Who are the Elites?

[brekin]

Good article about the muddy term elites. Trump and Clinton are elite sure. But assuming getting to be an elite and remaining one you have to "know what is going on" and "play ball" then the richest men in the world should basically be the root (or I guess apex) of not just elitism, but the boogey man term "The Elite". Zuckerberg, Koch brothers, Ellison, Buffet, all are tied to various conspiracies. But Bill Gates, who is richer than all of them and has his operating system running on millions of computers seems to only have a few tied to his foundation. Wouldn't Gates be the defacto master mind, being the richest man in the world, and for some time? I mean I can't think of another person who even covertly could have the same amount of money. As far as changing peoples behavior and total control of historical trends, Gates would seem to be a candidate. But then he's the guy who fumbled on the internet. Hardly a dialed in elite with master plan access if that is true.

The world has become obsessed with elites
The obsession is meaningless without a proper focus
Dec 17th 2016

AN ACADEMIC, a politician, a journalist, a film star, a nobleman and a banker walk into a bar. They order different drinks, and sit at separate tables each doing their own thing. There is no punch line; these people do not belong together in any sensible way. Yet members of these groups and others are regularly given the same label: “elites”. Careful writers should avoid this word; it is becoming a junk-bin concept used by different people to mean wildly different things.

It is easy to understand why people reach for “elites”. If pundits can agree on anything about 2016, it is surely that it has been bad for elites. Populist wave after populist wave has broken over Western politics, with a vote for Brexit, the election of Donald Trump and Italy’s loss of a popular young prime minister over a constitutional referendum that he called—and lost. The masses are out for blood, and the elites are quaking.

But if you can picture those masses in your mind—pitchforks, torches, perhaps overalls—what do the elites look like? For Mr Trump, the hated elites comprise the Washington political establishment and the press. But for his own opponents, the very idea of a billionaire who lives in a golden tower swanning in and winning himself the presidency just goes to show what elite status can get you.

Campaigners for Brexit railed against liberal elites—the economists, academics and journalists who warned of its consequences. But the face of the Leave campaign was Boris Johnson, an Eton- and Oxford-educated toff. Michael Gove, another Leaver, said that folks were tired of “experts”. But Mr Gove, like Mr Johnson, is a former president of Oxford’s leading debating society, the Oxford Union, and one of politics’ pointier heads. In other words, no matter who you are or what you’re campaigning for, bashing elites seems a safe bet, while admitting to being a member of an elite is an absolute no-go.

The obsession with elites is relatively recent: the oldest citation in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) dates back to 1823. It was only a singular noun, from a past participle in French, meaning “chosen”; from the same root as “to elect”. (Its very Frenchness may make elite such a delicious word for some Anglophones to hurl as an insult.) The OED says the English noun is “The choice part or flower (of society, or of any body or class of persons)”.

This entry has not yet been updated to include its more recent sense, the pejorative version, often plural, which can be glossed as “people with unearned privileges who keep honest folks from getting a fair shake”. Data from Google Books show the plural word “elites” beginning to be used in about 1940, with the obviously pejorative “elitist” rising from about 1960. The anti-authority cultural changes of the 1960s, it seems, brought with them a rising concern with elites and their apologists.

Data from the New York Times show an even sharper spike in mentions of elites since about 2010, as article after article has tried to diagnose anger at elites. Populist anger is hardly surprising: elite financiers tanked the global economy, elite economists failed to foresee it and political elites failed to respond effectively enough. Those elites in the crosshairs had to find other elites to blame, and they did so. Elite scientists and Hollywood liberals whining about climate change cost coalminers their jobs. Elite London journalists noshing on sushi ignore the problems that hard-working northern Brits suffer as a result of immigration. Cultural elites police what can be said about minorities. And so on.

But the rush to blame elites has nearly everyone in the crosshairs: Sketch Engine, a digital tool for lexicographers, finds among the common modifiers for elite not just obvious ones like “ruling”, “wealthy”, “monied”, but also “secular”, “cultural”, “educated”, “metropolitan” and “bureaucratic”. Elites are no longer “the choice part or flower” of a group, but merely anyone in a position of influence someone else thinks they do not deserve.

