Monday, May 01, 2006

Dear George,   As you well know, to be raised as an elite is to be raised in an atmosphere of stifling boredom and ironic detachment.  The ironic detachment is caused by exposure to the fierce competition involved in snagging a place in an elite preschool; the boredom is the result of living in a sanitized bubble.  Both are qualities essential for effective leadership.  Every leader must be prepared to inflict hardship for the greater good of the country.  A bored, disinterested leader is more likely to do so just for the stimulation to be gained from the suffering of others.    At the same time, nothing is more entertaining than elites whose powers are waning because they inevitability make asses out of themselves.  They are like the fifty-something executive who is in denial about his flagging powers and compensates by banging a string of half-wit file girls. Each orgasm confirms his invincibility.    The same phenomenon is found in a dying empire that tries to prove its manhood by bombing peasant societies into oblivion.  Slaughter in this situation is not the road to victory but the road to salvation.  Each cheap victory becomes an emotional high as we learned in Grenada, Panama, Desert Storm and Afghanistan.  We especially need these cheap victories when we come across a third-world power we can’t defeat, as we did in Vietnam.  Given the scope of the debacle in Iraq, our redemption will be possible only if we conquer Monaco and Lichtenstein.    Even more satisfying than war is the inflicting of slow suffering through the imposition of sanctions.  There is a invigorating rush to be had in starving a child or refusing medical aid as a baby dies of cholera or diphtheria.  It is here that a dying elite really proves its mettle; here is where the childhood lessons of boredom and ironic detachment really pay off. This is the combination that gave the holocaust its bite.   The system thrives because for every elite there are hundreds of wannabe elites who are more than happy to act as agents and enforcers for the system simply for the vicarious experience of it all.[1]   Your admirer, Belacqua Jones     [1] Once again, I am grateful to Morris Berman’s Dark Ages America for the inspiration. 9:14:52 PM    comment []

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