LETTERS
January 16, 2004
Neofeudalism
Thanks for the comparison between Bush and Hitler. The commitment to ruling the people by lies is, of course, the salient point. I've been remarking on the similarities for three years now, but after further research, I've learned that the Neocons, and Rove, are avid students of Machiavelli, relying heavily on Machiavelli's theory of the "noble lie," wherein leaders must lie to the people in order to achieve greater aims.
Wolfowitz and Perle, among others, were students of Leo Strauss at the University of Chicago, where whole generations of young people were sent out into the world armed with a belief that the world should be composed of a handful of noble elite governing a mass if ignorant peasants by means of lies and deception. They also learned that to the strongest go the spoils, and that this noble elite had the right to take whatever they were strong or clever enough to take.
At this point in our history we have the confluence of several disparate groups who happen to be working toward similar aims, all of them centering around the vision of a world of peasants or serfs ruled by elites. The neoliberal economists with their outmoded market fundamentalism and drive toward complete globalization are also working toward constantly reducing not only the power but the wages of the workers to benefit a handful of giant multinational corporations and their CEOs. Bush's recent advocacy of "guest workers" from Mexico is cynically aimed at forcing wages of American workers down still further to benefit business owners. We're clearly engaged in a "race to the bottom" as the workers of the world compete with the lowest-wage countries for jobs.
Christian fundamentalists pursue the same goals as both of these groups as they further a world view that would place everyone under the rule of a hierarchical God, where the church leaders rule the congregants, husbands rule wives and children, and all answer to theocratic laws. Christian Reconstructionists such as Robertson and his ideological mentor R.J. Rushdoony call for stoning as the penalty for violating any of a series of draconian laws, although other versions of this fundamentalism aren't quite so harsh.
Those who are paying attention to this frightening development realize that along with the fundamentalism is taught a reverence for the wealthy and powerful and a fervent defense of their "right" to all their wealth and power. This is a case once again of the church supporting the "God-given" rights of the rulers and helping keep the peasants in their places. Those who follow current events with an understanding of this ultimate goal will find those events clicking into place as part of this overall pattern, and will recognize the extent to which this establishment of a wealthy elite has already come to pass, and will clearly see that the rest of us are being reduced to the ranks of the powerless peasantry.
MJParrish