Anyone who doubts the downside of hubris should think of the losing campaign of Hillary Clinton. Like cholesterol in arteries, extreme arrogance can block seeing political realities.
And Barack Obama is exhibiting horrendous hubris by, for example, flip-flopping on his pledge to use federal campaign financing for the general election and for displaying an Obama seal in public events that closely resembles the official presidential seal. Welcome to the audacity of arrogance.
But there is a lot more to this Age of Hubris.
At least 20 percent of Americans are on top of the economic ladder. Some 60 million people are not suffering because of high gasoline prices, are driving around in expensive $40,000+ cars, are living in sumptuous McMansions and vacation homes, have good health insurance, and are shopping in expensive stores and eating in luxurious restaurants that continue to do gangbuster business. They keep buying the most expensive products ever made available in human history. This elitist Upper Class benefits from the two-party plutocracy that through government policies takes care of them because the wealthy take of politicians. It is very likely that the vast majority of Obama’s small donors are part of this Upper Class.
About 3 million of these people comprise the super-rich that fly around the globe in private jets and are driven around in limousines, live in enormous well guarded homes costing tens of millions of dollars, and vacation on their yachts and private islands. They are members of the ruling plutocracy.
Meanwhile, the remaining 240 million Americans are suffering in a multitude of ways: millions lack health insurance and care, millions lack adequate food and shelter, millions more face economic insecurity and pain as they cope with extremely expensive gas and mounting food prices even as they increasingly recognize that enjoyable retirement is a disappearing dream and possible job loss puts them one step away from personal bankruptcy. With rising economic inequality, the vast majority of Americans are hurting, which explains why 84 percent say the country is on the wrong track.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Matthew T. Sussman
Okay, now my vote really cancels out yours.
2 - Clavos
I'm guessing you don't drive a Lamborghini, huh Joel?
3 - Baritone
Hey, Clav,
You're doing a lot of guessing tonite. I guess you've been right on both counts, though.
After all of Joel's ranting, the best he can come up with is Ralph Nader? Hell, I thought he was going to tell us "where the gatherin' is to be, with a thousand blades a flashin', by the risin' of the moon." Ralph Nader??? Come onnnnn. Let's get down and dirty. Let's kick some ass and run Rambo against the evil rich hoard. (If we win, can I get some rich guy's Hummer? That'd be great. We won't need no stinkin' guillotines. We can just run down all the rich bastards with their own monster SUVs.)
B-tone
4 - Clavos
I'll take the yachts.
Been lookin' to corner the market...
5 - Dave Nalle
Joel just blows the same tired old horn over and over.
You know what I thought when I got to this sentence:
At least 20 percent of Americans are on top of the economic ladder. Some 60 million people are not suffering because of high gasoline prices, are driving around in expensive $40,000+ cars, are living in sumptuous McMansions and vacation homes, have good health insurance, and are shopping in expensive stores and eating in luxurious restaurants that continue to do gangbuster business.
I was thinking damn, America is doing something right if such a large segment of society is above the usual vicissitudes of working life.
And of course, the class of people who have all the things he lists is MUCH larger than just 20 million people. Easily twice that larger. And what he also doesn't mention is that the rest of the population is incredibly well off compared to the underclass of most of the other nations on earth.
Dave
6 - Pablo
Great article Joel.
7 - Clavos
"And what he also doesn't mention is that the rest of the population is incredibly well off compared to the underclass of most of the other nations on earth."
Quoted (and emphasized) for Truth.
That's why all those campesinos keep on comin', and why ALL Our immigrants have come.
8 - Mooja
I would count myself as one of the 84% of folks that believes the U.S. is on the wrong track. Not because the economy is in shambles, it isn’t. Not because the vast majority of Americans are hurting, they aren’t. But because of the overwhelming tide of socialism I see coming down the pipe. It’s everywhere I look lately and few seem to mind. To me it appears so unavoidable as to be completely inevitable.
So there are many reasons folks may believe the U.S. is on the wrong track. Don’t presume you speak for them all.
9 - Matthew T. Sussman
"And of course, the class of people who have all the things he lists is MUCH larger than just 20 million people. Easily twice that larger."
