“The essence of oligarchical rule is not father-to-son inheritance, but the persistence of a certain world-view and a certain way of life. A ruling group is a ruling group so long as it can nominate its successors. Who wields power is not important, provided that the hierarchical structure remains always the same.”
George Orwell
"We've become, now, an oligarchy instead of a democracy. I think that's been the worst damage to the basic moral and ethical standards to the American political system that I've ever seen in my life."
Jimmy Carter
"Financial predators are usually narcissistic and audacious. They regularly have an extreme sense of entitlement coupled with high self-efficacy. Many of them have a charismatic quality and are preternaturally persuasive. Financial predators are commonly shameless and quite adept serial liars. They perceive themselves having near unlimited guile and resourcefulness to extricate themselves out of any compromising situations."
Russ Alan Prince, Forbes
"Most of them became wealthy by being well connected and crooked. And they are creating a society in which they can commit hugely damaging economic crimes with impunity, and in which only children of the wealthy have the opportunity to become successful. That’s what I have a problem with."
Charles Ferguson, Predator Nation
"People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage. Intellectual myopia, often called stupidity, is no doubt a reason. But the privileged also feel that their privileges, however egregious they may seem to others, are a solemn, basic, God-given right. The sensitivity of the poor to injustice is a trivial thing compared with that of the rich."
John Kenneth Galbraith
I cannot stress enough that this elitist attitude towards society is a learned mindset, that comes with a sense of extreme entitlement, and not some inherited tendency. As it succeeds it can become contagious among those who are morally weak and easily influenced.
Who would not be tempted to believe people when they tell them that because of where they went to school and who they know that they are special, and entitled to bend the rules for their own benefit?
And unfortunately the corrupting power of easy money is in its ascendancy in US society, now as it has been at certain times in the past, and is to be found in the halls of established power on both sides of the aisle.
The oligarchy funds think tanks and personalities to persuade and lure in the disgruntled and the gullible in order to clear the way for the domination of society by a powerful and wealthy few.