Words aimed more precisely serve their purpose better. Elites are an abstraction. If people are angry at bankers or at climate scientists, they should say so specifically. Those seeking to diagnose the causes of the current wave of populism need to understand what populist voters are truly angry about. Those who are angry at elites generally, but can’t say more specifically who they are angry at or why, should think twice before voting for a populist who promises to find and punish those elites, whoever they are.

http://www.economist.com/news/books-and ... rmar|text1

[PufPuf93]

Money and power and tribe and family and institutions, especially institutions not that evident but in the shadows.

[JackRiddler]

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The power elite as conceived and presented by C. Wright Mills in The Power Elite (1954) makes perfect sense. It is a class, basically, of those who functionally operate the levers at the major institutions of power in the United States, which Mills identifies as big corporations, the military, the federal government, and the foundations of the super-rich. Power comes through actual institutional position as decision makers. He shows how this elite arises generally in common neighborhoods, Ivy universities and country clubs, or else how ambitious individuals break in through the educational system. He wrote at a time of relative stability of these institutions, so he perhaps underemphasizes the role of entrepreneurial break-ins, like we've had since the tech and Internet wave really got going. But he shows the ability of the power elite to accommodate. The main difference perhaps in his presentation in 1954 from today is in the near-monopoly at the time held by white Protestant men. Mills leaves room for local and state elites also, and shows their integration into the overall structure. He also has a fabulous chapter on the role of the celebrity/media complex, which reads near as contemporary as ever. He has this weird idea that nuclear war is really important. I'd say MIlls' power elite has over the last 20 years developed a serious case of dementia. They are no longer in touch with reality, thus the bizarre hysterias about how it was not the relentless neo-liberalism of the Clintonists that blew up what should have been a landslide for HRC, but the dastardly action of foreign conspirators acting from a distance. This, interestingly, adopts the usual conspiratorial tropes of the right wing.

Since then (also before then, of course), the term has been seriously confused with a lot of reactionary anger directed at perceived cultural elites. You know it well. To put it in extreme theoretical examples (since why the fuck not, that's what we do on the Internets and on the street-level) some school-teacher making a moderate salary and enjoying a bit of union protection is "elite," especially if she, you know, reads books. If she's also Jewish and in New York and writes a check to the WWF or Amnesty, she's just like George Soros: a globalist ruling the world and working to ruin American freedom. By contrast, a successful plumber making a quarter-mil a year and inchoately angry because he falsely thinks his taxes are going to welfare for the blacks and foreign aid for fucking Indian freeloaders is a total man of the people. The mean, edumacated elites watch John Oliver and Lena Dunham, who insult the poor oppressed white folk in the suburbs and cause them to vote for Trump because he's totally a man of the people as well. We all must change and adapt to speak to this oppressed and endangered species of the non-elite. They are very sensitive!

What has until now been referred to as cultural capital is about to plunge in value, by the way. In case you had not noticed.

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[brekin]

.

The power elite as conceived and presented by C. Wright Mills in The Power Elite (1954) makes perfect sense. It is a class, basically, of those who functionally operate the levers at the major institutions of power in the United States, which Mills identifies as big corporations, the military, the federal government, and the foundations of the super-rich. Power comes through actual institutional position as decision makers. He shows how this elite arises generally in common neighborhoods, Ivy universities and country clubs, or else how ambitious individuals break in through the educational system. He wrote at a time of relative stability of these institutions, so he perhaps underemphasizes the role of entrepreneurial break-ins, like we've had since the tech and Internet wave really got going. But he shows the ability of the power elite to accommodate. The main difference perhaps in his presentation in 1954 from today is in the near-monopoly at the time held by white Protestant men. Mills leaves room for local and state elites also, and shows their integration into the overall structure. He also has a fabulous chapter on the role of the celebrity/media complex, which reads near as contemporary as ever. He has this weird idea that nuclear war is really important. I'd say MIlls' power elite has over the last 20 years developed a serious case of dementia. They are no longer in touch with reality, thus the bizarre hysterias about how it was not the relentless neo-liberalism of the Clintonists that blew up what should have been a landslide for HRC, but the dastardly action of foreign conspirators acting from a distance. This, interestingly, adopts the usual conspiratorial tropes of the right wing.

