THE RULES OF THE NEW ARISTOCRACY (by JMS, creator of Babylon 5)

[Babel_17]

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=760992300602302&id=139652459402959&stream_ref=10

You live in a Company Town; we pay you to work for us, while making sure that we own all the stores in town that sell our goods, the doctors offices where you go in town, the restaurants where you eat, and that we charge you just enough to make sure that at the end of the week you don’t have any leftover money to squirrel away, so you can never leave the company town, can never get ahead, and can never risk criticizing the company town. You work for us. We own the town where you live. We own you.

If one of you takes a hundred dollar bill from the cash register, you will go to jail. If we take billions out of the savings of ordinary people then crash the economy, costing thousands of jobs, not one of us will ever be prosecuted. Because the New Aristocracy is above such things. So we’ll just keep on doing it. Enjoy the ride.

Your local police belong to us now. We have militarized them into soldiers who treat you like terrorists. If you speak against us, we will ensure that you are tear gassed and beaten and handcuffed and caged into “free speech zones” designed to make you forget that the whole country was supposed to be a free speech zone. But now you have free speech only when and where we say you can have it. Meanwhile, we can say and do pretty much anything we want, to you or anyone else, and get away with it.

Thankfully it seems these ideas have been gaining traction lately, I think our party can still get in front of these issues and lead the American people out of our current quagmire of gross inequality, exploitation, and economic depression.

[pa28]

1. K&R

[DJ13]

2. Wow, what a great piece he wrote!

We own the White House. We own Congress. They pass the bills we write for them. They make the laws we want them to make, and make sure that they only limit you, never us. We own the courts. We own the lawyers. They are the club we use to beat you into submission.

There are no Democratic or Republican Senators, or Congresspeople or Presidents. Those parties have not existed for decades. There is only the Party of the New Aristocracy. The rest is Kabuki theater. It is Mexican Wrestling. It is the illusion of choice, of difference, of democracy. This is not a democracy. It is a monarchy of money. In that monarchy, we are the Aristocracy, the royalty, and what we say, goes.

If you dump trash illegally, you will be fined and potentially arrested. If we dump hundreds of tons of toxic waste into rivers and streams, none of us will ever be arrested and if we are fined, we will simply raise our prices so that you are the one to actually pay for what we did.

We are the New Aristocracy, and we do not pay fines.

We are the New Aristocracy, and we are immune from prosecution.

We are the New Aristocracy, and we find your poverty and your powerlessness and your struggles disgusting. You are beneath us.

[heaven05]

3. I like you too

much applause for your words of truth.

[erronis]

14. +1 - WE ARE GOD

And we demand all that is unto US. And everone else is blasphemous and should be toasted.

[bvar22]

56. Well Done.

Sadly... that sums it up perfectly.

The only way to WIN is NOT to play.
Its not for everybody.

[yallerdawg]

4. This is real

Just this week...

Michael Bloomberg (billionaire and former NYC Mayor) was asked about income inequality. His reply was redistributing wealth from the top 20% to the bottom 20% doesn't work. "Look at Russia." We can't look at income inequality, he said, from results. The best we can do is level opportunity. And sometimes people are lucky. That's just the way it is.

Warren Buffet just said he doesn't support raising minimum wage. He thinks "Earned Income Tax Credit" is best, a Federal-subsidized program. Very convenient for a billionaire who doesn't pay income tax and doesn't want to pay higher wages. Let "the little people" fight for the scraps.

The question is, what are we going to do about it?

Or is it game over? We already lost the class warfare.

[fasttense]

32. I have been going to protests since W was appointed president by the Dancing Supremes.

I stopped going about the time Occupy was squelched by the Obama administration.

I feel that we have lost. When Obama turned out to be nothing more than an enabler for the oligarchy, I just gave up. The Oligarchy is so powerful that millions of Americans will have to respond to every provocation from the rich elite. But America is NOT there yet. Maybe with the 2nd crash they will be. If/when Americans start to fight back, I'll be there but until then I will focus on my farm. My produce may not change the world but how I grow it will.

[Babel_17]

5. I think JMS is aware of Thomas Piketty

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/02/thomas-piketty-capital-in-the-twenty-first-century-french-economist

Krugman, writing in the New York Review of Books, says Piketty's work will "change both the way we think about society and the way we do economics".

