Excesses and extravagant lifestyles

[hyphenate]

I've been reading Chris Hedges' American Fascists, and while I knew its reputation before I started reading, I was reading just to compare it to some of the other books I've been reading on fundies. Some of these books focus on the political side of things, while AF delves further into the mindset of those who are into this cult, and the tactics they use to bring people into the fold, and then never let go. I find it very sad to see how some of these people are derailed on their way to logical thinking, and end up stuck with fanatics and other creeps.

I've come up to a specific section that made my jaw drop even further than it has through other chapters of the book. This section is dealing with a "new class" of affluent "Xtians" and Hedges, at a convention in Anaheim, is describing one of the women at this convention. She and a friend are talking with Hedges, and mention is made of her daughter's wedding:

The wedding was filmed for broadcast on a show called "Sheer Dallas." The wedding theme was Sultan's Palace: Her Majesty The Queen." There were 500 guests who gathered in a building known as the Hall of State and "flowers from all over the world." Her husband--who.she says is "very, very wealthy," adding a comment about the wedding expense as "the national debt."

There was a huge fireworks display, and when the fireworks stopped, a quartet sang "God Bless America." Then there was a saxophone solo.

The cake took three months to make. There were jewels and semi-precious stones on both the cake and in the bridal bouquet Both had to be brought in the day of the wedding in an armored car.

The bridal gown took five and a half months to make. "It had mink this thick," she adds, holding her thumb and index finger about four inches apart.

Okay, so I'm not rich I'm not married, and haven't been to too many weddings, either. But I know my brother and SIL were married 32 years ago by a Justice of the Peace, and they are still together, despite how low-key their marriage started. I can't see spending this kind of money on ANYTHING, least of all a marriage that may or may not work out (the groom is considerably older than the bride, who is 36 at the time of the book). And five hundred people? :wow: Is that insane, or is it just my perception?

I know that "rich people" live differently than the rest of us, but I'm appalled at such conspicuous consumption and wastefulness. I just find it very difficult to absorb these things in the general light of all that is wrong with our country sometimes, and how some people just live in such a surreal world that it bears absolutely nothing familiar to me.

These people--this überclass of rich, powerful fundies, is too damned scary for me sometimes. They influence our government, they take something which was once the "promised land" (so to speak), and turn it into a battlefield of "believers and non-believers." They are willing to do anything--and I mean, EVERYTHING--to take our country and let it disintegrate simply to reach their goals they have decided on. And they have the audacity to say THEY are being persecuted?

Is this kind of a wedding de rigueur for someone of an upper class? Or are the excesses mentioned (and I'm sure a lot NOT mentioned) even moreso by these people because they want to be more than merely mentioned? Help me understand how these people think, because I personally believe it's just plain, fucking ridiculous otherwise.

[Crazy Dave]

1. My wife and I paid a notary $50 to marry us ten years ago

Most marriages only last two years so WTF?

[LisaM]

2. The wedding industry is completely out of control

there are whole TV series now devoted to extravagant weddings - often, I suspect, that the wedding party can't really afford. Not to mention the fact that brides are somehow excused for behaving in the most childish, self-indulgent, over-the-top ways - I think there is even a show called "Bridezillas". If I was the groom and saw that kind of behavior, I'd go running for the hills (and vice versa if the situation was reversed). The dopiest trend in my mind is the "destination" wedding, that generally excludes almost everyone the couple knows, since not everyone can afford to go to Hawaii for three days, for example. So the couple starts off getting married in front of a handful of people.

[Javaman]

12. I used to video tape weddings and I completely agree...

I got out of it, because it became insane.

once upon a time, video taping a wedding was an extra. Then it got very weird.

3 camera set ups, switchers, etc. It was less a wedding then a production of some sort of soap opera and the wedding was only an after thought.

I hated what I was doing and what it became. I only did it for an extra income, but after a while, the pure insanity I would have to put up with in regards of these ULTRA over the top spoiled little...well you get the idea, was crazy.

The last straw came when I was sitting down with the bride and her mom. (the groom almost never would come). The mom wanted to know if I could use one of those head mounted first person video dealies that show the brides face. You see the effect on any number of "extreme" sports shows.

I told them that such a device would stick out roughly 2 feet from her face and would more than likely hit both the groom and the priest in the face.

totally straight faced the mom said to me, "oh that's okay, we will have them stand further apart". I blinked.

Then I said, "okaaaay, the other thing, it would make it really tough for the bride and groom to kiss at the end of the ceremony".

The mother and daughter looked at each other. The daughter spoke up, "well, I guess we could always tape a kiss in a mock wedding and edit it later". My jaw dropped.

At that point, I got up and said, "get someone else".

These people are fucking crazy.

[musette_sf]

3. for more information on the uber-rich, uber-powerful,

and Xianity, read "The Family".

[sui generis]

4. Let's put it in perspective though

So you invite what, fifty people to your wedding? How's that going to fly in Ethiopia? It's relative to your means, not to your culture.