Since then (also before then, of course), the term has been seriously confused with a lot of reactionary anger directed at perceived cultural elites. You know it well. To put it in extreme theoretical examples (since why the fuck not, that's what we do on the Internets and on the street-level) some school-teacher making a moderate salary and enjoying a bit of union protection is "elite," especially if she, you know, reads books. If she's also Jewish and in New York and writes a check to the WWF or Amnesty, she's just like George Soros: a globalist ruling the world and working to ruin American freedom. By contrast, a successful plumber making a quarter-mil a year and inchoately angry because he falsely thinks his taxes are going to welfare for the blacks and foreign aid for fucking Indian freeloaders is a total man of the people. The mean, edumacated elites watch John Oliver and Lena Dunham, who insult the poor oppressed white folk in the suburbs and cause them to vote for Trump because he's totally a man of the people as well. We all must change and adapt to speak to this oppressed and endangered species of the non-elite. They are very sensitive!
What has until now been referred to as cultural capital is about to plunge in value, by the way. In case you had not noticed.
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JR, you are often a returning champion in RI Jeopardy. I'd only add that the rhetoric of "privilege" has also further confused things. The truly privileged, the truly elite, are pretty much immune/insulated from such discourse (you can't waste rich powerful peoples time) whereas those in the rat race have to confess/deny/give up/disavow any perceived privileges that give them a supposed edge into elitism (because the middle class and below need to be trained i.e. their time can be wasted).

We may differ on that analysis, but I have to fly, Mills is giving me a ride to the coast...or to the future, he said it was a surprise.

[PufPuf93]

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cut

I'd say MIlls' power elite has over the last 20 years developed a serious case of dementia. They are no longer in touch with reality, thus the bizarre hysterias about how it was not the relentless neo-liberalism of the Clintonists that blew up what should have been a landslide for HRC, but the dastardly action of foreign conspirators acting from a distance.

cut

What has until now been referred to as cultural capital is about to plunge in value, by the way. In case you had not noticed.

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Oh hell yeah what I think.

[Luther Blissett]

I have long been under the assumption that the at least $32 trillion + hidden offshore obscures real wealth and power. Thus Gates (or whoever) is allowed to play at the public "richest person in the world" for some time by those who hold far greater power (and sometimes wealth) but who are mostly obscured from public scrutiny.

I'm also a bit confused by the Queen being the largest landowner in the world – all those desolate rocks jutting out of far-flung seas, parkland in the colonies, and other natural resources owned by the crown, most definitely not the British people – because that CIFR thread went off the rails and seemed to contain mostly myth.

[brainpanhandler]

I have long been under the assumption that the at least $32 trillion + hidden offshore obscures real wealth and power.

I went looking for the source of the 32 trillion figure. That's an astonishing number.



The Reuters article says:

The research was carried out for pressure group Tax Justice Network, which campaigns against tax havens, by James Henry, former chief economist at consultants McKinsey & Co.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-offsh ... 3U20120722

So I went to Tax Justice Network's reports page:

The initial document is here. More data will be uploaded in due course.

http://www.taxjustice.net/2016/05/09/17103/

If you follow the link at the word here you can download the Power point presentation. I am a little underwhelmed to say the least.

I have no doubt there are gigantic hoards of wealth stashed in tax havens and I guess 36 trillion isn't completely unbelievable to me.

[Luther Blissett]

This is the paper from 2012: http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/upload/pd ... 120722.pdf
The shitty powerpoint was not the report.

I think we have a thread on it here. It was more than the total GDP of the U.S. and Japan combined. The figure has grown by leaps and bounds in the last four years.

[tapitsbo]

I have long been under the assumption that the at least $32 trillion + hidden offshore obscures real wealth and power. Thus Gates (or whoever) is allowed to play at the public "richest person in the world" for some time by those who hold far greater power (and sometimes wealth) but who are mostly obscured from public scrutiny.

You sound absolutely on the money here Luther.

