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It's The Elite Who Are Corrupt
Charley Reese ^ | For Monday, June 10, 2002 | Charley Reese

Posted on 06/11/2002 3:39:27 PM PDT by vannrox

It's The Elite Who Are Corrupt

Most Americans are so steeped in egalitarian thinking that they like to delude themselves that they share in running the country. We ordinary folks, in fact, don't run the country and have a slim-to-none chance of even influencing its direction.

Thomas R. Dye, a professor at Florida State University, has made a study of power. Since power in our country resides in institutions, he defines individuals with power as those who occupy the top positions in the government and in corporate, legal, educational, civic and cultural institutions.

He found that there are only about 7,000 of these positions in the entire United States, and some individuals occupy more than one of them. It might sound unbelievable at first, but if you think about it, you will see that it is true.

In a newspaper, for example, there is one position of power: the publisher. Now, he delegates some of his power to other people, but everyone knows that all decisions are ultimately his and his alone.

In the federal government there are only 546 positions of power. These include the president, the vice president, members of the House and Senate and the nine members of the Supreme Court. One hundred percent of the power of the federal government resides in these individuals who occupy the 546 positions. Everybody below them operates with delegated power. That is so because all power of the federal government comes from the Constitution, and these are the only constitutional offices. I don't include federal-, district- and appellate-court judges because any decision they make can be overturned by the Supreme Court.

So the individuals who occupy these 7,000 positions of power are the elite who run the country. Therefore, it is the character of these members of the elite that will determine the character of the country. What you see in government policies, in cultural products and in education policies are the direct result of the decisions made by this relatively small elite.

History affirms this. The reason America did not follow the usual path of revolution to dictatorship was solely the result of the character of one man, George Washington. Washington could have easily made himself dictator, and many of the officers in his army wanted him to do just that. But Washington's character would not allow it.

When the elite who run a country have good morals and high standards, then you have a good country. If the elite become corrupt, you have a corrupt country. The vulgarity, profanity and violence you see in entertainment are there only because those individuals occupying the positions of power in the entertainment industry said "Yes." If they said "No," those things would disappear from the screens and the magazine racks.

Our problem is that most of our elite have become corrupted. Many are nihilistic and hedonistic. The leadership of a country always leads the masses, and they can lead them to high ground or into the swamps. And there's not much I can see that ordinary people can do about it.

I have to confess that I have lost my Jeffersonian faith in the people. All I have ever seen them do, save for a few individuals, is follow like dogs whoever happened to be in leadership positions at the time.

Given the moral and intellectual climate at most of the elite universities our future leaders will attend, I don't have an optimistic outlook for the future of the country.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: corrupt; democrat; dnc; elite; folk; government; liberal; men; power; republican; rnc; usa; women
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To: Rhetorical pi2
...and there IS a new tone in Washington.

There is a new tone in Washington. Mall events are more patriotic, people seem more cordial, and the mood is more tempered. Even Marion Berry withdrew his name from an election. With the exception of some Clinton leftovers, most of the Agencies seem to be pursuing more sensible goals. Freepers out number anarchist at rallies, and you seldom see Barney Fag or Maxine Waters in the news and even the Clinton woman is starting to disappear.

21 posted on 06/11/2002 6:27:49 PM PDT by Dale 1
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To: moderation_is_not_a_bad_thing
Hmm..... I was under the impression that free market capitalism and the First Amendment dictated what we see on movie screens and magazine racks. I'm not sure I want gov't involved in that.

As usual with market-oriented conservatives and libertarians, you miss the point entirely. "The free market" has never existed in pure form except at the very lowest level. The more complicated the economy (or the polity), the more elites have the ability to guide it by making decisions about what does and what does not appear in the market (or in public debate) before the individual consumer is given a chance to "choose" (or the individual voter is given a chance to vote).

Thus one has the illusion of choice, in a situation where, in fact, choice is pre-constrained by elites into a narrow spectrum of "acceptable public limits". More often then not, elites can allow or prohibit most material they want allowed or prohibited, without having to pass any laws to do so. Hidden rule is often more effective then open rule because it offers the illusion of freedom, but only delivering a narrow parameter which the ruling elites have decided is acceptable to them.

Blinded by ideology and "free market" ideals, it is no wonder so many conservatives and libertarians are bad at politics, and completely unaware of the existence of metapolitics. They don't seem to realize that all of the really important political questions are decided in private, months or years, sometimes decades, before they or the general public are even aware that such political questions even exist!

