Britain's ruling elites now exercise power with a shameless rapacity
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1751129,00.html
As a new bureaucratic oligarchy has taken over from professional and
political organisations, the City reigns supreme
Hywel Williams
Tuesday April 11, 2006
The Guardian
Britain is an old, mysterious country. And the roots of its elites -
the groups of the chosen few who administer and influence the lives of
the many - are stuck deep in the national soil. The power of
aristocratic elites chosen by birth has yielded to the dominion of
democratic ones chosen by the ballot box. Clerical elites once used the
authority of church and sacrament to influence conduct. Their modern
equivalents are the officials of the management state who regulate
behaviour through social policies, benchmarks, and performance
indicators. And the meritocratic rhetoric of the elites who run such a
modern technocracy hardens easily and quickly into cosy oligarchy. The
claim that their power and money are earned because of superior ability
is a strategic one designed to close down debate about who has the
right to do what to whom.
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