by Kathie MM
Republican President Theodore Roosevelt , the “trust buster” president who successfully opposed powerful monopolies, said what the country needed was “a real democracy” and “of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth, the tyranny of a plutocracy.”
A plutocracy is a “society…ruled or controlled by people of great wealth or income….“[T]hroughout history, political thinkers such as Winston Churchill…and Noam Chomsky have condemned plutocrats for ignoring their social responsibilities, using their power to serve their own purposes and thereby increasing poverty and nurturing class conflict, corrupting societies with greed and hedonism” (Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutocracy ).
Plutocrats overlap with the group Eidelson calls one percenters, but not every multi-millionaire or billionaire is motivated solely by greed and lust for power.
Currently, the United States (and other countries) are being wrenched steadily back into the tyranny of plutocracy. Where is the Theodore Roosevelt to stop them?
What you need to understand about plutocrats:
- Many are morally disengaged, able to convince themselves that behaviors causing enormous damage to people and the planet are all for the good.
- Many want to get you morally disengaged too, and exploit groups already morally disengaged (more on fascists and chaos seekers later).
- Many are political extremists who feed racism, ethnocentrism, and sexism, and use mind games (manipulating feelings of fear, anger, resentment, distrust, pride, and despair) to spread moral disengagement to vulnerable audiences. For example, they create scapegoats and dehumanize them. They propagate increasingly severe levels of poverty, and blame the poor for their misery. They generate policies designed only to help themselves, but claim the policies will benefit all.
For a powerful insider portrayal of how plutocrats do these things, click here: https://www.ted.com/talks/nick_hanauer_beware_fellow_plutocrats_the_pitchforks_are_coming
Whistleblower Nick Hanauer never uses the terms mind games or moral disengagement, but provides compelling examples of both; moreover, his effort in this video and elsewhere (e.g., here and here ) suggest that even a one percenter can become morally engaged.
As the next election year approaches, let’s all work together to sustain and promote moral engagement.