[yallerdawg]

6. No Democrats and Republicans

Could they be Vorlons and Shadows? The illusion of choice but the same result?

I can't help it, Babylon 5 is hands down the best Sci Fi series ever!!!!

Could Piketty be the new G'Kar?

I'm stopping, I'm done!

[JDPriestly]

8. Try reading Elizabeth Warren's new book, "A Fighting Chance."

We like it so much that we are buying copies to give to our family and friends.

Elizabeth Warren could be the president who would give all Americans "A Fighting Chance."

And don't tell me she isn't running. She will run if we support her and tell her we will support her and work for her if she does run.

[Babel_17]

9. If enough people choose her then the political landscape will change

Wow, good for you and what you're doing!

[Dragonfli]

12. Babylon 5 was one of my favorite, but I was only able to watch half way through the series

Disappointingly, I can't find it anywhere online, not couchtuner, hulu, or netflix.
If I am ever in possession of money again I will buy it on DVD (where I am sure it is likely available).

Now back to reading about the actual subject of the OP.

[Babel_17]

16. Free Babylon 5!

http://jmsnews.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27474

#FreeBabylon5
http://freebabylon5.com/
https://www.facebook.com/FreeBabylon5
Reply With Quote

[Babel_17]

51. I just read your journal

I know it predates the JMS post but I was struck by the similarities.

Sign of the times?

[Dragonfli]

54. The obvious tends to be observed

Sign of the times? Unfortunately yes.

Thanks for the links by the way, I didn't realize there was a concerted effort to bring the series back.
There is so much garbage in syndication it blows my mind that something so well written can't be found anywhere (well except UK apparently)

[winter is coming]

7. I think he had a lot of these things figured out long before Piketty's book came along. n/t

[Babel_17]

10. Oh, I agree

It's a matter of timing. Now's a great time for everyone to speak out.

[starroute]

11. And he's probably seeing us heading for the worst of the Babylon 5 future

Only with no easy way out.

[supernova]

13. Credit goes to WRP from three years ago

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/202-the-new-american-dream

[DeSwiss]

15. Strange how the only people talking about these issues.....

...seem to be the people on this board -- who don't happen to be politicians currently in or running for, office. So why should anyone vote for a numbskull who is essentially running to maintain the present system?

- How do you ''un-rotten'' the apple?

K&R

[center]


''Sending a ''Hoper and Changer'' to Washington to reform it, is like sending
a vestal virgin to a whorehouse in order to turn it into a church.''[/center]

[Babel_17]

17. True, though a few exceptions to that

I got a snail-mail letter from Senator Bernie Sanders today, though I haven't read it I know if I go to his website or google his name I can find that he speaks to this issue.

https://www.sanders.senate.gov/

[DeSwiss]

21. Bernie's no politician.

- He's a true ''Freedom and Unity'' Vermonter. A rare breed.

[Enthusiast]

37. +1! It's corruption from sea to shining sea. And some are fine with that.

"Hey, I know. Let's turn education into a profit making operation. Let's outsource the jobs. How about we privatize the water supply, you know, after we poison most of it. And then we'll compromise the internet so they can't complain about the reaming they're getting."

[DeSwiss]

59. When awakening begins.....

...it'll happen exponentially. Then, lookout!

- You can monitor from here.


''The thing that doesn't fit is the thing that is most interesting.'' ~Richard Feynman

[otherone]

18. chilling

[blkmusclmachine]

19. Welcome to 1984. All courtesy of GWB, Obama, and "9/11."

Operation Northwoods

[NBachers]

20. If you read the entire piece, and the comments below it, you'll see people from other countries

are agreeing, too.

[Babel_17]

31. Well they should

Last edited Sun May 4, 2014, 10:58 AM - Edit history (1)

What's happening here isn't unique to the USA.

Edit: Thanks for that heads-up, I hadn't read the responses to any great length.

[Ichingcarpenter]

22. Printed the rest and it gets even better.

If you happen to figure out our game and talk about it, we will accuse you of Class Warfare, in order to distract anyone from realizing that yes, there was a class war, that it was against you, that the war is over, and we won.


