[lbo-talk] elite bashing

James Heartfield Heartfield at blueyonder.co.uk
Fri Mar 23 14:37:07 PDT 2007


"Well yeah. Americans grumble about this & that, but it's mostly meaningless, completely lacking any political context or consequence. Naomi Klein thinks that this has something to do with undermining the saleability of the American model of political economy, but the connection eludes me."

I agree that it does not have the consequence that Klein sees in it, but the phenomenon seems worthy of note. As you suggest, grumbling out of context will not undermine elite rule. That is the point about elite-bashing - it is sublimated class struggle - grumbling at the particular excesses rather than the system as a whole. It is quite popular over here, as with the anti-Tesco campaign, or the perennial stories about corrupt politicians.

Redirecting people's bad experience of capitalism overall against one particularly obnoxious representative is a qay of reconciling people to the system itself. It plays the same emotional role as the anti-Semitic propaganda against usury did in pre-war Europe.



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