ESTABLISHMENT
I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others. – Thomas Jefferson
By J.M. Hamilton (Originally published 6-14-12)
A
conservative at the NY Times, Mr.
David Brooks, was complaining about the lack of respect accorded by the general
population to the “establishment” this week, and I couldn’t help but find
myself amused and relieved. For here Mr.
Brooks offered up a political counterpoint to an editorial
written by Mr.
Luigi Zingales (of Chicago School of Economics fame). Both
editorials, make perfect bookends to this week’s JMH editorial. Mr.
Brooks laments the lack of good “followers” in America today; and Mr. Zingales
– a bit of a conservative in his own right, and certainly a libertarian with
strong capitalist credentials, fears the corruption of the political and business
establishment culminating, or metastasizing, into crony capitalism. Mr.
Zingales holds up Italy’s corrupted economy and government by way of
comparison, and the path he asserts the U.S. is headed down, if we are not
careful.
JMH,
of course, has argued for some time that we are already there. Witness
the idolatry and blind deference U.S. Senate members accorded Mr.
Dimon this week.
Now
none of this is to say Mr. Brooks is not a great guy and a worthy polemicist…
Shucks, about six years ago and for nearly all of my adult life – starting at
the age of two- I would have agreed with nearly everything Mr. Brooks put down
on paper.
But something happened in 2007 and 2008 that called into question
my entire belief system, and apparently the belief systems of many U.S.
Citizens (99%), or what Mr. Brook’s refers to as “followers,” who are having a
exceptionally hard time buying what the “establishment” is now laying down as
gospel.
What
could have awoken the masses from their apathy and slumber, and motivated the
“followers” to turn against their master, the establishment? Was it, as
Mr. Brooks asserts, that our own personal “vanity” has made Tea Partiers and disenfranchised
libertarians and liberals jaded, or was it something else that turned us off on
the ruling economic and political elite?
Was
it the fact that for the last thirty years the establishment underwrote the
greatest Keynesian
raid heretofore known to man, whereby the one percent/establishment crushed
democracy and redistributed wealth and expropriated political powers for
themselves?
Perhaps
it’s the intergenerational
wealth larceny that has become today’s FED policy, again all in the
interest of keeping the rescued Cartel/establishment afloat, at the expense of
savers and retirees.
Or
maybe it was the toxic assets that have been transferred from the
Cartel’s/establishment’s balance sheet and onto the public sectors balance
sheets at list price, only to be sold back, selectively, to the Cartel and
shadow banking at a discount.
Was
it the fact that the political establishment just could never say “no” to big
business or the Chamber
of Commerce, and allowed them under the rubric of free trade and capitalism
to transfer
jobs, tax base, and the U.S. manufacturing economy offshore?
Was
it the fact that the establishment showed us the true meaning of socialism with
endless
bank bailouts – running into the tens of trillions- while hypocritically
attempting to light a match to the social contract, and seeking significant
reductions/privatization in Medicare, Medicaid, and social spending?
Was
it the insider trading cases and the manifestation of a two-tiered
stock market: one for the insiders/establishment, and the other for the
followers.
Perhaps
it’s the two tiered justice system: where white collar criminals/the
establishment are rarely if ever convicted, and then there’s the justice system
for the rest of us — the “followers” facing the criminal justice industrial
complex and corporations profiting from the incarceration of individuals for
victimless crimes (so that the U S
has the highest incarceration rate among western democracies). If we
are to believe the numbers, the U.S. incarceration rate, per Wikipedia, is 39%
higher than Russia’s and several hundred percent higher than China’s….. What’s
wrong with this picture?
Or
perhaps it’s our beloved supreme court, which like our Republican led
congress, suffers from very low follower opinion polls; and why should
followers be upset when this very same court tells us that
corporations/establishment are people too, who may and will collectively purchase
our government under a Citizens
United decision.
Perhaps
it’s the
abuse the establishment has heaped upon our fighting men and women with endless
wars, so that the U.S. soldier suicide rate now exceeds are monthly
casualty rate. But heh, those soldiers/followers volunteered for it, so
that makes it all okay.
Just
maybe as Mr. Zingales notes, from the freshwater school of economics no less,
that the U.S. establishment has abandoned meritocracy, industriousness, and
capitalism…. for cronyism, speculation/private
equity schemes, and monopoly.
Maybe
its the real
unemployment and underemployment rate in this country, and for much of
Europe, is in the high teens— or in some instances in the neighborhood of
twenty percent or more; as noted in the Times this week many U.S.
citizens have watched their net worth crumble to 1990 levels in the span of
four years.
Thank
you, Establishment!
Mr. Brooks went on to note: “To have good leaders you have to have
good followers— able to recognize just authority, admire it, be grateful for it
and emulate it.”
To which JMH responds, which part would you like us to emulate Mr.
Brooks?
Democracy
is a wonderful thing. It makes people feel empowered, no matter how distorted
the representative reality from the ideal. Take that away, or the ability
to protest, or form new political parties, or rebel against the established
order of things…. And we find ourselves living in another elitist dictatorship,
or government
by the establishment. The very things are founding fathers fought
against.
Americans
of all stripes understand human failings in the economic and political
establishment; what the followers cannot understand is blatant political
corruption, economic
theft leading to lost decades and lives, and the death of opportunity –
strangled by the corporatist and monopolist. Hence, the rise in America
and Europe of extremist political parties, like Occupiers, the Tea Party, and
in Europe — Socialist, Anarchist and Communist.
When
the establishment abandons the 99%/followers, the followers look for solutions
outside mainstream political parties.
P.S.
To his credit, Mr. Brooks wrote admiringly of Mr. Jefferson, whom
he referred to – longingly – as a “graceful aristocratic democrat.”
Remarkably, Mr. Jefferson wrote the defining document of the
American Revolution and provided the ultimate act of rebellion against the
established British aristocracy, with the Declaration of Independence.
One wonders what our third U.S. president would have had to say about what the
Wall Street Cartel/establishment has done with his Agrarian Dream, or
additional thoughts Mr. Jefferson may have had on the establishment of his day?
We need not wonder, here are a few quotes from Mr. Jefferson on
the establishment of his day:
“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people to remain
silent.”
“In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to
Liberty.”
“Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his
own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich upon
the poor.”
His thoughts on globalism? “Merchants
have no country. The mere spot that they stand on does not constitute so
strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.”
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the
blood of patriots and tyrants.”
“Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of
government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations,
perverted into tyranny.”
“Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies
and misfortunes of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient:
why enter then as volunteers into those of another.”
“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied
corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of
strength, and bid defiance to the laws of this country.”
“I believe banking institutions are more dangerous than standing
armies.”
“A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against any
government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest in inference.”
Given
our nation’s current predicament, I wonder if Mr. Jefferson would have been in
favor of an economic
bill of rights?
Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2015
Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2015