Winning so much

Was it Warren Buffet who said “of course there is a class war and my class is winning”? No matter, it’s the thought that counts. It comes in response to the neoconservative meme, going back a few years now, in which parties vaguely of the Left (Australian Labour, American Democrats, British Labor), are accused of conducting “class warfare” (or “class envy”) in response to any suggestion by them that the rich might pay a little more in taxes in order to try to restore some balance to huge disparities in wealth, educational opportunity, access to health care, access to decent housing and so on.

So let us translate. When the rich tell the poor to stop indulging in class warfare this is a euphemism. They really mean, as they have been saying since civilisation (a euphemism for the creation of wealth disparity in human populations) began, the following: “Listen up, peasants, this hierarchy you find yourself in, with one percent super rich, 4 percent very rich, and 95% poor, is perfectly natural, prescribed by god. After the Garden of Eden socialist experiment failed He divided society into the Deserving Rich and the Undeserving Poor, and anointed some Super Rich Kings to keep what should be an unstable system stable. To help the Kings He appointed some very rich religious leaders, their own riches dependent on the stability of the system, who would keep the 95% happy and unrebellious by making sure they understood how undeserving they were, and by dangling the unverified and unverifiable promise of a life after death in which they might get a bit more milk and honey.

So, peasants, be thankful you are not actually slaves any more and that we, out of the goodness of our hearts and a rich social conscience, have agreed to pay some small amount of money to buy enough food to stay alive. In return we will decide how many hours you work, and under what conditions, and, if profits fall even slightly, we will throw you out on to the street without a moment’s notice. We will decide what kind of houses you can live in, what kind of schools your children will go to, what kind of medical care you can get, what kind of media you can have. Oh, and if we hear any more of that class warfare talk about inequity from anyone they will also find themselves on the street and out of a job. Get it? Good, now back to work.”