It's The Elite Who Are Corrupt

Charley Reese ^ | For Monday, June 10, 2002 | Charley Reese

[vannrox]

It's The Elite Who Are Corrupt

Most Americans are so steeped in egalitarian thinking that they like to delude themselves that they share in running the country. We ordinary folks, in fact, don't run the country and have a slim-to-none chance of even influencing its direction.

Thomas R. Dye, a professor at Florida State University, has made a study of power. Since power in our country resides in institutions, he defines individuals with power as those who occupy the top positions in the government and in corporate, legal, educational, civic and cultural institutions.

He found that there are only about 7,000 of these positions in the entire United States, and some individuals occupy more than one of them. It might sound unbelievable at first, but if you think about it, you will see that it is true.

In a newspaper, for example, there is one position of power: the publisher. Now, he delegates some of his power to other people, but everyone knows that all decisions are ultimately his and his alone.

In the federal government there are only 546 positions of power. These include the president, the vice president, members of the House and Senate and the nine members of the Supreme Court. One hundred percent of the power of the federal government resides in these individuals who occupy the 546 positions. Everybody below them operates with delegated power. That is so because all power of the federal government comes from the Constitution, and these are the only constitutional offices. I don't include federal-, district- and appellate-court judges because any decision they make can be overturned by the Supreme Court.

So the individuals who occupy these 7,000 positions of power are the elite who run the country. Therefore, it is the character of these members of the elite that will determine the character of the country. What you see in government policies, in cultural products and in education policies are the direct result of the decisions made by this relatively small elite.

History affirms this. The reason America did not follow the usual path of revolution to dictatorship was solely the result of the character of one man, George Washington. Washington could have easily made himself dictator, and many of the officers in his army wanted him to do just that. But Washington's character would not allow it.

When the elite who run a country have good morals and high standards, then you have a good country. If the elite become corrupt, you have a corrupt country. The vulgarity, profanity and violence you see in entertainment are there only because those individuals occupying the positions of power in the entertainment industry said "Yes." If they said "No," those things would disappear from the screens and the magazine racks.

Our problem is that most of our elite have become corrupted. Many are nihilistic and hedonistic. The leadership of a country always leads the masses, and they can lead them to high ground or into the swamps. And there's not much I can see that ordinary people can do about it.

I have to confess that I have lost my Jeffersonian faith in the people. All I have ever seen them do, save for a few individuals, is follow like dogs whoever happened to be in leadership positions at the time.

Given the moral and intellectual climate at most of the elite universities our future leaders will attend, I don't have an optimistic outlook for the future of the country.

[SBeck]

So who is this an indictment against? Sounds like both sides are guilty as charged.

[concerned about politics]

Given the moral and intellectual climate at most of the elite universities our future leaders will attend, I don't have an optimistic outlook for the future of the country.

Cloned indoctrobots without a brain. It's like a borg invasion.

[Rhetorical pi2]

For eight years I told everybody who would listen that our most powerful leader and his administration were corrupt,and had a corrosive effect on American society. Many, even after his impeachment trial, would not accept this.

I'm not sure about the 7,000 figure, but the fella does have a point. But one of the most important is that the guy at the top is influental in setting the tone of the country. ...and there IS a new tone in Washington. You just have to listen hard to hear it above the vulgar din caused by the democrat party.

[TightSqueeze]

And there's not much I can see that ordinary people can do about it.

The best most of can acheive is to simply get over on the bastards.

[dheretic]

Those who support the elite are as guilty as the elite itself. That means that he who votes for either major party on a consistant basis is the problem.

[Askel5]

Given the moral and intellectual climate at most of the elite universities our future leaders will attend, I don't have an optimistic outlook for the future of the country.

There isn't one to be had.

[Governor StrangeReno]

Well the two party punch and judy show is the set Democracy model any percieved threat like Pauline Hansen in Australia gets both barrels of media,legal and economic attack,character assasination in the US runs the additional risk of being shot.Withdrawal of labour,mass protest and revolution are becoming the only options but you'll see from the last 20 years non-lethal weaopons programmes and legislation thats already been figured.

