One of the countless reasons why capitalism stinks: it allows socially insensitive morons like Steve Ballmer to indulge their egotistical whims, while enriching fellow tycoons and trumping all semblance of justice.
PATRICE GREANVILLE (Rotekapellerin)
The entire Clippers/Donald Sterling story is covered from head to toe in excrement. The heart of the story is made of pure, Grade-A caca. The principals are full of it. And the whole thing when you think of it stinks to high heaven.
First because a man who has more money than he knows what to do with—Donald Sterling— owns a professional sports team whose players are paid ridiculous salaries to distract the masses from their humdrum lives. (He takes an awful lot of pride in that). That’s bad, in a broader sense, because such excesses further corrode the egalitarian foundation of a true democratic society, and over-reward people who contribute relatively little to society except momentary distraction) but that’s not the actual scatological part. The players, refugees from poverty, are just swimming along with the system.
The smelly part is that, as the whole world now knows, courtesy of an indiscreet girlfriend/protegé, Sterling, according to all evidence, is a hypocritical card-carrying racist. A r•a•c•i•s•t. Yes, the “R” word.
The whole episode would have amounted to nothing if Sterling were not so rich and the owner of a sports franchise, the latest fad and symbol of mega-wealth among the super affluent, and sure ticket to celebrityhood. Examples abound.
Paul Allen, worth $15 billion, made his dough by partnering with Bill Gates to found Microsoft, one of the most controversial firms in Silicon Valley and Wall Street. "MS" is famous for its gouging prices and mediocre products, some the laughing stock of the industry, starting with the company's legendarily vulnerable operating system. A diversified tycoon, Allen, besides a slew of companies with stakes in science, technology and real estate, also owns two professional sports teams, the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL),[2] and the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association (NBA).[3] He is also part-owner of the Seattle Sounders FC, which joined Major League Soccer (MLS) in 2009.[4] Mark Cuban, for his part, more flamboyant but worth merely $6 billion, owns the Dallas Mavericks. So what is a bored, older, but less affluent tycoon (base: real estate) to do to get some sense of self respect in this exclusive league? Acquire a sports franchise, of course. Which he proceeded to do, actually decades ago, 1981, bagging the L.A. Clippers for the paltry sum of $12.5 million.
And that’s where the Sterling story gets a really malodorous twist. For as the NBA debated expelling Sterling from the association for conduct unbecoming a righteous big property owner, Sterling's wife and other parties were already negotiating a scrumptious deal with yet another unsavory character, one Steve Ballmer, yes, the guy who until recently helmed Microsoft. As the always helpful Wiki records it:
Steven Anthony “Steve” Ballmer (born March 24, 1956)[4] is an American businessman who was the CEO of Microsoft from January 2000 to February 2014.[4] As of 2014, his personal wealth is estimated at $20.7 billion, ranking number 32 on the Forbes 400.[2] It was announced on August 23, 2013, that he would step down as Microsoft’s CEO within 12 months. On February 4, 2014, Ballmer retired as CEO and was succeeded by Satya Nadella; Ballmer remains on the Board of Directors.[5][6]
On May 29, 2014, Ballmer placed a bid of $2 billion to purchase the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). His bid was approved on June 4, 2014.[7][8]. Ballmer may have outgunned other egomaniacs in this contest, including the ubiquitous Larry Ellison (Oracle Corp.) and Sean P. Diddy, another artistic mediocrity better known for his ability to grab headlines, like Kim Kardashian, than any demonstrable talent.
But that's par for the course, you would say. So why is this stupid bunch of corporate piranhas pissing me off? It’s not because I haven’t run into this type of specimen before. Far from it. But if you are decent and well informed you can never quite disengage your mind and feelings from the insults that this culture provides in such abundance. Like being shelled at close range, you don’t get used to it.
Frankly it boils down to the fact that Ballmer’s actions—inanely and uncritically trumpeted by the media— remind me precisely why the world is in such pathetic state.
As a corporate tycoon Ballmer is no innocent bystander. He’s a member of a putrid ruling class that thinks nothing of buying an expensive egotistical toy, a whole basketball team for $2 Billion, big bragging rights among fellow morons, while neglecting the opportunity to do something of real value for society, nature, the animals—pick your cause—it’s not like you have to look too hard to find something appallingly wrong or in desperate need of repair. Activists all over the world do literal marvels with a few dollars; imagine what they could have done with that hefty wad of cash. But no, Ballmer sees the whole thing differently.
Of course I’m being silly. I realize that asking such guys —who as a class are literally the cause of innumerable social and political problems, that as a category of people heroic Dr Norman Bethune aptly described many decades ago as “those who make the wounds”—to have a developed, empathetic conscience is absurd. If this ruling class had a conscience, if any ruling class had a conscience, the world would be a different, fantastic place. All the token, well-publicized “charity” they do is not going to erase that simple fact.
But the most revolting part of the story emerges when you ponder for a moment the immoral rules of capitalist behavior. Events and acts that rarely cause a stir in the gallery of pundits and apologists supported by the superrich. I’m referring here to the fact that Sterling, who bought the Clippers for a song a few years ago, is now likely to make out like a bandit for his oral transgression, netting himself a profit of at least $1.8 billion. That’s a landfall, a killing, for being in the wrong.
All thanks to the inexorable antisocial laws of capitalist valuation, and moral idiots like Ballmer, who personify the sheer ugliness of a system that should have departed the scene a long time ago.
Former economist and media critic Patrice Greanville is The Greanville Post founding editor. Some things just don’t sit well with him.