It is always the respectable classes […] who are most susceptible to evil. To be intelligent, as many are, at least in a narrow, analytical way, is morally neutral. These respectable citizens are inculcated in their elitist ghettos with “values” and “norms,” including pious acts of charity used to justify their privilege, and a belief in the innate goodness of American power. They are trained to pay deference to systems of authority. They are taught to believe in their own goodness, unable to see or comprehend–and are perhaps indifferent to–the cruelty inflicted on others by the exclusive systems they serve. And as norms change, as the world is steadily transformed by corporate forces into small cabal of predators and a vast herd of human prey, these elites seamlessly replace one set of “values” with another. These elites obey the rules. They make the system work. And they are rewarded for this. In return, the do not question. -Chris Hedges, Days of Destruction Days of Revolt, Chapter 5, page 269
I’ve left out a bit of Hedges’ text because worst-writer doesn’t want to focus on Hedges’ “elites”. At least not the elites that come from #Americant privilege alone, e.g. Ivy League schools, privileged wealth, the right-wing, etc. Instead, the thing that interests me about Hedges’ words is how they could apply to the far-less than elite. I mean. Doesn’t the same apply to the seventy-four or so million who voted for former prez pee-pee-hair and all that has been revealed, opened up, blossomed since the election of Barry-O?
Oh worst-my what a worst-lie we live or die.
Rant (and quote) on, baby.
-T
worstwriter 