I don't disagree, but I have to say that this aspect of the problem is secondary.
The real problem lies in the nature of today's elite in a Nietzschean post-Christian world, not that it was so different in the Christian world, by the way.
So, what is the problem?
The elite, and I have seen this personally, very much seem to enjoy, even crave, the type of adulation, of "Pater Familias"- Godfather-like regard that people of traditional cultures often have of the "Signors"who are their employers.
There is no need for the elite to recognize their help, their employees, as equals in the most human sense of the word. They have no need to bow before them, as God demanded of Satan in that old tale from the Talmud. Their "subordinated" won't demand recognition of the Divinity breathed into them.
Contrast this with Americans of long-standing: they have the traditional informality de Toqueville commented upon, noting that Americans addressed their bosses by their first names and often referred to themselves as "assistants".
(Maybe that is why the housekeeper in "Two-and-a Half Men" is a sarcastic white woman, with a veritable "white trash" background. "Maria" would not act that way, and you can believe that the vast majority of housekeepers in Santa Monica are not white.)
Further, this exaltation is part of the secularized world.
Without recourse to traditional religion's capacity to get you out of your egocentric point of view, and, with a society that largely denies the existence, meaning and value of soul, social standing becomes an "uber alles" of considerable force.
And, the elite are not about to be denied their "rights" to a deal economically and avoid having to bow before the fellow citizens who may not be so accommodating.
No conscience. No "differentiated feeling function". An anti-nationalist point of view. Exaltation.
It's a portrait of the modern world.
No comments:
Post a Comment