Progressive Feudalsim
By Thomas Lifson
AmericanThinker
The changes wrought on the American political
economy by progressives have taken us in the
unmistakable direction of feudalism. The
morphological resemblance between the progressive
version of America and the historic feudal regimes
of Western Europe and Japan is obvious if one takes
a few moments to consider the changes in the proper
context.
Legal Equality
Feudalism assigned people to different classes
based on birth and assigned different privileges
and obligations to the classes. The noble
classes were considered a different order of
humanity from the commoners, and the two groups
led separate lifestyles. In addition to huge
economic disparities, the two groups had very
different rights. If one was of noble birth in
Japan, for instance, he could carry a sword. For
commoners, unlawful possession of a sword was a
capital crime.
In progressive America, two groups today have a
parallel distinction. Birth, and birth alone,*
determines whether one is a member of a
designated victim class, entitled to preferences
in college admissions, scholarships, and
employment, factors which have a major formative
influence on life prospects. Moreover, the
ability to litigate as the victim of
discrimination with the possibility of massive
financial returns is enhanced. According to the
testimony of two Department of Justice lawyers,
membership in a designated victim class brings
with it immunity from prosecution under Civil
Rights statutes.
Personal Autonomy
Under feudalism, the ruling class had few limits
on its power and regarded the commoner classes
as under their tutelage, hopelessly incompetent
to make important decisions on their own. Many
spheres of life were devoid of personal
autonomy. What one wore and where one worked was
closely regulated, and in feudal England or
France, one could discern whether a person was a
peasant, a blacksmith, a merchant, or a noble
instantaneously, merely by dress.
In contrast, the bourgeois revolution, which
overthrew the European feudal order, gave birth
to the radical Enlightenment notion that each
person should be the master of his or her own
destiny, fit to make the important decisions in
life autonomously. What one wore or ate was up
to the individual.
In progressive America, personal decisions such
as what to eat are now regarded as the proper
concern of our government masters.
Foie
gras
was forbidden by the city of Chicago for two
years, and if you want to have your restaurant
food cooked in trans fats like butter, you ought
to know that New York City has a say in the
matter.
Common to the feudal and progressive regimes is
a deep and abiding disdain for the classes
needing regulation and guidance. It is not so
much that they hate or despise the lesser beings
over which they rule, as it is a sense of
obligation to make the right decisions for them.
Sumptuary Laws
Feudal rulers reserved for themselves certain
luxuries. In feudal Japan, silk was an
extravagance reserved exclusively for the noble
classes. Wealthy merchants sometimes purchased
garments with silk linings but with humble
cotton, wool, or linen outer surfaces, so as to
enjoy the warmth and softness of silk while
preserving their lives.
In progressive America, Nancy Pelosi regularly
jets from Washington, D.C. to her home in
San
Francisco on a luxury Gulfstream private jet
belonging to the Air Force when she isn't
commandeering a larger C-32 executive
transport, the military version of the Boeing
757. Meanwhile, corporate executives were forced
to cancel orders for and sell executive jets
during the financial crisis of 2008-9. While
President Obama told corporations to not hold
meetings in Las Vegas,
federal agencies
are free to have meetings there.
Guilds
Under feudalism, officially recognized guilds
enjoyed monopolies and special privileges, and
in return, they offered financial and other
support to the ruling class. In progressive
America, powerful labor unions are allowed to
force people to pay them dues in order to work
in certain companies and public organizations.
In return, these unions channel vast amounts of
money in campaign donations to ruling class
politicians at election time.
Moreover, unions can be insulated from the
market consequences of their actions, as in the
UAW members whose health care pension costs
drove GM and Chrysler bankrupt but whose lavish
benefits were preserved at taxpayer expense.
Money spent under the stimulus bill has been
channeled mostly to union members.
Estates
In European feudalism, clergy enjoyed special
status as both advisers to rulers and justifiers
of ruling class power. They were even called the
First Estate, for they interpreted God's law,
usually in a manner which maintained that the
kings ruled by divine right.
In progressive America, a comparable role is
played by lawyers and the courts, which enjoy
vast powers and can command wealth that would be
the envy of any bishop or cardinal in feudal
France. Many of our most important decisions in
progressive America are now taken away from the
people's representatives in legislative bodies
and decided by courts, themselves comprising
members of the legal class.
Taxation
Under feudal regimes, the rulers took as much as
they could in taxes, up to the point where
peasants began starving and tax revenues
decreased. In progressive America, taxes have
also
trended in that direction.
The Bourgeoisie
Under feudalism, the bourgeois class were
regarded as upstarts and a threat to the
legitimate ruling class. They were despised,
ridiculed, and regulated. In progressive
America, President Obama sees profit as an
optional feature of corporations, and the
disdain, regulation, taxation, and liability
which business owners must endure have never
been worse. As with feudal rulers, the
progressive ruling classes see the bourgeoisie
as vulgar pretenders to their own exalted status
and a threat to their own power.
Back to the Future?
If progressivism has its way, more and more of
our lives will be regulated by government
bureaucrats setting rules and regulations and
licensing people
to engage in even the most mundane tasks. It is
quite accurate to say that the reforms won by
the rising bourgeois class from the fifteenth to
the twentieth centuries, limiting and then
ending feudalism, are in full retreat in
progressive America.
It is time to rename progressives "regressives,"
a change I first
proposed
several years ago.
Thomas Lifson is
editor and publisher of American Thinker.