In Praise Of Privilege And Elitism - The Indelible Role Of The Best And The Brightest

Armand Fellowes had grown up a child of privilege.  His parents, descended on his father's side from the the Earl of Northumberland and his Bostonian descendants who helped found the Massachusetts Bay Colony and were thanks to inherited and earned wealth became scions of New England society.  His mother's family was descended from Walter Raleigh and the English Cavaliers and were instrumental in the growth of Jamestown, Albemarle Bay, and Tidewater Virginia. 

Armand was educated at Andover and Yale, joined his uncle's Wall Street investment banking firm, and was a multi-millionaire before he was thirty.  His privileged background, parental authority and influence, and his premier education were the foundations for economic and social success.  He married well, to a woman of similar fortunes, moved into a Fifth Avenue penthouse and a summer home on Nantucket, and became quickly one of America's best and brightest 

He was bemused at today's insistence on 'intellectual plurality' a thinning of the ranks of the cadres of brilliance that had characterized great societies ever since the first human settlements.  The courts of Louis XIV, the palaces of Emperors, shoguns, and shahs did not come from the peasantry but from the hereditary elites who had been brought up in an ethos of civilized pursuits. 

The teacher-philosopher Cato the Elder developed an instructional program for the future leaders of Rome, one which taught the importance of honesty, responsibility, understanding, compassion, and respect as well as the more traditional elements of governance.  Those under his tutelage were already educated by their families in the principles of noblesse oblige - the obligation of the privileged to lead and lead wisely. Cato's program was a supplement to this fundamental education. 

There was no questioning about the nature of leadership and the nature of the ruled.  Human society had always been divided by birth, privilege, duty, and responsibility.  Those who governed had one set of rules, those who were governed had another. 

Of course history is filled with revolutions, civil wars and political strife - that, too, is an endemic feature of human society.  Rome had its Caesar Augustus and Caligula.  Some Persian shahs were sun kings in their own right while others arrogated authority and turned into senseless marauders.  Yet none of these expected, natural ups and downs ever were enough to reverse the millennia-old social structures.  Soviet Communism was a mere historical blip.  The democratic Age of Cromwell was as short-lived, and the English quickly restored the monarchy. 

 

The United States which had tossed the ideas of inherited privilege, the divine right of kings, and the monarchical nature of rule, was never a flat democracy, a communal populism with socialist overtones. It was and has always been a society like all others, a stratified one, one of privilege and peasantry.  For all the talk about diversity and inclusivity; and for all the attempts of progressivism to equalize the social character of the Republic, privilege and elitism will remain just as they always have. 

The United States is currently going through a Communist-style period of 'revolutionary justice', an effort to dismantle the foundations of so-called white, privileged rule, and to replace it with an eclectic mix of multicultural identities.  Ability, intelligence, or the Cato-inspired ethos of enlightened leadership have been shelved in favor of racial, ethnic, and gender identity.  Every segment of society, every social stratum, every public and private institution must be diversified accordingly.  The idea of a universal, central, shared ethos of principle and the importance of high intellectual leadership are gone. 

How did this philosophy - one that ascribes the same socio-economic and cultural value to the migrant farm worker and the assembly line worker as to the investment banker, the CEO, the cyber-startup genius, and the Frank Lloyd Wright - ever gain traction and currency?  And most importantly where did this profoundly revisionist view of history ever come from? 

America is no different from the elite, privileged rules of Europe and Asia but without their royal trappings, crowns and mantels, swords and scepters.  America has always been run by an elite - industrialists, financiers, bankers and landowners which form a cadre of power, limited in theory by elected government, but wielding almost restricted influence.  There may not be a king and his court, but its modern equivalent.  Cadres, not courtiers rule.

Their permanence is granted not only through heredity but also an institutional environment which encourages, fosters, and supports privilege.  The Ivy League, no longer the redoubt of the Anglo-Saxon New England aristocracy of the past, is still the breeding place for excellence; and the businesses which graduates join - Wall Street, K Street, Silicon Valley East and West, and the boardrooms of multinational business - are the loci of high-energy, high-creativity enterprise. 

The trajectory is clear - class, breeding, and aristocratic upbringing, followed by the best secondary schools, followed in turn by Harvard, Yale, and Princeton; the best law and business schools.  The middle ranks of middle managers, white collar associates, and support staff are filled commensurately - public colleges and universities take up the slack and help fill out the organizations led by the elite. 