22 posted on 06/11/2002 6:28:32 PM PDT by Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy
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To: Nick Danger
He talks about "elites" as though these folks just aren't like you and me, because it's impossible to crack through the Invisible Wall and get one of those 7,000 jobs unless you're one of them. Oh, horsefeathers. Our very own World's Richest Man is a college dropout. The previous president of the United States -- may he rot in Hell -- grew up in such decidedly poor surroundings that even today people refer to him as "white trash."

Yeah, we have a few families that the media like to wave in front of us as some sort of hereditary nobility, but so what? To walk around thinking that opportunity in America is closed to all but a select few is the dumbest, most self-defeating claptrap I can imagine. Elites, schmelites.

Nick, you could use a good dose of Vilfredo Pareto, Gaetano Mosca, and James Burnham. Like too many conservatives, you have bought into the Horatio Alger myth, and failed to grasp how elites function in society. Pay some attention to some intelligent conservatives who have studied the question of elites in great detail; had all conservatives done so 50-60 years ago, we might not now be in the mess we are in. We can't very well fight a phenomenon we do not understand (elites).

For one thing, your understanding of elites is rather shallow and media oriented: the real elites aren't well known to the general public and don't often show up on TV. Bill Clinton isn't a member of any ruling elite; he was, rather, an employee of the ruling elite. It was no accident that this "poor white trash" got a Rhodes scholarship (no Horatio Alger, he). Clinton's inherent corruption and corruptability made him an especially useful tool, since there was no chance of Clinton ever standing up to his "betters" and asserting his principles (if he had any) or his better judgement (if he had one), because the elite "had the goods" on Clinton since before he entered politics. Likewise Bill Gates is not a member of the ruling elite, although with his money, he could become one if he wanted to, and if he played by the elite's unwritten rules. But Gates isn't a political animal.

23 posted on 06/11/2002 6:44:29 PM PDT by Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy
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To: SBeck
So who is this an indictment against? Sounds like both sides are guilty as charged.

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!

24 posted on 06/11/2002 6:48:00 PM PDT by Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy
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To: Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy
If that be the case then why aren't you pushing for the destruction of the elite?
25 posted on 06/11/2002 6:58:30 PM PDT by dheretic
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To: vannrox
The vulgarity, profanity and violence you see in entertainment are there only because those individuals occupying the positions of power in the entertainment industry said "Yes." If they said "No," those things would disappear from the screens and the magazine racks.

No then somebody else would step in to fill the demand I like sex, violence, and vulgarity in movies.

26 posted on 06/11/2002 7:22:46 PM PDT by weikel
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To: Lessismore
The upper class can be reliable, honest, and hardworking( they tend not to be religious though if thats what you mean).
27 posted on 06/11/2002 7:26:13 PM PDT by weikel
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To: vannrox
Isn't this theory taking away responsibility from the non-elitists? Corruption is at all levels of our society. It is easy to say, the devil made me do it, which is what Reese is saying about the elitists.
28 posted on 06/11/2002 7:26:59 PM PDT by Don Myers
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To: Don Myers
I agree nobody is honest anymore( you seem to obsess about sex though honesty, loyalty, reliability are the most neccasary values).
29 posted on 06/11/2002 7:31:19 PM PDT by weikel
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To: Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy
the real elites aren't well known to the general public and don't often show up on TV

... mmmmh, care to enlighten us who these mysterious elites are ? I am sure you know them.
30 posted on 06/11/2002 7:32:56 PM PDT by Economist_MA
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To: vannrox
Good to see ol' Charley Reese around. One of my fav's.
31 posted on 06/11/2002 7:56:23 PM PDT by sauropod
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To: weikel
"I agree nobody is honest anymore( you seem to obsess about sex though honesty, loyalty, reliability are the most neccasary values)."

Everything ties in together.

32 posted on 06/11/2002 8:02:23 PM PDT by Don Myers
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To: Economist_MA
care to enlighten us who these mysterious elites are ?

Im sure some persons could be put forth as such, but I don't consider myself qualified to allude to any researchers claims in this regard mainly because we live in a DISinformation age.

I will propose that the more potent 'elites' are not those who exist in flesh in blood -- 'they' are more like modern-day gods, a type of overlay on the social conciousness that dictates acceptable behavior and thought.

These (PC) gods perform a function that all mans gods are uniquely proficient at, hence thier utility: They exploit and keep others under intellectual tyranny by using mans natural, individual survival-enhancing strategy illustrated in:

Avoid wrath and the contempt of the tribe - do as the others do, believe as they believe.

