By Alexander Perepechko
Published on July 5, 2012
We continue the literature review of the major theories about elites.
For the American ruling class protecting the foundation mythology is a matter of survival. Otherwise, this ruling class will need to tell the American people who they are and why they are what they are. But such a confession can be suicidal for elites because Americans do not want to give up their status as “demi-gods”. When the center of world power moved from France to England and later from England to the United States the ruling class of the declining power relatively easily adapted to the new situation. This happened because these shifts took place within West. The upcoming change in world leadership involves the rise of Sinic (China) and Hindu (India) civilizations and the end of the 500 year (note this number one more time; we will come back to it in a future essay) leadership of the West. India and especially China belong to conflict-ridden civilizations, dominated and humiliated in the past by western countries. In the forthcoming new world, Chinese and Indian elites will set up and impose new rules. In this forthcoming new world, will the American ruling class be willing to adjust to these rules and follow them? Will it be willing to learn and speak foreign languages? Will it be willing to change behavior? How will it explain the decline of America to the American people? American elites know that revising these myths can cost them this country. And without this country American oligarchs (not unlike some Russian oligarchs in exile – disgusting outcasts in their villas) might drain the bitter cup. Even “intellectual elites”—such as post-modernist gurus and Marxist ringleaders, promoting ideologies of globalization and internationalism—do not want to live the lives of pariahs abroad!
Meanwhile, slow corrosion of the independence mythology is underway. It goes in three directions. Firstly, the divine component of the independence myth fades due to a decrease in religiosity (Douthat, 2012; Howard, 2011; Shifting, 2009). Current religious revivalism and charisms have slowed down this trend, but it is not clear whether they will reverse the trend. Secondly, post-modernists and globalists revise the doctrine of the sovereign state and reshape and restructure the theory and practice of the sovereignty of the people. Electoral, parliamentary and other democratic mechanisms are used extensively to replace the “power of the majority” by the power of minorities and constructed surrogates. Thirdly, immigrants, refugees and foreigners are not eager to accept American foundation mythology. Since this population comprises tens of millions (illegal immigrants alone in America include 12-13 million) and immigration today is one of the major campaign issues, we need to write a few words about this attitude.
As I mentioned earlier (see Game of elites… (Part 1), 2012), to be able to continue the current apocalyptic politics, American elites need to unite the populace around a foundation mythology. To make the poor and the powerless loyal associates of elites, elites have been waging wars on immigrants, foreigners and ethno-racial minorities for centuries. Since immigrants and minorities belong to an “alien” social type, their behavior (such as an accent, a certain gesture, or a certain look) produces similar feelings of fear, distrust, and hatred in a majority – rich and poor, governors and governed (Sheets, 2011: 191). These feelings are commonly known as xenophobia. When applied to immigrants and other foreigners, value-emptying human technologies have a limited impact. Political socialization in countries of origin and families only partially explains why the independence mythology does not have “sacred meaning” for many immigrants and foreigners. The American state demands that immigrants sacrifice old values and empty their souls (Figure 3). This is big. What does this sacrifice offer in return? The American Dream? In my experience – no, not at all. The ruling class reserves the American Dream for Americans. In return, legislators in several red and blue states pass new anti-immigration laws and regulations. In places captured by post-modernist, Leninist and gender politics (for example Seattle, Washington, or Portland, Oregon), campuses are used as testing grounds for new dehumanizing technologies targeting immigrants, refugees and foreigners. Relations between academic “radicals” and state agencies, private foundations, executives and legislators, who support their activities, are very complex and need separate research. These facts indicate that old forms of discrimination persist and new inequalities and injustices are constructed (emerge) and flourish. It seems as though major brands of American politics, influential segments of bureaucracy and business have vested interest in maintaining old and developing new forms of racism and in maintaining xenophobia in America.
Figure 3. Handout for Naturalized Citizens. Distributed at US Citizenship Ceremony on July 4th 2003 in Seattle, Washington (Source: Personal archive of the author).
Hatred and toleration of immigrants and foreigners in America can go and go together. Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe created Hollywood. The story of Hitler’s scientists, who helped put American astronauts on the Moon, has been told by Cornwell (2003). Mathematicians and programmers from the former communist bloc set up the cutting edge IT in America. Political refugees are very sensitive to ambiguous conditions of immigrants in the United States. Solzhenitsyn and Bukovsky, celebrated dissidents and human rights fighters, were among them. Solzhenitsyn never applied for American citizenship and finally returned to Russia. Bukovsky left America (in fact, he ran away) for the United Kingdom.
If American elites are left only with a foundation mythology, would this mythology be sufficient to provide political consensus for an ongoing political empiricism?
Cornwell, J. (2003) Hitler’s Scientists: Science, War, and the Devil’s Pact. London: Viking.
Douthat, R. Can Liberal Christianity Be Saved? New York Times. July 15, 2012. Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/opinion/sunday/douthat-can-liberal-christianity-be-saved.html.
Game of elites: Using myths to maintain utopias (part 1). American Eurasian Vision. May 22, 2012. Available at http://www.aeavision.com/2012/05/game-of-elites-using-myths-to-maintain.html.
Howard, T. A. (2011) God and the Atlantic: America Europe and the Religious Divide. New York: Oxford University Press.
Sheets, L. S. (2011) Eight Pieces of Empire: A 20-Year Journey Through the Soviet Collapse. New York: Crown Publishers.
Shifting religious identities. USA Today. March 9, 2009. Available at http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-03-09-ARIS-faith-survey_N.htm.