we dump hundreds of tons of toxic waste into rivers and streams, none of us will ever be arrested and if we are fined, we will simply raise our prices so that you are the one to actually pay for what we did.
We are the New Aristocracy, and we do not pay fines.
We are the New Aristocracy, and we are immune from prosecution.
We are the New Aristocracy, and we find your poverty and your powerlessness and your struggles disgusting. You are beneath us.
Understand something: we dont want you to succeed. We dont want someone coming along to slice the pie into smaller pieces. We want to own all of it. If we really wanted more of you where we are, do you think we would have spent the last thirty years consolidating every major company into smaller and smaller groups owned by fewer and fewer people?
We are the New Aristocracy because we were born into it. We got our money the old fashioned, Medieval way: our parents gave it to us. We were born into the wealth that we stole from you and your family over the last fifty years. You were not born into anything other than poverty and struggle.
You will never be us. You will never have our advantages. And we like it that way.
We like that you peer through the bars of your cage to all that we have. We like that you think you can have it yourself one day. Because that illusion keeps you on our side. But you will never have those things. Weve made sure of that. Because what youre looking at is ours, and we do not share.
The world we have carefully constructed for you is like one of those boardwalk games of chance where if you knock down the big pins with a baseball, you win a huge prize. But the pins are weighted and positioned so that you will never, ever knock them down. Yet youll keep paying anyway, and keep throwing, until you exhaust yourself and your wallet. And we like it that way.
We dont want you to have opportunities, we dont want you to have an education, we dont want you to have a voice in what happens to you, we dont want you healthy, we dont want you to do anything but be frightened, helpless, docile consumers who will eat and watch and buy what we tell you to eat and watch and buy while we keep all the good stuff to ourselves.
Because youre not in our club.
Because we are the New Aristocracy.
And you are the New Peasants.
And we very, very, very much like it that way.
sendero
(28,552 posts).. a lot of people reading your post will think it is a gross exaggeration. But it really is not and it may be too entrenched now to do anything about.
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)There were some of us noting on old DU way back in the day that as a society we were now using the Ferenghi Rules of Acquisition as the guiding principles of the nation. I still think this is more in line with the pedestrian sensibilities of the American "aristocracy." Latinum buys power and all the stuff you want, including people. Everyone, no matter how meager there existence, can use the principles as long as they can aquire a bit of latinum now and then. Free markets and lack of scruples codified and practiced.
Yes, we had several discussions about this back in the day.
nxylas
(6,440 posts)It was posted onto Facebook by a fan page, with no indication that it came from the pen of JMS himself. I'd hate to find that it was incorrectly attributed, like a liberal equivalent of that "get off my lawn" routine that RWers like to pretend came from Robin Williams. Don't mean to rain on anyone's parade, but facts matter.
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)He is also very clear he doesn't like people ripping him off and not giving him credit for the work he does.
http://boingboing.net/2014/05/03/straczynski-the-new-aristoc.html
nxylas
(6,440 posts)I like to be sure of these things before sharing them. Snopes is my bible.
JanMSchroeder
(1 post)JMS is the only one who posts as 'Fans of J. Michael Straczynski' on that page. He doesn't even have a page admin or moderator.
Babel_17
(5,400 posts)Thank you for providing the link that got me to the post by JMS. And thank you for all your other work!
ladjf
(17,320 posts)"I owe my soul to the Company Store". nt
chervilant
(8,267 posts)I can post about the corporate megalomaniacs -- who've usurped our media, our politics AND our global economy -- and I get nothing.
No discussion...
No rebuttals...
Nothin'!
Why are we complacent about this?!?
Radical income inequity is our slavery du jour, and we've learned to keep our mouths shut, lest we lose the pitiful jobs we have now that barely put food on our tables.
Babel_17
(5,400 posts)Jan, an amazing moderator at the JMS forum, has done a great job of compiling some JMS commentary.
http://jmsnews.com/forums/showpost.php?p=121191&postcount=190
Here's one.
"But the hypocrisy, for me, is to see the right screaming bloody murder in defense of one right when they've happily, willingly and in some cases even gleefully given away the rest. Joe stands among that august company.
And though both parties acquiesced, it was the right that led this, make no mistake. Lots of folks on the left said, when warrantless wiretapping was discovered, "you can't do this, the Bill of Rights prohibits illegal search and seizure." And the right said "shut up, we need to be safe!"
When the left complained about American citizens being arrested without warrant and held without charges, it was the right, far more than the left, who said "shut up, we need to be safe!"
Time after time, the right led the battle to surrender the rights that the guns are supposedly there to protect.
Which is why there's no need in the long run for anyone to come for the guns...and why this won't happen (needless to say there is no one in congress actually saying "let's repeal the second amendment," that hasn't happened, let's not get into the gun discussion per se, that's another topic for another time).
The point is that there's no need to come for the guns to get our freedoms...because they've already been given away."
genwah
(574 posts)Babel_17
(5,400 posts)ctsnowman
(1,903 posts)gulliver
(13,180 posts)...only because people are willing to suspend way, way too much disbelief. Bless them, it creates a lot of jobs in the entertainment industry. But when it comes to politics, we need to understand that we don't live in a trope- and cliche-riddled serial drama. It does something of a disservice to the people who suffered under actual aristocracy, oligarchy, and so forth in the past to compare them to our current smart-phone wielding, self-defeating "peasants" of today. People still haven't realized the lights are on and the old days are over.