So, what we have instead of true elite are shaman who create (fertilize!) minds to accept these illusions and connect the ethereal powers to mans world through government and 'goodhate'.

33 posted on 06/11/2002 8:18:42 PM PDT by mindprism.com
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To: weikel
Re 27: More likely, the offspring of the upper classes avoid responsibility, are devious, and are indolent. Religion tends to be an occupation of lower-class women -- for example, the poor women of Latin America. Upper class men only appear in church three times -- baptism, marriage, and burial.

I naively used to think that "middle-class values" distinguished the middle from the lower classes. But I was mistaken. "Middle-class values" distinguish the middle-classes from the upper-class.

34 posted on 06/12/2002 6:53:03 PM PDT by Lessismore
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To: Lessismore
That fits the description of my churchgoing habits LOL my backround is on the borderline between upper and middle class.
35 posted on 06/12/2002 9:29:14 PM PDT by weikel
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To: Lessismore
Honesty, fidelity, thrift, hard work, diligence, and other positive character traits are known as "middle-class values". This is because they are so uncharacteristic of the upper class.

Yes, and uncharacteristic of the lower class as well--we're sandwiched in the middle.

36 posted on 06/13/2002 6:43:27 AM PDT by Hoppean
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To: Economist_MA
They're everywhere, tyring to control society. It's no secret.
37 posted on 06/13/2002 10:29:57 AM PDT by MASShole fever
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To: Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy
As usual with market-oriented conservatives and libertarians, you miss the point entirely. "The free market" has never existed in pure form except at the very lowest level. The more complicated the economy (or the polity), the more elites have the ability to guide it by making decisions about what does and what does not appear in the market (or in public debate) before the individual consumer is given a chance to "choose" (or the individual voter is given a chance to vote).

Thus one has the illusion of choice, in a situation where, in fact, choice is pre-constrained by elites into a narrow spectrum of "acceptable public limits". More often then not, elites can allow or prohibit most material they want allowed or prohibited, without having to pass any laws to do so. Hidden rule is often more effective then open rule because it offers the illusion of freedom, but only delivering a narrow parameter which the ruling elites have decided is acceptable to them.

Blinded by ideology and "free market" ideals, it is no wonder so many conservatives and libertarians are bad at politics, and completely unaware of the existence of metapolitics. They don't seem to realize that all of the really important political questions are decided in private, months or years, sometimes decades, before they or the general public are even aware that such political questions even exist!

First of all your assumptions about me are about as absurd as my suggesting that you need to take off your tin-foil hat and get out in the sunshine sometime. Oh wait.....

And the same media that gives us both Oprah AND Dr. Laura, Rush Limbaugh AND Tom Brokaw, Readers Digest AND Hustler....... this media is all controlled by one sinister elite? Talk about illusions.......that is one very brain-damaged conspiracy!!
38 posted on 06/13/2002 3:57:48 PM PDT by moderation_is_not_a_bad_thing
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To: vannrox
I have to confess that I have lost my Jeffersonian faith in the people. All I have ever seen them do, save for a few individuals, is follow like dogs whoever happened to be in leadership positions at the time.

Most of these dog-like individuals appear to be women.

As a temp worker, I saw this in action recently in a job where we sit around cleaning parts all day. A certain male co-worker talked nonstop, eight hours a day, about his bizarre sex life and his desire to kill everyone. The guys thought he was a moron, but the women were fascinated, and listened attentively to everything he said, basically encouraging him to go on. If he hadn't been dismissed because of his abusive confrontations with the other males, I'm pretty sure he could have talked his way into bed with any of the women, even though he has a job just a cut above minimum wage, a mediocre intellect, the manners of a cur, and the physical appearance of a dwarf Neanderthal. And he definitely was not a feminist!

My view of women, I'm afraid, has suffered because of this experience. For all their bluster and insistence on self-actualization, women appear to be rather weak-willed personalities who eagerly seek to be dominated, and they will accept domination by the lowest, crudest, and most vulgar of males.

But we already knew that from the way the women's vote went for Bill Clinton.

I retain the romantic notion that there are still some strong-willed women out there, one of whom I might marry.

39 posted on 06/13/2002 7:04:03 PM PDT by JoeSchem
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To: narby
I pasted an "IMPEACH CLINTON" bumper sticker on my car. Most folks in our Seattle area agreed with it. The weather finally wore it off. I am sure a lot of elites saw it, too. Of course, their minds were already made up.
40 posted on 06/13/2002 7:21:20 PM PDT by RipeforTruth
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