I would even go as far to say ... three times as many.
10 - Joanne Huspek
"despite revolting conditions, Americans seemed completely unready to revolt."
Yes, we're not ready to revolt. That's because despite how bad things are now, things aren't "bad" enough to cause change. The disenfranchised squawk about gas prices, but they drive monster trucks and SUVs and drive them stupidly. All that will happen will be a shift in where the money goes.
Three years ago, when gas prices took the first leap into the stratosphere, I became angry and changed what I could in my world. However, I don't see that sort of consciousness in anyone else, not even in the young. We'll just continue to take it until the bottom drops out.
11 - Baritone
I will say this: It is definitely true that the schism between the haves and the have nots is very wide. It is also true that the poorest of people in the U.S. are, as a group, better off than the poorest in many other parts of the world.
But that is all relative, isn't it? Someone living in a rat infested inner city hovel living day to day, hand to mouth, may be "better off" than their counterparts in say, Malawi, but their lives still suck.
While the richest of the rich invite the "wretched refuse" to "eat cake" as they casually give guided TV tours of their 30000 square foot summer homes with a running water fall in the master bath, don't be altogether surprised if some unrest amongst the "teeming masses" should ensue. It seems that the "haves" don't quite understand just how grotesque the vision of their "conspicuous consumption" really is. It could - probably not - but could come back to bite them in the ass one day.
B-tone
12 - Clavos
"...don't be altogether surprised if some unrest amongst the "teeming masses" should ensue."
Maybe.
But the rulers of this country (i.e., the "haves") have historically been smart enough to see that the "have nots" get just enough to keep them quiescent (Henry Ford and his $5 wage, e.g.), which is why the "have nots" are generally better off than their counterparts elsewhere.
It is also the chief reason why communism never successfully took root here.
13 - Baritone
Clav,
You're probably right. But certain, perhaps equally unlikely, but, nevertheless, possible scenarios could materialize - say, perhaps one or more terrorist attacks within our borders, and/or a really significant hit and dismantling of the economy - or who knows what else - could change the mood of the country dramatically, and perhaps for the worse.
We have, in a sense, become sheep mollified with being spoon fed dribs and drabs, just enough to keep us hopeful that better days are to come. However, remove or significantly disrupt that hope, and the paradigm could change drastically.
I am not hoping for any kind of revolution - certainly not a violent one. The death and destruction that would likely ensue would, IMO, far outweigh any possible gains for the masses. But the lessons of the French Revolution among others, cannot be wholly ignored if the status quo is to be maintained.
B-tone
14 - Clavos
"But certain, perhaps equally unlikely, but, nevertheless, possible scenarios could materialize - say, perhaps one or more terrorist attacks within our borders, and/or a really significant hit and dismantling of the economy..."
Such events are more likely to unite, rather than further divide, the country.
"We have, in a sense, become sheep mollified with being spoon fed dribs and drabs, just enough to keep us hopeful that better days are to come. However, remove or significantly disrupt that hope, and the paradigm could change drastically."
All true. My point is, the rulers will keep feeding just enough dribs and dabs to keep everyone mollified; and that was the MAIN lesson of the French revolution, which, I contend, OUR rulers learned very well.
15 - Dave Nalle
Baritone, why is anything that goes on with the ultra-rich relevant to the average citizen, except as entertainment?
Their wealth is not made by depriving others in the rest of the population of wealth. They don't make the poor any poorer just because they are rich. And if they are a bit richer today than they were 10 years ago, that has no impact on anyone else.
The resentment against the ultra-rich is illogical, unjustified, and largely exists as a creation of the left for political purposes.
Dave
16 - Jordan Richardson
Their wealth is not made by depriving others in the rest of the population of wealth. They don't make the poor any poorer just because they are rich. And if they are a bit richer today than they were 10 years ago, that has no impact on anyone else.
Are you joking?
17 - Dan Miller
Hubris? Politicians exhibiting hubris? The last one I remember who didn't suffer from terminal and chronic hubris was Truman, and even he displayed it every once in a while. "Lying politicians?" Gracious me. That is a redundant repetition if there ever was one.