Babel_17
(5,400 posts)People are still suffering from poverty and disease. Just reading these boards provides real life examples from members.
navarth
(5,927 posts)Thank you so much for posting. I was just telling somebody the other day about Bab 5. JMS is brilliant. Can't wait to check this out.
Babel_17
(5,400 posts)Originally Posted by Fans of J. Michael Straczynski
So I thought I'd boost this so it could get more widely read. Facebook opted not to accept the boost, saying it violated their guidelines because it made "claims that are unrealistic or unlikely."
http://www.jmsnews.com/ Has news and links to forums. I've been quoting from the Babylon 5 one.
navarth
(5,927 posts)I'm a longtime fan of JMS and Bab 5.
socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)WELL over a century ago, right? This is couched in feudal terminology when it's actually NOT feudalism, it's capitalism.
Marx also had a prescription for solving this problem too.
Babel_17
(5,400 posts)I think many have a sense of themself that resembles that of the old time aristocrats. How their income is generated has changed a lot but that isn't everything.
socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)Anytime any "good" capitalist bucks the laws of capitalism, it puts him/her at a competitive disadvantage that can't hold to for very long. Either they change and start going with the capitalistic flow or they sell out and the buyers go with the capitalistic flow.
The attitudes of the "bad" capitalists just makes them easier to hate AND leads to the mistaken assumption that if you just get rid of the "bad actors" you'll solve the problem. History doesn't show that at all.
To paraphrase the Clinton campaign saying in '92: "It's the system stupid" BTW, that of course, is NOT a personal shot at you or anyone else, it's just a paraphrase of the famous "It's the economy stupid" saying of the '92 Clinton campaign.
Babel_17
(5,400 posts)But perhaps it's inevitable that our current system system will produce exemplars of a despicable aristocracy. This causes people to rise up in defense of themselves and then there is the chance for real, systemic, change.
I realize that there have been several instances of our government claiming to have "fixed" gross injustices that were allowed by laws and regulations and (lack of) enforcement/regulation, only to see the same misdeeds recapitulated.
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)"...the whole history of mankind...has been a history of class struggles, contests between exploiting and exploited, ruling and oppressed classes..."
Actually, maybe not all that sub. Centauri and Narn? The evolution of Londo and G'Kar?
And maybe, as in the best of science fiction, we are drawn to the truths the story tells about us.
Babel_17
(5,400 posts)But I'd say B5 dealt with complex systems of economics and governance and it dealt with history as being somewhat cyclic. The whole Narn/Centauri relationship might have a Marxist nodding his head, I don't know.
It's worth mentioning that JMS has broadened his field of work since B5. You might be amazed at what he's done and is working on.
P.S. I'm just a fan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Michael_Straczynski
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)"Let me pass on to you the one thing I've learned about this place: No one here is exactly what he appears." - G'Kar
Puzzledtraveller
(5,937 posts)Our party is part of it.
Babel_17
(5,400 posts)Once they see where we are going they might hurry to catch up so they can lead us. lol
rickyhall
(4,889 posts)Babel_17
(5,400 posts)I posted a link to this thread there in the thread that I found the JMS post. I try to be prudent about cross posting but I'm hoping this is ok.
proReality
(1,628 posts)Anyone from a coal town can tell you how it has been.
bvar22
(39,909 posts)...but the implementation has not been so complete and pervasive since the Gilded Age of the 1880s.
The Working/Middle Class badly needs a reset,
and I don't see one coming.
yuiyoshida
(41,831 posts)Babel_17
(5,400 posts)Great music for a great show.
Babel_17
(5,400 posts)Fans of J. Michael Straczynski
March 10, 2013 ·
The other day, in testimony, Attorney General Eric Holder said what may be one of the most astonishing and deeply disturbing things said about the current financial system. The quote follows:
"But I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if we do prosecute if we do bring a criminal charge it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy. I think that is a function of the fact that some of these institutions have become too large."
In particular, this clause "if we do bring a criminal charge it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy."
Mark down the date in your journals, because the moment this was publicly admitted was the day that the presence of the New Aristocracy was officially confirmed and given status above the rule of law.
If you or I or anyone else embezzled a few grand, or laundered a few grand, or committed any other kind of crime, they'd throw us under the jail for years. But like the aristocrats of long-ago England and France and other nations who could commit any crime they so chose and go without blemish because it would upset the Natural Order of Things, the New American Aristocracy cannot be prosecuted, cannot be indicted, cannot be brought to trial because if they do it will bring down the world economy. They are immune. They are above the fray. Untouchable.
It's Mafia logic. "Nice world economy you got here. Be a real shame if something...happened to it."
A congressman, senator or sitting president can have criminal charges brought against him or her, but not someone in a large financial institution?
For over two centuries, what made this nation a shining beacon on a hill was the absolute certainty of its citizens that we were a nation of laws, and that no one was above the law.
That world no longer exists.
Say hello to the New Aristocracy.