The Entitled Get More Brazen by the Day
Weekend Edition Feb 27-Mar 01, 2015
Are We Witnessing the Dawn of Feudalism 2.0?
The Entitled Get More Brazen by the Day
by MURRAY DOBBIN
Powell River, British Columbia.
Every so often a cluster of news stories combine to become more than the simple sum of their parts. In the last few weeks, stories have emerged that reinforce the argument made by some academics and commentators suggesting that the West, including Canada, is beginning to devolve into a kind of new feudalism.
First up the revelations, leaked by an insider, that Swiss banking giant HSBC actively facilitates gross tax evasion on the part of the world’s wealthy and also launders billions in drug money.
Second, we have been provided a window on the heart-stopping corruption and moral turpitude of (at least some of) the global political elite through revelations that former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Gaston André Strauss-Kahn (I’m not making that up), the same guy accused of raping a New York hotel maid who settled out of court — is now charged with “aggravated pimping” for providing prostitutes for sex orgies. This is the man who was once destined to be the French Socialist Party’s presidential candidate.
Then there was the story of NBC rock star “news” anchor Brian Williams lying about his war experience (the helicopter story) in the beginning weeks of the Iraq war. This lie, while pretty inconsequential in the scheme of things, does allow us to shine some light on the role of these talking hair-dos in the new feudal order.
How does all this relate to neo-feudalism? There is no single definition of feudalism or its 2.0 version but there are some characteristics common to most. Wikipedia has this helpful explanation of neo-feudalism: “… a theorized contemporary rebirth of policies of governance, economy and public life reminiscent of those present in many feudal societies, such as unequal rights and legal protections for common people and for nobility.”
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/02/27/the-entitled-get-more-brazen-by-the-day/
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