Rich Neocons - The new Aristocrats
Are Bush and Neocons trying to bring about a second feudal age ? I think so, at least an ideological one. In this diary I will tell you my musings on how and why they may be somewhat successful
Double standards for the Noblemen or IOIYAR
For a Bush supporter, Bush and his staff know better than the others and are entitled to immunity from common rules be those rules of law, of ethics and/or of science.
Or as :
Novak puts it bluntly Bush above Science
Thank god we don't have scientists running this country and the arrogance of them [scientists] to say that they know best and the elected president of the people
But, but... We dumped the King's tea at the harbor!
You can easily see why rich neocons want nobility back: Remember, to the aristocrats the Feudal Age wasn't a dark age but a GOLDEN AGE, when everyone did their bidding AND paid them taxes.
But why would potential serfs help them ?
And more importantly: With our current modern society how would they impose a new Feudalism ?Two new factors: Peak Oil and distributed terrorism
Peak Oil ?
Peak Oil is a theory that we are approaching (or have already passed) the top yearly Oil production that we will ever have. Which means Oil prices will rise steadily from now on. Now remember how food gets to a city's supermarket: Trucks. And how do medicines, computer parts, wood, construction material, linen, furniture,.. get to a city ? Trucks. Salt for deicing the road ? Trucks. Chemicals to treat our drinking water and process our sewage ? Trucks. Are you starting to get the picture ?
Life will get a lot more local
When Oil prices rise, life in a city will get VERY EXPENSIVE.. As it will be on any community that depends on cheap and fast transportation for most of it's consumables. Prices will drive people naturally to start looking into getting some of their consumables locally: Farmer Markets for food, the local quarry for construction, chemicals that can be manufactured by the local factories... Jobs located closer will be more appealing to employees as a long commute may take away much of their salary. Factories will be forced to source their materials locally or raise their products price.
Hope ?
Update [2005-7-18 2:55:54 by lawnorder]: to make this diary a bit more hopeful and positive I post this 2 recent news on energy:
A cheap safe way to store Hydrogen for fuel cells ?:
New York City-based Signa says it has come up with a new--and fairly efficient--way to produce hydrogen, one of the vexing problems for boosters of the hydrogen economy: Signa has devised a way to mix sodium with silica gel or crystalline silicon to create a powder that essentially stores free electrons. When water is introduced, the chemical reaction proceeds calmly. ust as important, the powder generates hydrogen efficiently. More than 9 percent of a kilogram of the powder gets converted to hydrogen and little energy is lost through heat. "You toss it into water and it just bubbles," said Lefenfeld in an interview. "It frees up the electron to make it readily available for the [fuel cell] reaction.
The Japan Times Online: Fuel-cell vehicles have been dubbed the ultimate clean car, but whether they can replace gasoline-powered automobiles in the not-so-distant future is an open question. The [problems] mainly center on the technology to prevent leakage of high-pressure hydrogen during collisions and to ensure passenger safety in terms of the cars' electrical systems. [All solved by the "fizz tabs that store hydrogen" ? -- law]. Once its hydrogen tank is filled, Toyota's new FCHV can travel up to 330 km,Honda's FCX meanwhile has a range of 430 km and a 80-kw motor output
Put fear of terrorism in the mix
Terrorism is the bugaboo of the 21st century. It has quite literally terrorized our citizens, although the largest terrorist act to date has killed a lot less people than a year's worth of car accidents. The problem is that we are used to car accidents while large scale terrorism on a civilian population is something new. No one knows where the next attack will be and unlike a car accident, we know that at least a dozen people will die from it, if not hundreds. And we know it can happen anywhere and is very hard to prevent. So terrorism has scared people all over the world into giving up some individual freedoms. Like the right of privacy for your travel bag's contents.
Individual Rights not so important anymore ?
Some people go even further in their fear, and want all of today's individual freedoms revoked for a particular class of people. And they will accept anything done in this "War on Terror" (WOT), to anyone ", be them Muslims, Arab looking or even liberal Americans.
Their fear of terror also makes them want to empower and protect a different class of people: anyone they believe will help on eradicating terrorism: They want the government authority to be unquestionable, they want their rulers to have all methods and means for this WOT at their disposal, including torture and war. .
The FFF - Fearful Faithful Fundies
Fear of terrorism is only part of the answer. of why Bush voters accept anything Bush does without questioning, as long as they fell he is protecting them from bugaboo Al Qaeda.
Culture shock is the other piece of the puzzle. I went into quite a bit of detail about this on another diary so I will give you the Cliff notes version: Conservatives want freedom from doubt and worry: Worries about the modern world, about terrorism, about "Gay marriage", about nuances, gray areas, about crime, etc... Where can they find that freedom from doubt ? In the Church.
Conservative Elite - A new class of privileged rulers
Underlying the "It's OK if You Are a Republican" philosophy, the "Rove deserves a medal", the "terrorists don't deserve the Geneva Convention" and the "Save Terri Schiavo but it's OK to kill Sun Hudson" mentality comes a sense of entitlement: The current law and ethics rules don't apply to some the same way it applies to others . Rich conservatives don't view themselves as being the same as the guy that grows their food and cooks for them. Poor conservatives agree: After all, they are their knights in shinning armor, the soldiers of the great WOT. The new "crusaders" that dedicate their lives to save them from heathens, terrorists and liberals should be not be burdened by archaic, pre 9/11 laws
The Church of the 21st Millennium: A Weapon against Evil Ideas ?
The rich aristocrats and corporations of today long for the days of their ancestors. When there was no EPA to spoil profitable operations and one could treat their employees as they pleased. When the ruling elite had no accountability nor any obligation to give anything back to the community and there was no need to pretend they did.
But neocons are moved not only by greed or the wish to be part of the new Aristocracy, but also by a distorted view of history. They subscribe to a theory that blames rationalism for all the "maladies" - real or imaginary - that the neocons attribute to the 20th century, making a logical leap from the 18th century enlightenment to Hitler and Stalin. The first to propose this theory was Leo Strauss. Billmon at Whiskey Bar notes the following about neocons and Strauss followers:
[When] Newt Gingrich equated feminism with the destruction of Western civ, he was echoing (in his dumbed-down way) Strauss's lurking fear that the liberal American state would steer the same course as the Weimar Republic... [Straussians think that] Deprived of the moral certainty provided by religion and tradition, the masses are vulnerable to crazed political adventurers who would fill the nihilistic void with their own crackpot ideas - like, say, the international conspiracy of Communists
* FFF - Fearful, Faithful, Fundies