Yes, you get a chance to vote for congresspeople and senators and presidents. But only after we’ve decided, long before the first ballot is ever cast, which candidate we will finance. Those we like, those who will give us what we want first and foremost, we will finance and you will get to vote on one of the two pre-screened candidates we have given you. If we don’t like them, if we think they will challenge us, we will not finance them and you will never have the chance to vote on them. Because you don’t get a real vote in the New Aristocracy.


We own the White House. We own Congress. They pass the bills we write for them. They make the laws we want them to make, and make sure that they only limit you, never us. We own the courts. We own the lawyers. They are the club we use to beat you into submission.


There are no Democratic or Republican Senators, or Congresspeople or Presidents. Those parties have not existed for decades. There is only the Party of the New Aristocracy. The rest is Kabuki theater. It is Mexican Wrestling. It is the illusion of choice, of difference, of democracy. This is not a democracy. It is a monarchy of money. In that monarchy, we are the Aristocracy, the royalty, and what we say, goes.


If you dump trash illegally, you will be fined and potentially arrested. If we dump hundreds of tons of toxic waste into rivers and streams, none of us will ever be arrested and if we are fined, we will simply raise our prices so that you are the one to actually pay for what we did.

We are the New Aristocracy, and we do not pay fines.

We are the New Aristocracy, and we are immune from prosecution.

We are the New Aristocracy, and we find your poverty and your powerlessness and your struggles disgusting. You are beneath us.


Understand something: we don’t want you to succeed. We don’t want someone coming along to slice the pie into smaller pieces. We want to own all of it. If we really wanted more of you where we are, do you think we would have spent the last thirty years consolidating every major company into smaller and smaller groups owned by fewer and fewer people?


We are the New Aristocracy because we were born into it. We got our money the old fashioned, Medieval way: our parents gave it to us. We were born into the wealth that we stole from you and your family over the last fifty years. You were not born into anything other than poverty and struggle.


You will never be us. You will never have our advantages. And we like it that way.
We like that you peer through the bars of your cage to all that we have. We like that you think you can have it yourself one day. Because that illusion keeps you on our side. But you will never have those things. We’ve made sure of that. Because what you’re looking at is ours, and we do not share.


The world we have carefully constructed for you is like one of those boardwalk games of chance where if you knock down the big pins with a baseball, you win a huge prize. But the pins are weighted and positioned so that you will never, ever knock them down. Yet you’ll keep paying anyway, and keep throwing, until you exhaust yourself and your wallet. And we like it that way.



We don’t want you to have opportunities, we don’t want you to have an education, we don’t want you to have a voice in what happens to you, we don’t want you healthy, we don’t want you to do anything but be frightened, helpless, docile consumers who will eat and watch and buy what we tell you to eat and watch and buy while we keep all the good stuff to ourselves.


Because you’re not in our club.

Because we are the New Aristocracy.

And you are the New Peasants.

And we very, very, very much like it that way.

[sendero]

27. I think...

.. a lot of people reading your post will think it is a gross exaggeration. But it really is not and it may be too entrenched now to do anything about.

[Skidmore]

34. What an erudite view. I don't think so.

There were some of us noting on old DU way back in the day that as a society we were now using the Ferenghi Rules of Acquisition as the guiding principles of the nation. I still think this is more in line with the pedestrian sensibilities of the American "aristocracy." Latinum buys power and all the stuff you want, including people. Everyone, no matter how meager there existence, can use the principles as long as they can aquire a bit of latinum now and then. Free markets and lack of scruples codified and practiced.

Yes, we had several discussions about this back in the day.

[nxylas]

23. Did JMS actually write this?

It was posted onto Facebook by a fan page, with no indication that it came from the pen of JMS himself. I'd hate to find that it was incorrectly attributed, like a liberal equivalent of that "get off my lawn" routine that RWers like to pretend came from Robin Williams. Don't mean to rain on anyone's parade, but facts matter.

[Ichingcarpenter]

24. He printed it also in Boing Boing

He is also very clear he doesn't like people ripping him off and not giving him credit for the work he does.

http://boingboing.net/2014/05/03/straczynski-the-new-aristoc.html

[nxylas]

25. OK, just checking

I like to be sure of these things before sharing them. Snopes is my bible.

[JanMSchroeder]

41. Yes, it's by JMS himself

JMS is the only one who posts as 'Fans of J. Michael Straczynski' on that page. He doesn't even have a page admin or moderator.

