Oligarchs, Plutocrats and The Elites...and the Worker Bees

Great Debates
1

Geographical boundaries.
Hemispheres.
Forms of Government.

Are there others, who think as I do, that the groups mentioned in the thread title have more in common with one another than with the citizenry of their various countries?

The vast majority of of adult human beings on this planet expect to, and do, get up every morning and go to work. In whatever country and under whatever form of government… all they know is that whatever ‘job’ they are working at means they are providing the means for food and shelter and clothing for their families.

They have 'bosses." People who decide whether or not they can continue working. So they make an attempt to please their bosses. They and their families livelihoods depend upon their pleasing said bosses: they are, therefore, disinclined to make ‘waves’ by protesting conditions of their employment.

Moreso in some countries than others.

The “Elites” have this knowledge bred into their very bones either from birth or from hard-scrabbling to arise to the “top.”

In the meanwhile - it appears to be the Truth that the vast majority of grown-up, productive human beings on this planet are held hostage by the folks across the world with such vast wealth and power that we must keep marching to their agendas in order to keep our loved ones fed, clothed, sheltered and (in richer countries) convinced of the notion that we too, can one day arise to the level of the top 1% of the worlds’ most wealthy and powerful.

I’m certain that within the 'lower 95%" of the population exist the smartest, most creative, hard-working, people on the planet.

Why is it, then, that the conditions of life for the vast majority are allowed to be determined by such a small fraction of other human beings?

The bloody French Revolution is either decried or cheered by various sensibilities; but does the remedy for the grave injustices of this world really require a bloody revolution?

The ‘bad guys’ have the money and the militaries, but we have the numbers.

Perhaps their can be some bloodless solution to the glaring inequities.

What can motivate the majority of adults on this planet to band together to work in they and their families own self-interests, rather than those of the Oligarchs, Plutocrats and Elites?

God knows, within OUR ranks exists the intelligence and passion to make it so.

So what is it, do you think? What is the answer?

That is MY question for “General Questions.”

2

Haven’t you been here long enough to know that nobody can answer these kind of rambling questions?

3

Yep.

Rambling or not…

You answered the question eloquently by your dismissive response.

4

This should be in GD, not GQ.

Two things come to mind reading this.

  1. I read somewhere (no idea how true it is) that all totalitarian movements, whether religious, political or of some other nature, try to undermine or co-opt the family unit. Family relations are a threat to the power of the ideology. So the ideology either tells you to turn on your family, or tries to remake itself as your new, real family. Dictators like Stalin and Kim Il Sung were treated as fathers to the citizens in their nations. Religions refer to dieties as paternal characters. So something that can be used to resist the power of autocrats (the family unit) is attacked by authoritarians. They either try to destroy the family, co-opt it or use a person’s sense of love and responsibility to their family (and desire to avoid seeing family members suffer) to control them. The dictator claims to be your real father, separates families, or threatens to torture your birth father if you pose a political threat to him. Either way the family unit as a tool of resistance is broken up and co-opted.

  2. You say ‘the bad guys have the money and the militaries’, but they have more than that. The wealthy and powerful are able to co-opt several levers of power. The police, military, government/politics, religion, media, education, private business, etc. So you are up against a pretty powerful group who have control of enough interdependent levers of power to keep themselves in power. Pretty much any lever of power gets co-opted. I don’t know what an individual can have or do that isn’t going to get co-opted or suppressed.

What can be done about plutocracy? I don’t know. The book ‘from dictatorship to democracy’ talks about organized non-violent resistance. But that hasn’t worked very well in Iran when their elections were stolen.

5

This is the point, Wesley****, an “individual” can do nothing against the forces of “The police, military, government/politics, religion, media, education, private business, etc. …” you delineated.

But within those groups reside most of US.

The challenge seems to be to remind them/convince them that it is in their own best interests for their own and their progenies future, to align themselves with their fellow “worker bees” than with those Masters who cannot have power without their consent and participation.

How to accomplish that is yet another (or, aligned) “General Question.”

6

No. It’s a question, certainly, but it’s not a “General Question” in accordance with the forum rules of this board. This forum is dedicated to seeking specific factual information on questions with factual answers. Wide-ranging philosophical speculations about the nature of human civilization and politics in general have no place here.

But don’t worry, a moderator will doubtless stop by shortly to move you along.

7

Moved from General Questions to Great Debates.

samclem, Moderator.

8

Capitalism, where people acting in their own interest wind up benefiting everybody.

The key of capitalism is the un-coerced exchange of value between independent parties in which both sides feel they wind up with better than they started.

I have a widgit; you have a whatsit. I want your whatsit more than my widgit; you want my widgit more than your whatsit. We exchange. We both feel the exchange was in our own best interest - we both come out having increased our supply of what we value.

Not because we are such nice people, or because of dark fantasies of cabals of Illuminati directing us for their secret ends. Because it is the only kind of system that is sustainable in the long run, in interactions between strangers. Because it is win-win.

Regards,
Shodan

9

That would be an astonishing claim given that there are so many remarkably visible counterexamples. Nazi Germany strongly emphasized the family unit (well, unless the family was Jewish) and put into place social policies and rules designed to emphasize the integrity and importance of idealized family life. Stalin’s USSR, despite his “father of the country” image, did many of the same things.