Hi Oblomov,
re John Birch society and the ruling elite..
Lazerus Long posted me this
Message 19200556
on a similar subject..
Message 19167913
Pareto's input..
cepa.newschool.edu
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In a famous 1900 Rivista article, Pareto suddenly changed direction. Heretofore a radical democrat, Pareto now decided to declare himself an anti-democrat. The disturbances of the 1890s in Italy and France led Pareto to realize that, far from restoring true democracy, meritocracy and promoting social welfare, the radical movements were really just seeking to replace one élite with another élite, the privileges and structures of power remaining intact. The struggle was not for a good society, but a squabble among élites over whom exactly was to going to govern. And the ideals and theories they claimed to fight for? Just propaganda, Pareto declared, the way upwardly-mobile folks incite the helpless, hopeless mob to take to the streets on their behalf. For Pareto, humanitarianism, liberalism, socialism, communism, fascism, whatever, were all the same in the end. All ideologies were just smokescreens foisted by "leaders" who really only aspired to enjoy the privileges and powers of the governing élite.
Pareto decided to have none of it -- and went on a crusade to expose the sham of political ideology and doctrine. He condemned socialists of all stripes roundly in a 1902 book, but took particular aim at logically demolishing the "new gospel" of Marxian economics. As revealed in the Cours and in his own introduction to an abridged 1893 edition of Karl Marx's Capital, Pareto applauded Marxian theories of class struggle and even thought historical materialism was on the right track (albeit not deep and general enough, in his view). But he deplored Marx's Wizard-of-Oz-like conclusion. For Pareto, class struggle is eternal; the promised "classless" society that would emerge under communism was merely ideological fodder for socialist leaders to lay on their flock.
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Not that this post proposes any solution, just perhaps an attempt at delineation of the state of human economic affairs. Fact is though, with 6 billion of us plus nukes etc we are living in a global village these days imho. |
