Thursday, October 26th, 2006
Revolt of the upper class
by Warren
Conventional wisdom says that once the rich get too uppity and overprivileged, the poor cast off their chains and get their riot on. While that’s somewhat true, most real revolutions are stage managed by disaffected members of the elite (the Russian Revolution, American Revolution and other uprisings being a good example.) But there’s an increasing frustration amongst the upper-class who’ve worked like crazy to get where they are, only to see their progress trivialized by the newly emergent “ultra” rich, who swim in rivers of cash and live lives of increasing decadence and frivolity.
On the one hand, this is another good indicator that our civilization is reaching the “Romans barfing and screwing and not paying attention to those hairy fellas at the gates with swords” stage, but on the other hand the uber-rich have always been with us, and probably in one form or another always will be. It’s just that the ersatz kings, dukes, and Vanderbilts of today are a little more accessible and much more visible then their historical counterparts, who were smart enough to build giant stone walls around their ill-gotten gains. You could even argue that the emergence of a frustrated upper class is progress in and of itself. And I have serious doubts a revolt against the pampered will come from the slightly-less-pampered. But read the article and see what you think.