> Maria: "What is it about Americans that made it so simple to fleece
> them, to cow them?"
>
> [WS:] It is not just Americans - everyone around the world gets
> fleeced and cowed. And there is a very simple (or not so simple if
> you want to look into underlying causes) answer why - organization.
> Capitalists have it, everyone else does not. The main organizational
> form for most economic activities is the corporation, and this form
> is fully controlled and operated by capitalists...And it's virtually
> unopposed - the myriad of small grouplets formed by everyone else is
> no match to this corporate steamroller.
So the corp is the latest--and most effective in history--permutation of "might makes right". Civilization means creation of elites; elites mean subjugation of the rest. I had a friend years ago who maintained there was no way to fight elites and win, because "they are just plain always one step ahead of us, and they always will be. They are just a little bit smarter than us."