Yugoslav dissident Milovan Djilas called these party hacks the “New Class,” noting that instead of workers and peasants against capitalists, it was now a case of workers and peasants being ruled by a managerial new class of technocrats who, while purporting to act for the benefit of the workers and peasants, somehow wound up with the lion’s share of the goodies. Workers and peasants stood in long lines for bread and shoddy household goods, while party leaders and government managers bought imported delicacies in special, secret stores. (In a famous Soviet joke, then-leader Leonid Brezhnev shows his mother his luxury apartment, his limousine, his fancy country house and his helicopter only to have her object: “But what if the communists come back?”) . . .
But the New Class isn’t limited to communist countries, really. Around the world in the postwar era, power was taken up by unelected professional and managerial elites. To understand what’s going on with President Donald Trump and his opposition, and in other countries as diverse as France, Hungary, Italy and Brazil, it’s important to realize that the post-World War II institutional arrangements of the Western democracies are being renegotiated, and that those democracies’ professional and managerial elites don’t like that very much, because they have done very well under those arrangements. And, like all elites who are doing very well, they don’t want that to change.
Interestingly, Tommy Douglas – the Demi-god of the Canadian left – didn’t trust union leaders, Douglas believed they didn’t want to help people but instead want to be the new elite.
This article describes dogmeat to a TEE.
Trent, Tommy eugenics Douglas was an ordained bible thumper, erm minister
in a famous Soviet joke, then-leader Leonid Brezhnev shows his mother his luxury apartment, his limousine, his fancy country house and his helicopter only to have her object: “But what if the communists come back?”) . . .
Hilarious.
Yeah … VDH calls them credentialized class.
They are mostly completely empty vessels with the one and only tool that they have learned while going to school a long time.
How to talk a long time and say absolutely nothing, sprinkled with newspeak, catchphrases and slogans.
If you simply look at the, what is called western culture, you can see the decay in real time if you have interest in the affairs of men.
There are possibly majority of the wise guys that are opposed to the deceptions, lies, decline, though they find it easier to go along, find it more profitable to go along and maybe get to retirement with a good pension.
Once there, they may sing, talk, how crooked the ruling class is, too late, they bear no weight by then.
“Change comes from below. No-one holding four aces, throws in and demands a re-deal of the cards.”
Richard J. Needham, columnist, writing in the Globe & Mail, circa 1980,
From memory, iirc.
Trump 2024.
“… while purporting to act for the benefit of the workers and peasants, somehow wound up with the lion’s share of the goodies …”
– Funny that, especially as it always ends-up just like this; call me naïve (been called worse), but you’d almost get the idea that was their plan all along…
“Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
Last sentence of Animal Farm by George Orwell
Meet the new boss ,same as the old boss.
During times of wealth and plenty the freeloading kind get a free pass.
When those times end,so does that pass.
What cannot go on,will not.
Our parasitic overload of rulers,regulators and entitled persons is unaffordable.
That is not in dispute.
These “helpers” cost us more than they are worth.
“Bad Luck” is going to fall upon our massively indebted country.
Such bad luck as has repeatedly fallen upon people who spend beyond their means..
The “Bad Luck” of Zimbabwe and the “Bad Luck” of Venezuela are coming Canada’s way..
And the cycle will continue.
Revenge and Retribution are baked into the package.
As seen at the “Emergency Measures Inquiry” todays “heroes” are tomorrows scapegoats.
And as your cost of government grows exponentially,do remember…You ‘owe’ these helpers their gold plated pensions.
“Those laws,they are for you little people, none of those measures applies to any level of government”.
Lawless State.
One of the factors that exploded Cambodia into a murderous hellhole was the treatment of the peasants and working class by the ‘elites’ and corrupt officials.
Their solution was horrific but their grievances and motivations were real.
There are those who want to do good and there are those who do very well. Thus you have useful idiots and you have party elites. One could argue that capitalists are much more honest. They don’t want to good, they want to exceedingly well.