THE TERMINALLY SKEWED ELITE VIEW FROM THE WEST

What can account for the disdain, aggression and relentlessly patronising attitude of western political elites to Russia, China and other states with systems of governance that diverge from those in the West?

What is it that informs, motivates and supports the apparently totally fixed notions within these elites that they are singularly exceptional and that their societies are composed of the peak that humanity can aspire to?

Finally, what is the overarching goal of the western powers in their constant aggression against Russia, China and others, often dressed up as a defence mechanism against them?

It seems to me that the genesis of all of the characteristics and behaviours above stem from a, for them, convenient, matrix of dynamic mythology, vacuum-flask upbringing, pseudo-religious concepts and a large dose of self-interest. Add to this what is a very common militaristic/macho outlook, a devotion to maximum competition and an easy acceptance of semi-criminal or criminal behaviour if they deem the occasion warrants it.

Much of the above is seen as normality in the USA at the chauvinistic/hard-nosed feminist end of the scale. It is simply normal for such types to be tough on others, to have a disciplinarian outlook, looking down on those who are weaker or who are not ‘of your tribe’.

Anyone who has come into contact with those who run the upper social, political or military worlds of the USA will recognise the type. You have to fit into this type to be accepted to any degree in those upper-class circles. If you don’t fit you get rejected at the outset. Only those who correspond to their definition of ‘the right stuff’ are acceptable. Once accepted you join the ranks in a similar way that troops in earlier days did, with shields defending your squad, weapons aimed resolutely outward, always ready for the enemy that is forever ‘out there’.

The administrative ranks of western political organisations below the topmost ranks behave in similar manner. They get paid as an elite and certainly consider themselves an elite and those on the ‘other side, wherever that may be, are beyond the pale, regarded as of the ‘lower orders’. The similarity to out and out racism is painfully obvious.

This is why a resurrection of the Cold War mentality was so easily effected in such people. They fit right into the mould, already pre-primed for that particular shape. Then, after years of conditioning by endlessly repetitive warnings of just how bad ‘the other’ is, how devious, dirty and well, evil they are, the armour of prejudice is so enclosing as to be airtight and will not let even the tiniest sliver of open-minded insight inside. 

Imagine then how difficult it would be as such a person to conceive the possibility that you might want, or need to treat those ‘others’ with something approaching respect. It would be unthinkable to such a person. Thus the unedifying spectacle occurs of treating those ‘over there’ as lesser beings, as unredeemably evil souls who you have nothing in common with, you being part of the upper echelons of the “perfect” western world.

Do you think this might lead to something similar to what we see today in the way western political and media elites speak of those ‘others’ in Russia and China?

It’s as if they are in some old ‘B’ movie where there is always an evil (and often foreign) boss determined to destroy the world. The present situation is even worse than during the Cold War. A modicum of mutual respect back then made diplomacy along with a certain degree of dialogue possible, enabling agreements to occur. Diplomacy and dialogue in anything like the form of those days is notable by its absence.

We are expected to believe that Biden (the good guy) will talk with genuine respect to Putin (the bad guy). How possible is this after all that has been said over these many years, including Biden’s agreement to the assertion that Putin is “a killer”? Besides, do American political elites make agreements set in stone and affirmed by their signatures… or do they make tactical moves to fox those ‘others’ and then abandon their supposed integrity whenever they feel like it to get the better of them? I would say that the evidence points to expediency among them rather than reliability these days.

Trace it all back and you’ll find these elite classes in environments where the certainty of their own exceptionalism goes without saying. The Ivy League, Harvard and Princeton environments, the old money privilege and patronage, the super self-confidence and world-defeating ego that fuels a political career in particular and generates many of the media establishment also.

What other result can we really expect from the kind of upbringing and mutually self-congratulatory corresponding superior visions of their place in the world and combative edge to remain forever top dog (where their supreme self-confidence tells them they of course belong)? No other result is possible where those who do not fit are weeded out at their very first detection.

These creatures of preening exceptionalism, of self-sustaining, self-confident myopia, of disdain for all those outside their tribe, those with a determination to stay on top no matter what… look down on the rest of us from their ivory towers in smug self-satisfaction, always ready to assail and destroy any who threaten their status.

This is the unchanging stance of successive U.S. political elites and their media brethren.

This is the elite view from the West.