I've been reading an interesting book by David Brooks, "The Road to Paradise", and he makes an intriguing point about the multiplicity of viewpoints amongst Americans, which gives rise to the following question:

If you were going to organize a march against "the ruling elite", where exactly would you march...?

The one who thinks he or she is special or elite. I would hate to make this post a one liner amongst the rules of americansdebate.com but the fact to me is that the elite would pretty much self identify, like bush and his need to assert his "rule" and so on.

I know it’s a pretty relative thing to say, but it’s a pretty relative issue in my opinion. Basically I think the elite will self identify, much like Hitler or any other (*&hole really that you would like to bring up.

I'm not sure I fully understand the question, but let me do the best I can.

Let's start by trying to figure out who the "ruling elite" might be. The first thing that leaps into my mind is the simple fact that they have money. Lots of money. It's difficult to see how you can really limit the immense power of wealth, but there might be a few steps to lessen its importance. Campaign financing reform of some sort may help.

Besides those having big bucks, who else has political power in the USA? The most obvious thing that I see is that women are not represented in the halls of power, in comparison to their numbers. I am certainly not saying that half of all American politicians must be female, or that there should be any kind of quota system at all. However, I have to wonder why the percentage of women in elected offices is so low.

Now, before we get into a big debate about the inherent differences between women and men, let's go ahead and assume that women will be, to some extent, "naturally" less interested in political power. (As to whether this "natural" difference is biological, or deeply cultural, or some mixture of the two, well, I have my opinion.) With this in mind, one has to wonder why the percentage of women in positions of authority varies from place to place.

Take a look at page 4 of this pdf file:

Link

Why should the percentage of women considered to be "policy leaders" vary from 38.6 in Arizona to 12.9% in Mississippi? Surely biology can't explain this. (And it can't be a coincidence that the bottom three states are all in the Bible Belt.) Or consider the patterns around the world.

Link (United Nations statistics for 1996)

(This is out of date, of course, but I think it makes my point.)

Let's just take a look at nations of the "free world," since there are obviously other nations where women are denied any political power at all. Why should the USA have 14.3% of its "ministerial" positions filled by women, and Sweden have 38.1%? The explanation can't be biological, but has to be cultural.

Similar things might be said for other groups which are represented in government in much lower numbers that in the general population.

So where would I "march"? Rather than trying to make some attack on the Powers That Be, I would "march" into the hearts of those who have a smaller than proportionate share of authority, and encourage them to work to earn positions of influence. I would also "march" forward into the future, to ensure that it becomes a more and more liberal society, as has been the general trend of history (allowing for some setbacks.)

If you were going to organize a march against "the ruling elite", where exactly would you march...?

Let's see, the ruling elite is set in quotation marks, so I guess that means it doesn't really exist. That in turn makes marching against a non-entity an exercise in futility. I don't like to waste my time with futile endeavors, but say I had to organize a march against "the ruling elite," where would it be?

Washington DC is the most logical place in this country. That's where our representatives rule the nation, within the influences of lobbyists. The news media would pick up on it if enough people came.

But what would the point of such a march be? Without a good hook, nobody will show up. If the ruling elite were to do something outrageous, that would get people into the street. I do believe there's some history to this, fairly recent too.

Marching to the voting booths might work, and the history on that is very recent.

Some have found success by marching to sports stadiums to declair their belief in a way to be. Belief, and especially public displays of such, draws crowds. But that has nothing to do with the ruling elite, which doesn't exist.

So, it's back to the hook. How's about a pig roast and free beer? That's always a good hook. Get some bands to play, have a festival to rage at the machine. Sell Ts and buttons, photos of you with a flat ruling elitist, funnel cakes and corndogs. Get people to sign petitions, then bombard them with fliers about the ruling elite.

Some of the titles might be, How to Identify Your Ruling Elitists, Fast-paths to Becoming Your Own Ruling Elitist, The Ruling Elite: Are You Ready? I'd need good copywriters for that stuff and get public speakers to hit the motivation circuit.

Well, all that's if for some reason I had to do such a thing, which I don't think will ever happen. I do know that I'm marching to the hardware store this morning to get an auger bolt for the snowblower. My ruling elitist for today is Ma Nature.

BTW, I think this is the book in question: On Paradise Drive

Precisely. Who are the proverbial "they", the ruling elite. Do you march on Wall Street or Sunset Boulevard? The hallowed halls of academia, or the halls of the MSM? The Pentagon or Langley? In front of Congress, the White House, or the Supreme Court?

Do you march to protest the Jews, the WASPS, or perhaps the Freemasons?...

hmmmm.... so many choices....

The best thing to do would be to march to the library and start reading, or march away from your TV sets. Americans are controlled in so many different ways, there is no one place to march. We are controlled, not by force, but through media. That's why the Corporations and Congress are so interested in getting the Internet regulated. Lots of ideas are being circulated, ideas that have not been filtered by an editor or station executive.

Another place to march would be your local governments and take control of your schools. Money is being wasted on education in many ways, some overtly, but mostly for self-serving idealists who are trying to cash in on their "plan" to educate our children. Money is being spent on workshops, consultants, communication positions, and various other new-wave training methods instead of the basics, books and teachers. There are a lot of hands reaching for the educational "coin jar" and none of them are truly interested in educating your children.

In short, we are controlled mentally. In order to break that control, we have to free our minds, not our bodies. Our bodies are free everyday, but our minds are being controlled by FOX or CNN to lead us to believe one thing while the "ruling elite" do another.