[Askel5]

(Though it's true there's a difference between optimism and Hope.)

[gaspar]

Are you the person who creates the SAT tests?

[concerned about politics]

You just have to listen hard to hear it above the vulgar din caused by the democrat party.

But they squeel so loud it's hard to hear anything else. Turn on the TV, and all you hear is their snorts and squeels for more slop.

[Governor StrangeReno]

No the people I train can actually read and write

[WIMom]

A message from Jim Robinson regarding the fundraiser!

[moderation_is_not_a_bad_thing]

The vulgarity, profanity and violence you see in entertainment are there only because those individuals occupying the positions of power in the entertainment industry said "Yes." If they said "No," those things would disappear from the screens and the magazine racks.

Hmm..... I was under the impression that free market capitalism and the First Amendment dictated what we see on movie screens and magazine racks. I'm not sure I want gov't involved in that.

[Donald Stone]

America's Criminal Elite

It is a sad state of affairs, more than half the registered voters in the U.S. don't vote as a direct result of the betrayal of the public trust by our elected and appointed officials.

Our Presidential candidates are so mediocre that presidential elections are won only by a couple of hundred votes, (depends on who is doing the counting).

Stealing federal tax dollars is a high stakes game, whoever controls the White House has unrestricted access to billions of U.S. dollars.

The Democratic Party and Republican Party are like two organized crime syndicates, having on-going turf wars to see who gets to be the Godfather for the next four or eight years.

The Capos are all the U.S. Government lawyers, U.S. Attorneys,federal judges etc. acting in concert with lawyers in the private who decide whether or not it is in the best interest politically or financially of either of the two crime syndicates to enforce the "Rule of Law" or the U.S. Constitution.

The Soldiers are the FBI that provide the muscle to promote, protect and facilitate any type of political corruption the organized crime syndicates desire to engage in.

[Niagara]

No the people I train can actually read and write

I don't see how.

[Lessismore]

If the elite become corrupt, you have a corrupt country.

Honesty, fidelity, thrift, hard work, diligence, and other positive character traits are known as "middle-class values". This is because they are so uncharacteristic of the upper class.

[Nick Danger]

If these 7,000 positions were awarded the way they are in, say, Saudia Arabia -- where your family name is 'Saud' or you don't get the job -- I suppose this fellow wouldn't sound like such a whiny loser.

He talks about "elites" as though these folks just aren't like you and me, because it's impossible to crack through the Invisible Wall and get one of those 7,000 jobs unless you're one of them. Oh, horsefeathers. Our very own World's Richest Man is a college dropout. The previous president of the United States -- may he rot in Hell -- grew up in such decidedly poor surroundings that even today people refer to him as "white trash."

Yeah, we have a few families that the media like to wave in front of us as some sort of hereditary nobility, but so what? To walk around thinking that opportunity in America is closed to all but a select few is the dumbest, most self-defeating claptrap I can imagine. Elites, schmelites.

[Governor StrangeReno]

Excellent observation based on your deep and intimate knowledge of myself- are you one of those cyber drones that get hired to just argue and attack people to reduce their credibility, if so you need to improve your style, you come across as just the usual argue/insult anyone cyber retard

[narby]

Elites in this country aren't born. They're promoted from within.

Slick may have been born white trash, but he spent decades at major universities and working within the democrat hiarchy to get where he got. What that got him and his wife, was influence over the media, and hence, the rest of us via the useful idiots who followed them.

The rest of us, who were more interested in making a buck, or in enjoyable professions like my own byte mashing, have little or no influence. That's not to say that had I chose to gain influence, I could not have. But I don't have it now, whether or not I deserve it as some kind of "right" is errelevant. The bottom line is, some number of people, maybe somewhere around 7000 of them, control the country. And I'm at their mercy.