There was not a scintilla of doubt as to the wisdom, reality, and historical record of elite rule; and the attempts to deny the bell curve of ability were just politically-motivated chimeras.  The underclasses should be educated to perform the modest tasks for which they are suited, skilled in being maximally productive in the lower-echelon tiers and socially responsible citizens. 

Armand had given up on his crowd.  Many born to privilege and the noblesse oblige which it implied, had denied their birthright and joined the progressive movement, an ill-considered enterprise to reform society and to make it a more tolerant, inclusive, and collaborative place. Essentiality - life's inherent, innate competitive nature - is ignored under the assumption that it can be corralled and harnessed for good. 

It was not a matter of principle, but a matter of fact - privilege and elitism had been an essential, ineluctable, permanent aspect of human society since its first settlements. Human communities from the most remote Amazon tribe to Imperial Russia have been divided by ability and the power and influence which that confers. 

 

Armand had not one apology, regret, or bit of remorse or guilt for his status, wealth, privilege, and social influence.  There had always been men like him and always would be . 

Blaze O'Glory And The Ruckus In New Orleans - When A Stripper Ran For Public Office

When the press first heard that Elmira Figgins (aka Blaze O'Glory), a stripper, was running for the Congressional seat vacated by a retiring, long-term Democratic member of the House, reporters clambered onto the first flights available to New Orleans.  Who was this woman?  

And what was a stripper doing running for public office? Yes, times had changed, and folks were a lot more tolerant than they once were about this sort of thing, but what were the voters of the 2nd Congressional District of Louisiana possibly thinking?

The reporters had another thing coming, for Blaze (she preferred to use her widely known stage name for her political run since a) she had nothing to hide; b) public recognition is prima facie evidence for electoral opportunity; and c) New Orleans has embraced sex and sexuality like no other place in America - look at the Mardi Gras floats - and her sexual 'forthrightness' was an asset not a liability) was no dope. 

These reporters from the Post and the Times, as progressive as they might have considered themselves to be, were no different from any Brown or Grinnell graduate who dressed up in brassiere and panties once or twice, but who were as straight as an arrow and as macho as any bass boat, gun rack totin' Alabaman. 

So when they found that Blaze O'Glory was one smart cookie they were surprised.  And talk about sexual forthrightness! None of them could suss out who she fancied and not a few of them imagined an orgy with every possible sexual combination and permutation once beyond their limited reach.  

Who was she?  These days simple questions turned into conundrums which turned into hexagonal three dimensional insoluble puzzles. In this sexual climate, of course, this imprecision not only didn't matter, it was the whole point. 

One political journalist for the Times Picayune had once noted that New Orleans voters had a 'float mentality' and were more at home with what seemed to be than what actually was.  All the pasties, G-strings, and booty parading through the Quarter were just fine with them, and in fact a few of them had at least once in their lives ridden on one of these 'mobile devil's platforms' as the Church had called them. 

'Be all you can be' had a different timbre in New Orleans.  It was license to parade every closeted sexual variant possible; and the thing of it was, such sexual fungibility translated into political appeal.  New Orleans people didn't demand clarity.  What they wanted was mystery, magic, and miracles. 

Of course the Ninth Ward and the inner city black ghettos wanted nothing to do with the white trash who tinseled and sequined up once a year.  The real life of New Orleans was on their streets, and no pimp of the ward would ever even consider for voting one of them, let alone a tarted up cunt like her.

Blaze could care less about the Ninth Ward.  There were enough white float votes in the city and the wider metropolitan area of the Second District to get her elected, and so she never set foot anywhere near it, preferring to preach to the converted. 

'I am a woman for the times' she said, dressed to the nines in a perfectly-tailored Armani suit, cultured pearls, and Manolo Blahnik heels, and went on to discuss economic reform, patriotism, and a roll-back of the absurdity of 'identity'. 

The crowd loved it.  Blaze O'Glory, runway queen, pole dancer, stripper, and sexual comer dressed as a Beacon Hill matron was the candidate for 2024.  While other women might be either headliners in an operatic sexual Grand Guignol, or Folsom Street bulldogs with whips and leashes, Blaze was at home anywhere.  Whereas the establishment only tinkered with the idea of identity, Blaze engineered it.  She would be the one to carry The Big Easy's ambitions to Washington. 