Interesting that what you're saying also doesn't support the OP's concern troll defense of the professional smug idiot caste.

[brainpanhandler]

This is the paper from 2012: http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/upload/pd ... 120722.pdf

Thanks Luther

[Luther Blissett]

On third look, that United States Dollar amount was actually calculated from 2010 statistics and events. Bolstering the idea that it's even larger.

My hypothesis based on global recession recovery at the top is $38 trillion.

[stillrobertpaulsen]

Good fuel for discussion, brekin.

Within the Elite, I think what you might be trying to pinpoint (then again, you might not and I might just be opening a whole new avenue of discussion) is the overworld. I really wish I was at home with access to my library, but since I'm not right now, I'll try to find an online definition as put forth by Peter Dale Scott.

overworld That realm of wealthy or privileged society that, although not formally authorized or
institutionalized, is the scene of successful influence of government by private power. It includes
both (1) those whose influence is through their wealth, administered personally or more typically
through tax-free foundations and their sponsored projects, and (2) the first group's representatives.
The term should be distinguished from Frederick Lundberg's “superrich,” the sixty wealthiest
families that he wrongly predicted in his 1967 book Sixty Families would continue to dominate
America both as a class and as a “government of money.” The recent Forbes annual lists of the four
hundred richest Americans shows that Lundberg's prediction was wrong on both counts: his richest
inheritors of 1967 are mostly not the richest today, and today's richest are not necessarily those projecting their wealth into political power. The overworld is not a class but a category.
As a rule it is wrong to think of overworld influence institutionally, as exercised through the
Bilderberg Society, the Trilateral Commission, or the Council on Foreign Relations. However, there are less known, usually secret, cabals (such as the Pinay Circle[B] and theSafari Club[C]) that
flourish in these overworld milieus.

Sorry for the sloppiness, it's from a pdf. Anyway, hope that provides some perspective on who the agents of the Elite might be, as well as the politically active Elite acting in their own interests.

[JackRiddler]

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I expect most of that 32 trillion (or whatever the number is, obviously no one can know the total, including the insiders) is held through whatever shells by entities we can already identify: states, parts of the banking complex, corporations, super-rich mo-fucks, foundations, of course secret agencies and drug cartels and arms dealers and royalty and the rest of the covert filth. But probably very few so secret that you could not have heard of them before. And I'd bet at least half is relatively speaking on the retail tax-evasion end, millions of individuals hiding... millions each!

A trillion is just one million x one million.

Or 10 million x 100,000.

Not really so hard to imagine.

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[kool maudit]

My shorthand goes as follows: elites are people who have both the inclination and to a degree the means to enact that most terrifying of '60s slogans: "change the world".

Non-elites seek, and can only, change their own lives and work within their local networks and circumstances.

[divideandconquer]

No matter how comprehensive the study, I think it's impossible to estimate global private financial wealth from all sources, so, in my humble opinion, $32 trillion is a very conservative estimate, but even if $32 trillion is right on the money, over seven years, that money, invested tax-free through secret jurisdictions could've doubled by now for all we know.

Nevertheless, whatever the amount, it’ appalling that as we search for that increasingly elusive full-time job, having to account for every single penny that we can't even withdrawal without a huge hassle, we continue to believe, on some level, that the owners of this mind-boggling tax-free stolen illegal wealth are working on our behalf, by rewarding the rest of us with deep austerity measures that's going to make the Great Depression look like a walk in the park, if it hasn't already. The over-the-top support of Donald Trump, the glaring face of the gangster elite, proves this beyond a shadow of a doubt, which certainly doesn't excuse Donald Trump haters who support HRC, the other side of this gangster-elite coin. Anyway, the fact that anyone voted in this "election" speaks volumes.

In other words, just as I understand the unchained, uncaged lion will devour whoever or whatever is in its path, I understand and expect the gangster psychopathic elite to act like, well, gangster psychopathic elites, and do everything in their power to make the lives of the masses a living hell. What I don't understand is why people continue to trust, support and even revere this parasitic predatory beast no matter how much they prove they're parasitic and predatory. What's it going to take for people to, at the very least, open their eyes?

/endrant