I don’t know any wealthy people anymore.
It’s been my experience that almost-entirely self-made individuals or mostly-self-made are more often Conservative than Liberal. The people who had to work at it: who still managed to get ahead in life on a just a high-school education, who were on welfare while they needed it but didn’t try to stay on it when the need went away: the ones I know are Conservative.
The “pat” Liberal explanation is that once someone gets ahead, they turn greedhead and wanna stay ahead at any cost. Which is sometimes true. The first time I ever made some serious money (I started a business with a partner and within 9 months of having graduated college I’d paid off my student loan and all my credit card debt) I found myself, for the first time in my life, really anxious and nervous about losing the extra I’d managed to put aside. I didn’t do “anything to stay ahead”, but I was very motivated not to lose the lead I’d managed to gain.
I did wind up losing it, by the way.
The “pat” Conservative explanation is that when someone wants what they don’t yet have, they’ll do or say anything to “raise consciousness” about the injustice of not having it, and will do everything in their power to “level the playing field” (in their favor, that is), and will side with whoever gives them the best chance of achieving that objective (i.e. field “leveling”.)
Why is it that the “haves” (and in this case I don’t mean wealthy, since I’m talking from my personal experience: my “haves” are people who own a home and own some land and have lots of kids) are hated by the “have nots” simply for being happy with what they have and wanting to keep what they have, while the “have nots” want to get what they don’t have at the expense of others, seemingly by whatever means necessary?
One editor here mostly gripes about 1st world problems. White Whines. The TSA is a big favorite. Speaking of which, you know who doesn’t bitch about having to wait in line 2 or 3 hours to get on an airplane? People who have never flown, or who don’t fly very often. Which is most of the world population. Most people would be thrilled to death to fly on a plane, even if they waited all day to do it.
I haven’t flown in 20+ years. If I waited all day for a flight to India, I’d just look at it as part of the adventure of traveling.
Other popular BB topics: Net Neutrality. The ubiquitous Aaron Swartz. The EFF. Most of these are about (big surprise) getting something for nothing, feeling entitled to getting what is wanted, regardless of who created it in the first place, or who has to foot the ongoing maintenance, a constant “I want I Want I WANT.”
The semi-constant stream of mash-up “creation” on boingboing also reflects it: something for nothing. He1 did this and she1 did that. He2 takes He1 and She2’s work and combines it and look at what he2 “made”! When in actually he2 made nothing. He2 created nothing. To say that someone, anyone “created” the Technicolor Stormtrooper helmet or a Genderswapped Ariel or the Disney Tarot is to lessen the meaning of the very word “create”. Such things could be done by algorithm. And probably ARE.
Back to Aristocracy. The author opened the door so I’ll walk through it. Who are the peasants? Who are the serfs? Certainly no one on this thread.
Do you all think that the genuinely poor, the genuine “have nots”, the peasants and serfs of America and of the world, distinguish between Bill Gates, Cory Doctorow, and you, the reader? They do not.
This isn’t class war. This isn’t about any phoney-baloney “aristocracy”. This isn’t a battle of the haves and the have nots.
What masquerades as “class warfare” nowadays is a battle of the haves and the have mores.
The Have Nots, the Have Nothings, use library computers or school computers, if at all. The only TED they know is TED FM, or some dude named Ted. They don’t care about 3D printers. They eat fast food because it’s cheap and keeps them from being late to work. They don’t give a fuck about Lessig. They live next to, work with (and for) guys just like Rob Ford.
The amount of entitlement and privilege seen on BB every day is just astounding…