To the further surprise of the reporters, Blaze was a conservative.  Assuming that a sexually 'indistinct' stripper would naturally be progressive, they learned their lesson quickly as she brazenly called out Democrats as 'the nimble-fingered thieves in the night who steal your money, your rights, and your dignity'.  Jefferson, she said, would be turning over in his grave. 

 

'Where on earth does she get this stuff?', a reporter from MSNBC wondered, not expecting this bimbo to know what was what let alone anything about the Founding Fathers; but she displayed a canny understanding of electoral politics, American history, and social trends.  'I chose my profession', she told one reporter. 'It did not choose me', meaning that she was not picked up and enslaved but as she put it, 'a mistress of my own destiny'.  

As far as her sexuality was concerned, she liked to keep reporters guessing, but was a true, red-blooded woman with a hearty sexual appetite and a desire to keep the bed springs humming for as long as God was willing. 

So, she was A Woman For All Seasons - straight to the straight crowd, 'indistinct' to the floaters, and irrelevant to black people. The reporters wanted her to come out, be honest about her sexuality, and be a person for modern times; but she left them flummoxed and befuddled while her people knew exactly what they were getting, or if they didn't, they didn't care because her politics resonated.  Once and for all this part of Louisiana at least would be done with Huey Long and his populist heirs once and for all and good riddance. 

She was a social oxymoron - a conservative stripper, a sexual performer, a Southern belle with Northern sensibilities - and few outside of New Orleans could make heads or tails of her rise to political prominence; but of course who was listening?  She took 'identity' and stood it on its head. Hers was no party line.  There was nothing absolute in either her personality or her politics.  She was a political hermaphrodite, a new genus; and she won her election hands down. 

The same reporters who had covered her rise to power were unsure which Elmira Figgins would show up as the new Congresswoman from the 2nd District of Louisiana; but they would have to wait until she took her seat.  For the time being she was only sighted in the Quarter, the Garden District and even in the Ninth Ward - a 'darshan' as Hindus call it, an appearance which conveys being, spirit, promise - but all, including the Reverend Blackmon P. Phillips of the AME Zion Third Baptist Church, former Kamala Harris supporter but turned Blazer for her 'racial and gender insights'. 

Chapter II of the remarkable story of Blaze O'Glory has yet to be written, but will be as soon as the old crowd on Capitol Hill get used to this newcomer, this insatiably personable woman of indistinct character but boundless charm. 

The Post-Roe v Wade California Abortion Mills - Shades Of Sobibor And Auschwitz

Brandi Mills was pregnant again.  Of course thanks to Governor Newsom and a complaisant, woman-friendly California legislature, abortions were available on demand throughout pregnancy, so she never had to give a second thought to contraception.  The Pill made you fat and break out in hives.  The IUD was always getting in the way, and condoms were a bothersome afterthought now that AIDS had largely disappeared from the scene, so abortion was the obvious alternative.  

Public clinics offering abortion were everywhere in the state, and private, non-profit agencies filled the gap.  After Roe v Wade had been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, leaving abortion decisions up to the states, California immediately opened for business.  The State House hired Porter & Allen, a top-of-the-line San Francisco advertising agency to develop its 'Why Worry? No Worries. Abortion Anytime' campaign designed to attract clients from those conservative Western states whose legislatures were not so open-minded. 

The Governor's office worked closely with Planned Parenthood and its associates, agencies which had already offered 'grants' to pregnant women in states with restrictive abortion laws to enable them to travel to California. Now that the market was finally free, these agencies could work full throttle to get unwanted pregnancies ended at no expense to the client.  

The end of Roe v Wade offered them an opportunity to increase donations from liberal supporters, and soon their treasuries were flush with funds.  After covering actual expenses - bus trips to Los Angeles, inexpensive hotel lodging, and a modest food allowance, there was plenty left over for the agencies to grow. 

Politically, the Newsom governorship benefitted equally from the positive press.  'California Doing The Right Thing', said the Tucson Bee.  'California Leads The Way To Women's Rights' read the headline of the Boise Star. The Governor, considering a race to the White House or at least to the Senate, needed political support beyond California, and leading the way on abortion rights was one sure way to do it.

