Aristocracy of Bloodlines v Aristocracy of Achievement

One of the most astounding events in history took place when our nation’s founders insisted that the aristocracy of achievement replace the aristocracy of bloodlines. Each of them had seen what happened to individuals who lived in nations that were organized around providing for a handful of Lord’s and Ladies: the aristocracy thrived and the masses died.

In the USA the only “aristocracy” was going to be those men and women who achieved greatness and success through their hard work and strong will, coupled with the ability to satisfy the needs and desires of a large portion of their fellow citizens, through providing the best products at the cheapest prices. In other words, rather than the top of the pyramid being a handful of bluebloods, the pyramid was flipped, so that from then on it would be the masses – the consumers – who ran the show.

Just as the founding fathers decided that, in the political arena of a democratic republic, the voters would decide who would represent them, the same belief would apply to the market place: every day, individual consumers would vote, via their purchases, on which entrepreneur would be rewarded and which would be found wanting, and judged accordingly.

Today, however, many of our political representatives wish to, once again, invert the pyramid: the aristocracy of achievers is to be replaced with the aristocracy of political power. The politician is replacing the consumer; Socialism is replacing Democracy.

Why in the world would anyone choose to give away their power and freedom to a body of politicians, in this manner? There are a number of reasons but the two that seem to be the most prevalent are envy and elitism.

When a nation has a large enough segment of people who despise the successful for their success (the envious) who are then joined by elitist politicians who believe that they are smarter and wiser than our nation’s citizen-consumers as to “managing” the marketplace and the nation’s wealth, socialism is inevitable.

Thursday: The Envious and The Elitists


Copyright, Monte E Wilson, 2009