I suggest that one of the reality shows mentioned above include a segment or two showing Senators McCain and Obama attacking those master bath water falls with sledge hammers. Although it's probably too much to expect, perhaps St. Al the Gored could be on a reality show turning off some of the lights in his pitiful hovel.Bread and circuses, Sir, bread and circuses, are the answers. Free bread and other stuff for all! We also need more reality shows on TV; have entertainment persons endorse candidates -- they could draw straws to determine which endorses whom -- and perhaps have Senators Obama and McCain make appearances on Survivor and other neat entertainment shows. Perhaps (after her divorce trauma is done) Madona can form a singing group including both candidates, and take a road show to Zimbabwe. That would show that they all care for the truly downtrodden, in a bipartisan way.
Many of the poor and downtrodden in the U.S. perhaps perceive themselves to be so largely because they continue to be told (as they have been for many years) how rotten their lives are and that it is the fault of everybody else; certainly they have done their best and behaved well, so it can't be their fault. Perhaps they could consult with some of the folks who suffer great peril to come to the U.S. because their lives are so rotten and miserable elsewhere and they see some hope for a better life in the U.S.; riot police might be necessary to monitor the consultations, less violence ensue, but that's not an insuperable problem. Perhaps some bountiful and public spirited organization could arrange for some of the poor and downtrodden in the U.S. to exchange places with their counterparts elsewhere. Just be sure that they carry absentee ballots or return to their rotten country in time to vote.
Baritone says (Comment #11),
Sarcasm intended.
Dan
18 - Baritone
Dave,
That contention is ludicrous - no doubt a creation of the right for political purposes. You are a student of history, are you not? Maybe you should enroll in "Revolution 101."
B-tone
19 - Clavos
"Are you joking?"
No, he's not. The wealth of our economy is not a zero-sum equation. The money I make is not coming out of someone else's pocket, except as it represents value exchanged. Though not empirically wealthy, I am wealthy compared to the average homeless person, but my income does not reduce his.
20 - Jordan Richardson
No, I would imagine it's pretty hard to reduce zero income. Good point.
21 - Dan Miller
Clav, in re Comment #19, by making more money you pay more taxes, which (in addition to building bridges to nowhere and making more pork projects possible) actually helps the homeless and other poor and downtrodden, maybe.
Dan
22 - Jordan Richardson
"Oh yeah, the poor are actually grateful that I have more money than they do."
You guys can't seriously believe this nonsense, can you?
23 - Clavos
Responding to both Dan and Jordan:
My taxes DO pay for some homeless facilities; they also help pay for the welfare (and often, SS) checks that many homeless receive; most homeless have some income, very few have literally zero, but that's not the point.
24 - Clavos
A couple of additional points about the homeless:
Many if not most, are drunks or addicts, or both. They have SOME income to purchase their liquor and drugs.
A substantial addition to the homeless came about as a result of the misguided liberal idea that we needed to close down most of the nation's mental facilities. Many (if not most) of the inhabitants of these places had nowhere else to go, no family to care for them, and wound up on the streets as a result.
25 - Baritone
Dan,
So, of course, ALL the fucking poor people are poor ALWAYS because they don't behave properly, because it's their own damn fault. Or as Dave has reiterated a number of times: the poor just like being poor. They prefer it that way. It suits them. The poor, then, are NEVER in a million fucking years victims. The rich are ALWAYS rich because they are good, and they behave well.
Dave has pointed out how good the sub-prime situation is because it affords investors an opportunity to cash in. That's great! That's the fucking American way! And those who are put on the street are supposed to be grateful. Grateful I guess because nobody chopped off their heads or threw them into a dungeon.
Politicians are a product of the society from which they emerge. Politicians are forced to lie simply to survive. Truth gets no one elected. Voters want to hear what they want to hear. Pols jump through hoops and do other embarrassing and often foolish things because the electorate expect it of them; demand it! Politics will always be a dog and pony show. We get the government we deserve. We got George Bush, supreme idiot, because that's the best we deserved.
Dan, you seem to have the answers. Share with us your vision of a system in which we get the truth (whatever the fuck that may be.) A system in which we demand and get, not a fucking side show, but honor and ethics from our elected representatives. I wait with baited breath.
B-tone