Ruling/Power Elites

Regular contributor dmarks has commented frequently on the “ruling elites” in our country. If I understand him correctly he sees these as members of the government, a power group unto themselves working only for their self interest at the expense of everyone else. It pictures government as the enemy of which we must be wary and fight. Carried to the extreme it becomes an argument for anarchy, which I do not believe he really advocates; though I am often confused as to what he is advocating.

Years ago many talked about the Trilaterial Commission which many believed were the powers behind the powers in this country calling the shots as to the direction the country would go. It existed. It was formed by David Rockefeller and Zbignew Brzezinski in 1973 and had headquarters in New York, Paris and Tokyo supposedly funded by Ford, Lilly Endowment, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the German Marshal Fund (non profits) and corporations: Time, Bechtel, Exxon, General Motors, Well-Fargo among others.

They did not advertise themselves but they didn’t hide either and eventually we reported on by major media. They had their own magazine called Trialogue (no, I was not on the subscribers list). Their stated purpose was to make closer working relationships between the Western Europe, Japan and North America for common problems.

If you want to know more there is plenty of information about them on the internet. I bring them up because many folk, including myself, when we first learned about them, were very wary and suspicious of such a group and wondered if they were trying to have undue influence on we common folk. As it turns out they were just gifted people working on common interests and had the potential of enhancing the lives of those they represented.

There are genuine elites in any group, even if we may not like the word; people of unusual talents and abilities. How they chose to use those talents and abilities is the real issue of elites. The founding fathers, though we can demonize them over their stances on issues of their day we for the most part the benefactors of those types of elites. A gifted group who chose to use their gifts to benefit the country they were beginning and leading. They are models of governmental leadership. We need our brightest and best to be the public servants of our country. And many today are such if we put our cynicism aside at look at the records of such people like Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl from my state. Good public servants who served their constituency well. And of course, there are those who do not do as well, which the media reports on more fully.

And then there are those elites who choose to use their gifts and power to further their own selfish self-interests and use the money and power to exert undue influence on others, and they often try to hide their efforts. We know some of them. The Brad Blog revealed the Koch Brothers to the nation and their agenda of seeking undue control over government and politicians and the judiciary. More publicly, in one sense, are the Super PACs but those names are often not known just their organization. These are the ones the hire the lobbyists to write legislation to benefit themselves often at the expense of the general public. There are the ultra rich who want legislation that keeps them ultra rich at the expense of the common working folk and even at the expense of the poor. Unfortunately these ruling elites have been very effective in their aims and have paved the way for the incredible imbalance of wealth in our country. They rule not because they lay their agendas before the public or run for public office but do their work behind the scenes with their power and influence. They infect both parties but their allegiance is primarily with the right which best reflect their interests.

As I have said previously, I am not against power elites per se, if they use their talents for the common good, but I am against those power elites who use the power and influence only for self interest.

You can go on the internet and easily find lists of corporations, banks, and other groups who have used their power primarily for self interest at the expense of others. And we know of power brokers like the Koch Brothers, Karl Rove and others who use unsavory tactics to get their way.

Our country is in real danger of the unscrupulous power elites and many believe they have already created an oligarchy or plutocracy that runs the country and have undone the democratic process. We need a means to hold these power elites in check with election reform and better governmental accountability to the public.

Dr. Hassan El-Najjar in 2010 wrote and interesting piece on the tunnel vision of some power elites in an article called The Disastrous Power Elite Tunnel Vision, to Which a Population Is Indoctrinated. In it he says, There are four major differences between these two groups of the US power elite, which alternate control over the US government in particular, and the US society as a whole. All pertaining to internal US politics.

Republicans are champions of tax cuts for the wealthy, against some adult sexual practices, advocates of the least government intervention to help the poor, and proponents of the tight indoctrination of the masses to the degree of violating their basic human rights (Such as the adoption of the Patriot Act and the security measures resulting from it).

Democrats are champions of more taxes on the wealthy, tolerant to adult sexual practices, advocates of government intervention to help the poor, and less zealous towards indoctrination of the masses. However, like Republicans, they uphold the indoctrination of the masses concerning the holiness of Israel.

Members of the power elite, or their loyal representatives, maintain a tight grip over venues of information allowed to be received by the masses (mass media, publishing houses, boards of education, and religious establishments). This has resulted in the indoctrination of Americans to the viewpoints of their rulers.

This explains why the vast majority of Americans have not objected, protested, or revolted against the policies of their rulers, which have led to the financial, economic, and military disasters, particularly during the first decade of the 21st century.

My point is there are power elites, but we need to be clear as to who we are talking about and whether the motives are good or bad. We need to not confuse the power elites with those who pull their strings. There is nothing wrong with being elite from the standpoint of having gifts, talents and resources; but there is a major difference in how elites use their gifts. All elites need to be conscious of the seduction to believing in noblesse oblige. We need to seek the balance between accepting elite gifts and humility in understanding there are indeed gifts we have received.