[Babel_17]

45. Welcome to DU Jan!

Thank you for providing the link that got me to the post by JMS. And thank you for all your other work!

[ladjf]

26. "Sixteen tons and what do I get? Another day older and deeper in debt"

"I owe my soul to the Company Store". nt

[chervilant]

28. To this day,

I can post about the corporate megalomaniacs -- who've usurped our media, our politics AND our global economy -- and I get nothing.

No discussion...

No rebuttals...

Nothin'!

Why are we complacent about this?!?

Radical income inequity is our slavery du jour, and we've learned to keep our mouths shut, lest we lose the pitiful jobs we have now that barely put food on our tables.

[Babel_17]

29. Some more, quite spot on, commentary

Jan, an amazing moderator at the JMS forum, has done a great job of compiling some JMS commentary.

http://jmsnews.com/forums/showpost.php?p=121191&postcount=190

Here's one.

"But the hypocrisy, for me, is to see the right screaming bloody murder in defense of one right when they've happily, willingly and in some cases even gleefully given away the rest. Joe stands among that august company.

And though both parties acquiesced, it was the right that led this, make no mistake. Lots of folks on the left said, when warrantless wiretapping was discovered, "you can't do this, the Bill of Rights prohibits illegal search and seizure." And the right said "shut up, we need to be safe!"

When the left complained about American citizens being arrested without warrant and held without charges, it was the right, far more than the left, who said "shut up, we need to be safe!"

Time after time, the right led the battle to surrender the rights that the guns are supposedly there to protect.

Which is why there's no need in the long run for anyone to come for the guns...and why this won't happen (needless to say there is no one in congress actually saying "let's repeal the second amendment," that hasn't happened, let's not get into the gun discussion per se, that's another topic for another time).

The point is that there's no need to come for the guns to get our freedoms...because they've already been given away."

[genwah]

30. "The earth and the fullness thereof are mine, saith Monseigneur"

[Babel_17]

35. That was a worthwhile google

http://www.gradesaver.com/tale-of-two-cities/study-guide/section4/

Wow!

[ctsnowman]

33. Excellent!

[gulliver]

36. Like B5, the "new aristocracy" works...

...only because people are willing to suspend way, way too much disbelief. Bless them, it creates a lot of jobs in the entertainment industry. But when it comes to politics, we need to understand that we don't live in a trope- and cliche-riddled serial drama. It does something of a disservice to the people who suffered under actual aristocracy, oligarchy, and so forth in the past to compare them to our current smart-phone wielding, self-defeating "peasants" of today. People still haven't realized the lights are on and the old days are over.

[Babel_17]

40. Things have changed, yes, but the patterns remain

People are still suffering from poverty and disease. Just reading these boards provides real life examples from members.

[navarth]

38. The GREAT MAKER Speaks!! I have to check this out.

Thank you so much for posting. I was just telling somebody the other day about Bab 5. JMS is brilliant. Can't wait to check this out.

[Babel_17]

43. It seems JMS is trying to get his message out

Originally Posted by Fans of J. Michael Straczynski
So I thought I'd boost this so it could get more widely read. Facebook opted not to accept the boost, saying it violated their guidelines because it made "claims that are unrealistic or unlikely."

http://www.jmsnews.com/ Has news and links to forums. I've been quoting from the Babylon 5 one.

[navarth]

58. I don't know what a boost is and I can no longer stand Facebook but

I'm a longtime fan of JMS and Bab 5.

[socialist_n_TN]

39. Y'all do realize that Marx and Engels said this ....

WELL over a century ago, right? This is couched in feudal terminology when it's actually NOT feudalism, it's capitalism.

Marx also had a prescription for solving this problem too.

[Babel_17]

42. The attitudes of the perpetrators of the system matter, imo

I think many have a sense of themself that resembles that of the old time aristocrats. How their income is generated has changed a lot but that isn't everything.

[socialist_n_TN]

44. I will disagree that the attitudes of the perpetrators makes that much difference.....

Anytime any "good" capitalist bucks the laws of capitalism, it puts him/her at a competitive disadvantage that can't hold to for very long. Either they change and start going with the capitalistic flow or they sell out and the buyers go with the capitalistic flow.

