Mar 4, 2005
Our Education President, & What the Pseudo-Elites are Reading
The Wall Street Journal (3/4/05) has an interesting article "The Book-Club Snub." Unfortunately, the online link lacks the marvelous chart of several book clubs, and what they are reading, featured in the print edition.
In studying the evolution of civilizations for over four decades, especially the Empire phase, I have always been fascinated by the cultural dimensions of same.
Empires have always been urban-mass societies, sometimes euphemistically referred to as republics, or democracies. In such circumstances it is important for"Big Daddy," to help, not only with sanctifying the welfare"bread," but also with the entertainment" circuses" to keep the minds of the masses, and even many of the pretended elite, from any serious analysis of what was transpiring in the area of the political economy.
In Rome, apart from chariot races and gladiatorial contests, often between the bored children of the upper classes, killing animals, ala Teddy Roosevelt, was one of the preferred entertainments, with 9,000 killed in one year in one of the coliseums for which we have records. The carcasses of bulls and other animals, were then raffled off to be eaten.
One can just picture George II/43 swaggering down to the tailgate of a Roman wagon, where such an animal was being roasted, to slather it with Texas Bar B-Q sauce from a five-gallon bucket. What fun!
Today, of course, the range of mind-numbing entertainments is far wider. The active elite, as opposed to couch potatoes watching television, prefers expensive sky-boxes with one-way glass so that one can party, free even of the camera lens.
Internet Blogging is also another of these diversions, but which has, on occasion, bitten some of the elite on the ass!
But the pretentious middle class pseudo intellectuals, ignoring the war in Iraq and other such unpleasantries, seem to like exclusive books clubs, which can reject many of the aspiring applicants. Of the many books mentioned in the WSJ article, only two, Thomas Frank, What's the Matter with Kansas and Anatol Lieven, America Right Or Wrong come remotely close to analyzing what is happening to this nation, or on the world scene.
Even our"education" President, eschewing newspapers, reads more serious books than most of these book club members.
I noted in a previous article that Imperial Ages where characterized by increasing religious ignorance, but also ought to have mentioned that this has also true of much of the secular" civic humanist" elite as well.
It is doubtful that many of the intellectual social climbers inhabiting the many book clubs will devote themselves to any serious discussion of what is happening to America. Karl Rove and his minions, in fact, are counting on that! And so, let us Blog On, and On and On!
In studying the evolution of civilizations for over four decades, especially the Empire phase, I have always been fascinated by the cultural dimensions of same.
Empires have always been urban-mass societies, sometimes euphemistically referred to as republics, or democracies. In such circumstances it is important for"Big Daddy," to help, not only with sanctifying the welfare"bread," but also with the entertainment" circuses" to keep the minds of the masses, and even many of the pretended elite, from any serious analysis of what was transpiring in the area of the political economy.
In Rome, apart from chariot races and gladiatorial contests, often between the bored children of the upper classes, killing animals, ala Teddy Roosevelt, was one of the preferred entertainments, with 9,000 killed in one year in one of the coliseums for which we have records. The carcasses of bulls and other animals, were then raffled off to be eaten.
One can just picture George II/43 swaggering down to the tailgate of a Roman wagon, where such an animal was being roasted, to slather it with Texas Bar B-Q sauce from a five-gallon bucket. What fun!
Today, of course, the range of mind-numbing entertainments is far wider. The active elite, as opposed to couch potatoes watching television, prefers expensive sky-boxes with one-way glass so that one can party, free even of the camera lens.
Internet Blogging is also another of these diversions, but which has, on occasion, bitten some of the elite on the ass!
But the pretentious middle class pseudo intellectuals, ignoring the war in Iraq and other such unpleasantries, seem to like exclusive books clubs, which can reject many of the aspiring applicants. Of the many books mentioned in the WSJ article, only two, Thomas Frank, What's the Matter with Kansas and Anatol Lieven, America Right Or Wrong come remotely close to analyzing what is happening to this nation, or on the world scene.
Even our"education" President, eschewing newspapers, reads more serious books than most of these book club members.
I noted in a previous article that Imperial Ages where characterized by increasing religious ignorance, but also ought to have mentioned that this has also true of much of the secular" civic humanist" elite as well.
It is doubtful that many of the intellectual social climbers inhabiting the many book clubs will devote themselves to any serious discussion of what is happening to America. Karl Rove and his minions, in fact, are counting on that! And so, let us Blog On, and On and On!