 

In any case, Brandi chose a private clinic in San Diego for her D&C, an in-and-out operation, tea and scones in a pleasantly appointed 'Afterwards Room', and home for dinner.  Gone were the tedious preliminaries forced upon women in the old days of conservative policies - the counselling, the consenting paperwork, the 'cooling off period'.  Now, no questions asked.  A woman was indeed free to choose in California. 

Now Brandi, a graduate or Brown and Columbia law school was no intellectual innocent when it came to the legal, social, moral and religious issues concerning abortion; yet she never once retreated from the central, salient, essential point - a woman should be in control of her own body and do what she liked with it. 

Men, except for their rooster's contribution, were irrelevant to the issue and should have no say in the disposition of a woman's pregnancy, so despite their patriarchal, misogynist whining, they were supernumerary; and so it was that Brandi never bothered to tell her partners about her pregnancies.  Why should she?  Money was not an issue nor permission, nor any moral obligation.  

Brandi had become a regular at the San Diego clinic, greeted by name as she walked in the door.  Despite her many visits, the staff never offered any contraceptive advice.  They, after all, were in the business of abortion and no business model would ever include the promotion of a competing product; so it was always with a wave, a smile, and a 'See you next time' that she left the clinic. 

Soon a fleet of busses coming from nearby states idled in front of Planned Parenthood while passengers filed in and out. The clinic had hired more practitioners and expanded their facilities so that they could do hundreds of abortions a day. Most Californians were supportive in principle of free access to abortion and found the new marketing initiatives logical expressions of the supply and demand of a valued commodity. 

As the 2024 presidential election drew near, and the Harris campaign focused on abortion rights, many Californians were proud of their commitment to women's rights and especially to women of color.  The busses filled with black and Latino women coming to California for an abortion were testaments to their progressive thinking and enterprise. 

 

Others were not so sure.  There was something disturbing and unsettling about the issue. It was the absolute indifference to any moral or religious considerations and the sheer scale of the enterprise that was so unsettling. The busses of chipper, chattering, unconcerned women lined up in front of Planned Parenthood were offensive.  

In a horrible way, they were reminders of the Nazi cattle cars hauling Jews to their death at Auschwitz.  It was the same tortuous justification, the same one-issue, one simplified reason that was so frightening.  Suppose opponents of abortion were right - that life begins at conception - then these busses were headed to death camps no different from Sobibor.  

John Paul II was the first pope to speak out forcefully against the expedient nature of abortion. While in the Church's view all abortions were mortally wrong, those done for simple expediency were in a different, far worse category.  There could be no more immoral, damaging, inhuman action than the ending of a potential life for no reason other than inconvenience.  

Such actions had universal moral implications, said the Pope.  If an individual life were so cavalierly considered and if the value of a human being was so unimportant and insignificant, then the value of all life was demeaned.  The removal of a fetus, regardless of whether it was actual life or potential life, was a degrading, dehumanizing act. 

Pope Francis reiterated John Paul's warning, adding that an indifference to human life carried over to all life.  The world around us, the environment of plants and animals, all living things are devalued by abortion. A respect for life, all life is central to human dignity.  

 

None of this bothered Brandi, and she had no reservations about her serial abortions. Not only was her body hers and hers alone, but the issues of presumed morality (what was 'potential' life but a figment of the Vatican's obsession) were simply vestiges of patriarchy.  Men had finally been put in their place and Rome was their last redoubt. 

Expediency? Another vain, unfounded criticism of a woman's right to choose whenever she chose and for whatever reason; and so it was that she kept visiting Planned Parenthood, not bothering with contraception except in an indifferent, desultory way. 

The story might end with Brandi becoming pregnant, having a lovely blue-eyed, blonde-haired child and loving her to death and recanting her former abortion ways; but that would be just whistlin' Dixie, for in her mind and that of other so pre-disposed women, the two were mutually exclusive.  Wanting to repeatedly remove an embryo from the womb and eventually allowing one to grow there were two separate issues. 

Of course they are not; but the political juggernaut has already done its damage, Californians are happy that their state is the abortion capital of America, and Brandi keeps on getting her D&Cs at her favorite Planned Parenthood in San Diego.