The attitudes of the "bad" capitalists just makes them easier to hate AND leads to the mistaken assumption that if you just get rid of the "bad actors" you'll solve the problem. History doesn't show that at all.

To paraphrase the Clinton campaign saying in '92: "It's the system stupid" BTW, that of course, is NOT a personal shot at you or anyone else, it's just a paraphrase of the famous "It's the economy stupid" saying of the '92 Clinton campaign.

[Babel_17]

49. Good point, I'm not offended

But perhaps it's inevitable that our current system system will produce exemplars of a despicable aristocracy. This causes people to rise up in defense of themselves and then there is the chance for real, systemic, change.

I realize that there have been several instances of our government claiming to have "fixed" gross injustices that were allowed by laws and regulations and (lack of) enforcement/regulation, only to see the same misdeeds recapitulated.

[yallerdawg]

52. Did Babylon 5 have a Marxist sub-text?

"...the whole history of mankind...has been a history of class struggles, contests between exploiting and exploited, ruling and oppressed classes..."

Actually, maybe not all that sub. Centauri and Narn? The evolution of Londo and G'Kar?

And maybe, as in the best of science fiction, we are drawn to the truths the story tells about us.

[Babel_17]

53. I know I'm not that informed on Marxism and I'm not an expert about B5

But I'd say B5 dealt with complex systems of economics and governance and it dealt with history as being somewhat cyclic. The whole Narn/Centauri relationship might have a Marxist nodding his head, I don't know.

It's worth mentioning that JMS has broadened his field of work since B5. You might be amazed at what he's done and is working on.

P.S. I'm just a fan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Michael_Straczynski

[yallerdawg]

61. I'm just a fan, too

"Let me pass on to you the one thing I've learned about this place: No one here is exactly what he appears." - G'Kar

[Puzzledtraveller]

46. No

Thankfully it seems these ideas have been gaining traction lately, I think our party can still get in front of these issues and lead the American people out of our current quagmire of gross inequality, exploitation, and economic depression.

Our party is part of it.

[Babel_17]

47. Then we have to get out in front of our party

Once they see where we are going they might hurry to catch up so they can lead us. lol

[rickyhall]

48. We're on B5 now, aren't we?

[Babel_17]

50. Yes, if you mean a B5 forum

I posted a link to this thread there in the thread that I found the JMS post. I try to be prudent about cross posting but I'm hoping this is ok.

[proReality]

55. It's not a new idea, it's something that never went away.

Anyone from a coal town can tell you how it has been.

[bvar22]

57. The idea isn't new,

...but the implementation has not been so complete and pervasive since the Gilded Age of the 1880s.

The Working/Middle Class badly needs a reset,
and I don't see one coming.

[yuiyoshida]

60. THIS thread needs music...

[Babel_17]

62. Perfect

Great music for a great show.

[Babel_17]

63. Kudos to Jan for the link

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=553089294725938&id=139652459402959

Fans of J. Michael Straczynski
March 10, 2013 ·

The other day, in testimony, Attorney General Eric Holder said what may be one of the most astonishing and deeply disturbing things said about the current financial system. The quote follows:

"But I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if we do prosecute — if we do bring a criminal charge — it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy. I think that is a function of the fact that some of these institutions have become too large."

In particular, this clause "if we do bring a criminal charge it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy."

Mark down the date in your journals, because the moment this was publicly admitted was the day that the presence of the New Aristocracy was officially confirmed and given status above the rule of law.

If you or I or anyone else embezzled a few grand, or laundered a few grand, or committed any other kind of crime, they'd throw us under the jail for years. But like the aristocrats of long-ago England and France and other nations who could commit any crime they so chose and go without blemish because it would upset the Natural Order of Things, the New American Aristocracy cannot be prosecuted, cannot be indicted, cannot be brought to trial because if they do it will bring down the world economy. They are immune. They are above the fray. Untouchable.

It's Mafia logic. "Nice world economy you got here. Be a real shame if something...happened to it."

A congressman, senator or sitting president can have criminal charges brought against him or her, but not someone in a large financial institution?

For over two centuries, what made this nation a shining beacon on a hill was the absolute certainty of its citizens that we were a nation of laws, and that no one was above the law.

That world no longer exists.

Say hello to the New Aristocracy.