The fact is I personally know those people, and a few that make them look like raw amateurs. That wedding cost was absolutely NOTHING in terms of money. Think people who can afford to hire the Rolling Stones for their birthday party. Hire the Texas Motor Speedway race track . . . and drivers for shits and giggles. A few years ago a friend of mine called me from Acapulco aboard her last remaining yacht, in a blither of tears about having her allowance cut back to $80,000. . .. a month. I have spewed liquor, powder and dinner with the royalty of Monaco, done unspeakable and delicious things with the Lichtenstein brats (think Dangerous Liaisons, without any innocent bystanders), slept with enough of them of either gender, and been to every last mega outre party and social engagement with people utterly and completely out of touch with realit as the buffer of obscene wealth can manage. These people do not have entourages. They have drivers. They meet friends. They get whatever they want, usually except for love.

But to be fair, people become who they are. The young lady who was distraught over the limit on her allowance now manages a foundation looking after rural poor, and lives a "normal" seeming lifestyle, rationalized according her more mature values now.

Her cousin who was as sweet as could be, and the daughter of another megagonzo fortune turned out to make Cruella Deville look like Mother Theresa, and her shade of ugly is To The Bone, and not correctible in this lifetime.

It's not about "class" in the regard that we tend to think here. Old money has class, is socially aware, is a bit more humble, even about publishing their excesses.

They think just like you or I do. What do I want, how do I get it, how much will that cost. They just have more to spend on it.

[aspergris]

16. as vonnegut said

"But to be fair, people become who they are. "

We are who we pretend to be, so we must be careful who we pretend to be: Kurt Vonnegut

[Buns_of_Fire]

5. A saxophone solo right after "God Bless America"

Money can't buy class. There's your proof. :eyes:

[Super Soaker Sniper]

6. My Wife and I Got Married by Elvis in Vegas.

At the Graceland Wedding Chapel. It was fun and it was different.

Now as far as how much money is spent by anyone, hey it is their money and if I had that kind of bucks I would blow it even more stupidly than that. Probably buy several young, scantily clad women college educations a dollar at a time.

[Buns_of_Fire]

8. Ah, but did you know that the Nevada Supreme Court has ruled all such marriages null and void

unless Elvis sang "Hunka Hunka Burnin' Love" after you both said "I do"? ;-)

[Super Soaker Sniper]

17. He sang that and

My Way.

[yellowdogintexas]

7. what it is, is TACKY combined with money; a deadly combination. Always.

Look, it isn't a requirement for rich people to have this kind of excesses at their weddings, and for the most part you won't see shit like this. Yes, the dress will be expensive, the food will be top notch, the floral bill will be ridiculous, and the party will last all night but with most of the moneyed folks the whole affair will be tasteful, understated and elegant, not a full board tackyfest. These folks are what the Old Guard calls 'nouveau riche' with inherent disdain.

Look at both Maria Schriver and Caroline Kennedy's weddings: Lots of bridesmaids and plenty of guests and they truly could have afforded just about anything.... but fireworks? mink 4 inches wide? Hall of State at Fair Park? http://www.hallofstate.com/

jewels and semi precious stones on the cake? I think NOT!!!! In this case I think it is all about one ups man ship, my stuff's bigger than your stuff; sort of a social climber's pissing contest in a way.... and a wedding planner that got totally out of hand. Possibly the bride and her mother/ both with way more money than sense and apparantly needing to prove something to themselves or the world turned it all over to the wedding planners who just went apeshit.


get real..even Jenna Bush who could have spent untold amounts of money (and based on fashion choices we have seen the potential to get tacky) actually had a nice tasteful wedding and a lovely gown although I understand that dress had a pretty hefty price tag..

Even Joan Rivers wasn't THAT much over the top for her daughter and you sort of expect outrageousness from an outrageous person like Joanie.

[kestrel91316]

9. Anything to part the undeserved rich from their ill-gotten gains

as quickly as possible, I say......

[Blue_Tires]

10. even the Corleones thought that was over the top

[flvegan]

11. Bragging rights.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

13. Let 'em do it! This is the kind of stuff that leads to massive progressive reforms.

Back in the Gilded Age the people got so fed up with the excesses of the plutocrats, while they were starving, that they demanded change. It will happen again. The only thing keeping the pissed-off masses from attacking the gated communities up to now is cheap credit. Now that's gone and food and fuel are prohibitively expensive. Four inches of mink on a wedding gown is not going to go over well with people who are getting foreclosed on.

[papapi]

14. I think ermine, not mink. . .and nix the saxophone solo.

[sui generis]

15. here's some real math to spin on about

If your CEO's salary is 40 times your middle manager's salary, and his bonus is 3x a middle manager's salary, then if you have zero growth in your company you have to fire three people to pay your CEO's bonus.

Every senior executive hired can be added up in terms of some number times their salary = 1 executive salary. If you want reform, look at the number of people who are losing their jobs to pay someone else's raise.

These people actually PUT money back into the economy by spending it shamelessly, hard as that may be to swallow. We should be more outraged about tax cuts for the wannabe wealthy than about real wealth itself.