Ya got to love the term "elites" it is such a marvelous "strawman". The beauty of it is we each get to draw our favorite face on the strawman and whack away in unison with others,
Ya got to love the term "elites" it is such a marvelous "strawman". The beauty of it is we each get to draw our favorite face on the strawman and whack away in unison with others,
It refers to a couple of different groups of people:
1) Professional policy makers, especially in foreign policy;
2) Long term professional politicians, especially those from political families (the Bush family, for example or the Cheneys);
3) Holders of extreme amounts of capital (from the hundreds of millions upwards)
4) Certain media personalities--like Hannity.
These are basically the people who either make the decisions or have a very strong influence in the making of decisions--they represent a strata of society that possesses the wealth, power, or connections to materially and substantively shape policy. They went to the same schools. Belong to the same organizations. Live in the same types of places. They are the reason why things tend to be the way they are.
The group varies with who is in power (and who has their ear), but the holders of extreme capital are almost always numbered in the group.
As a rule they are very self-serving (which accounts for them being in the position they are in, ITFP) and they work to shape policy to their benefit and the benefit of their fellows--which is why most programs that are supposed to help people don't actually help people all that much (and why programs of that type always seem to be underfunded and have a lot of small rules and limitations).
Ya got to love the term "elites" it is such a marvelous "strawman". The beauty of it is we each get to draw our favorite face on the strawman and whack away in unison with others,
It is a lazy shorthand--here is what it means...
It refers to a couple of different groups of people:
1) Professional policy makers, especially in foreign policy;
2) Long term professional politicians, especially those from political families (the Bush family, for example or the Cheneys);
3) Holders of extreme amounts of capital (from the hundreds of millions upwards)
4) Certain media personalities--like Hannity.
These are basically the people who either make the decisions or have a very strong influence in the making of decisions--they represent a strata of society that possesses the wealth, power, or connections to materially and substantively shape policy. They went to the same schools. Belong to the same organizations. Live in the same types of places. They are the reason why things tend to be the way they are.
The group varies with who is in power (and who has their ear), but the holders of extreme capital are almost always numbered in the group.
As a rule they are very self-serving (which accounts for them being in the position they are in, ITFP) and they work to shape policy to their benefit and the benefit of their fellows--which is why most programs that are supposed to help people don't actually help people all that much (and why programs of that type always seem to be underfunded and have a lot of small rules and limitations).