Mass Plutocracy

In the course of some rambling about the country, and in response to the generally deteriorating news from the various political fronts, I have been moved to ask more than once, What is the matter?

My deepest suspicion is that the American people as a whole have now adopted (or perhaps it would be fairer to them to say they have been given) the qualities and the outlook of a plutocracy. Plutocracy is defined in its root meaning as the rule by those having wealth. Interpreted slightly, it means rule through the power of money. Some nations have at some stages in their history been ruled by classes whose chief claim to distinction was their wealth. The character of this kind of rule is viewed very skeptically by classical political science. When Solon was forced to undertake the reform of the Athenian state, things having arrived at an impasse, one of the significant steps he took was to ban luxury. He did not try to make everyone equally opulent; his reform was in the direction of insisting upon a certain plainness of life even among those who had it to spend. Luxury, we infer, he regarded as something politically harmful. His idea was to press down from the top, so that there would be no examples of extravagance and high living to excite the emulation of the commonalty.

RW

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Richard M. Weaver

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In the course of some rambling about the country, and in response to the generally deteriorating news from the various political fronts, I have been moved to ask more than once, What is the matter?

My deepest suspicion is that the American people as a whole have now adopted (or perhaps it would be fairer to them to say they have been given) the qualities and the outlook of a plutocracy. Plutocracy is defined in its root meaning as the rule by those having wealth. Interpreted slightly, it means rule through the power of money. Some nations have at some stages in their history been ruled by classes whose chief claim to distinction was their wealth. The character of this kind of rule is viewed very skeptically by classical political science. When Solon was forced to undertake the reform of the Athenian state, things having arrived at an impasse, one of the significant steps he took was to ban luxury. He did not try to make everyone equally opulent; his reform was in the direction of insisting upon a certain plainness of life even among those who had it to spend. Luxury, we infer, he regarded as something politically harmful. His idea was to press down from the top, so that there would be no examples of extravagance and high living to excite the emulation of the commonalty.