"Aristocracy of the intellect"-- Bakunin didn't literally mean a moneyed aristocracy -- just the court cheerleaders and official state ideologues; he used "aristocracy" in a colorful sort of way. He did not believe they were an actual aristocracy of intellectuals in the House of Lords type of sense. But they were like a modern priesthood, which Chomsky echoed.
You wrote: "We have an aristocracy of money." I agree.
I don't think you are really disagreeing w/ Bakunin here, unless I'm mistaken (and, hey, that's happened).
Mikhail Bakunin: "The child of bourgeois parents, on the other hand, the child of the rich, however stupid by nature, will receive both the upbringing and the education necessary to develop his scanty talents as much as possible. [*cough*cough*George W. Bush*cough*cough*] He will become the exploiter of labor, the master, the legislator, the governor -- a Gentleman. However stupid he may be, he will make laws on behalf of people and against them. The bourgeoisie, bereft of all virtue and grace, can base its right to rule on only one argument: the very real but very prosaic power of money.This is the cynical negation of every virtue: if you have money then you possess every right, however stupid and whatever riff raff you may be, but if you haven't a sou, you count for nothing, regardless of personal merits."
Also from ca. 1869 and Robert M Cutler's _Basic Bakunin_.
But enough Bakunin quoting for me.
-B.
Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> That doesn't describe contemporary Europe or North
America. We have an aristocracy of money, though
official ideology suggests that you're only as rich as
you are clever.
>
> Doug
>