Channeling Karl Marx
The globalist elites have a problem they must continually solve: there are a lot more of us then there are of them, and they have to keep us from noticing that.
A tried-and-true strategy for doing this is divide and conquer: if they can convince half of the poor and lower middle-class population that their real problem is the other half of the poor and lower middle-class population, and vice a versa, they are good to go.
And thus we get the twin memes of "white privilege" and "welfare parasites." The function they serve is to help convince poor black families in the South Bronx that their real problem is poor hillbilly families in Kentucky, and vice a versa. To the extent these two memes take hold, they block the possibility of a true populist revolt against the rule of the current elite.*
Of course, many, many people sincerely buy into the ideological superstructures being erected to support elite rule. The fact that they materially benefit from their subsidiary positions in the ruling class helps in this task tremendously: largely, this support army consists of university professors and other educators, government bureaucrats, mid-level corporate managers, and so on: people who are materially very comfortable within the current system. But most of these people are not cynics, and they must be led to believe that they are truly working for a noble cause: this is called false consciousness. Its spread is helped greatly by the knowledge, trickling down from the top level of universities, corporations, and government, that anyone who calls into question this schema risks ostracism, loss of opportunities, and other serious career and social consequences. It is much easier to believe an ideological construct when, in the back of your mind, you anxiously recognize that failing to believe it can cost you your job or your next promotion.
Interestingly, as I understand it, many old-school Marxists recognize this dynamic quite well, and are contemptuous of identity politics as a result. The fact that many of their younger colleagues have embraced this tactic shows that our current elite is clever enough to co-opt even Marxism in its interest.
* I am not a Marxist to the extent that I am not a utopian: I think all societies have some elite class. The problem with the current elite is their lack of any moral compass other than becoming even richer and even more powerful.
A tried-and-true strategy for doing this is divide and conquer: if they can convince half of the poor and lower middle-class population that their real problem is the other half of the poor and lower middle-class population, and vice a versa, they are good to go.
And thus we get the twin memes of "white privilege" and "welfare parasites." The function they serve is to help convince poor black families in the South Bronx that their real problem is poor hillbilly families in Kentucky, and vice a versa. To the extent these two memes take hold, they block the possibility of a true populist revolt against the rule of the current elite.*
Of course, many, many people sincerely buy into the ideological superstructures being erected to support elite rule. The fact that they materially benefit from their subsidiary positions in the ruling class helps in this task tremendously: largely, this support army consists of university professors and other educators, government bureaucrats, mid-level corporate managers, and so on: people who are materially very comfortable within the current system. But most of these people are not cynics, and they must be led to believe that they are truly working for a noble cause: this is called false consciousness. Its spread is helped greatly by the knowledge, trickling down from the top level of universities, corporations, and government, that anyone who calls into question this schema risks ostracism, loss of opportunities, and other serious career and social consequences. It is much easier to believe an ideological construct when, in the back of your mind, you anxiously recognize that failing to believe it can cost you your job or your next promotion.
Interestingly, as I understand it, many old-school Marxists recognize this dynamic quite well, and are contemptuous of identity politics as a result. The fact that many of their younger colleagues have embraced this tactic shows that our current elite is clever enough to co-opt even Marxism in its interest.
* I am not a Marxist to the extent that I am not a utopian: I think all societies have some elite class. The problem with the current elite is their lack of any moral compass other than becoming even richer and even more powerful.
OK, here is a problem. (not with your hypothesis, but Marx')
ReplyDeleteMarx wrote:
"But the English bourgeoisie has also much more important interests in the present economy of Ireland. Owing to the constantly increasing concentration of leaseholds, Ireland constantly sends her own surplus to the English labour market, and thus forces down wages and lowers the material and moral position of the English working class.
And most important of all! Every industrial and commercial centre in England now possesses a working class divided into two hostile camps, English proletarians and Irish proletarians. The ordinary English worker hates the Irish worker as a competitor who lowers his standard of life. In relation to the Irish worker he regards himself as a member of the ruling nation and consequently he becomes a tool of the English aristocrats and capitalists against Ireland, thus strengthening their domination over himself. He cherishes religious, social, and national prejudices against the Irish worker. His attitude towards him is much the same as that of the “poor whites” to the Negroes in the former slave states of the U.S.A.. The Irishman pays him back with interest in his own money. He sees in the English worker both the accomplice and the stupid tool of the English rulers in Ireland.
This antagonism is artificially kept alive and intensified by the press, the pulpit, the comic papers, in short, by all the means at the disposal of the ruling classes. This antagonism is the secret of the impotence of the English working class, despite its organisation. It is the secret by which the capitalist class maintains its power. And the latter is quite aware of this."
This is from a letter he wrote in 1870.
He started making these claims that the English elite conspired to oppress English workers with Irish mass immigration. Pit English and Irish against each other to prevent them from rebelling against the English.
He wrote this in 1870, years after the 1848 revolutionary movements died out with little support. Marx wanted to an excuse for why his theories of an imminent revolution failed to hold up.
So he made up a conspiracy theory that ethnic tensions between Irish and English were invented by the elite to stop a possible revolution. It was an excuse to save face after predictions failed to come true.