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Our American elites – Part 2 Sources of power and control
From the book: Chum for Thought: Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters by David Satterlee
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| Chum For Thought: Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters |
Our American elites – Part 2
Sources of power and control
Last week, I talked about the inevitable presence and place
of elites in American Society. While we believe that all men are created equal
and certain of their rights are unalienable and should never be threatened, we
understand that some of us have advantages and abilities that others do not.
Nonetheless, we hope that our children and grandchildren might yet find
exceptional success for their efforts.
America has continued to struggle to define, expand, and
guarantee our liberties. American slaves have been granted the rights of
citizenship. Their descendants are increasingly able to vote freely, serve in
the military, and sit, as free people, on any free seat on any bus. Women have
been given the right to own property, vote, earn equal wages, and use birth control.
Recently, more of us have received additional health care protection so that we
don’t face the choice of staying healthy or dying quickly.
Nonetheless, America has always faced groups determined to
twist government to favor their private wealth, power, and industry. In the
years before World War I, this was called “The Gilded Age.” Corruption was
open, corporations organized violence against their workers, stark poverty
ravaged the lives of the poor who were
