How Global Elites Forsake Their Countrymen: Those in power see people at the bottom as aliens whose bizarre emotions they must try to manage, by Peggy Noonan. Germany’s Angela Merkel unilaterally announced that Germany would take in an astounding 800,000 Muslim refugees last year, and over a million came. Why? Some say it is idealism, driven by overcoming the Nazi past. But to take it to a simple level, she and her elite do not pay the price — it is class politics at its ugliest. And it’s happening all over the West, including Australia, where our new aristocracy see little downside for them personally in decisions that degrade other people’s lives.
Ms. Merkel had put the entire burden of a huge cultural change not on herself and those like her but on regular people who live closer to the edge, who do not have the resources to meet the burden, who have no particular protection or money or connections. Ms. Merkel, her cabinet and government, the media and cultural apparatus that lauded her decision were not in the least affected by it and likely never would be.
Nothing in their lives will get worse. The challenge of integrating different cultures, negotiating daily tensions, dealing with crime and extremism and fearfulness on the street — that was put on those with comparatively little, whom I’ve called the unprotected. They were left to struggle, not gradually and over the years but suddenly and in an air of ongoing crisis that shows no signs of ending — because nobody cares about them enough to stop it.
The powerful show no particular sign of worrying about any of this. When the working and middle class pushed back in shocked indignation, the people on top called them “xenophobic,” “narrow-minded,” “racist.” The detached, who made the decisions and bore none of the costs, got to be called “humanist,” “compassionate,” and “hero of human rights.”
So what does history say happens next? It’s not as if an out-of-touch aristocracy making selfish decisions is a new problem. The new global elite is behaving badly.
The larger point is that this is something we are seeing all over, the top detaching itself from the bottom, feeling little loyalty to it or affiliation with it. It is a theme I see working its way throughout the West’s power centers. At its heart it is not only a detachment from, but a lack of interest in, the lives of your countrymen, of those who are not at the table, and who understand that they’ve been abandoned by their leaders’ selfishness and mad virtue-signalling. …
Affluence detaches, power adds distance to experience. I don’t have it fully right in my mind but something big is happening here with this division between the leaders and the led. It is very much a feature of our age. But it is odd that our elites have abandoned or are abandoning the idea that they belong to a country, that they have ties that bring responsibilities, that they should feel loyalty to their people or, at the very least, a grounded respect.
A reader adds:
Dr Merkel has spent her last 25 years being driven in black limousines, so the only view she has is from the backseat of an armored Audi A8.
I live near Davos in Switzerland. When the World Economic Forum is meeting, I can hear helicopters flying the delegates all day. 250 private jets in the nearby airports. In Davos, a town of about 10,000 people there are about 800 black limousines parked with drivers idling the engines to keep warm. The high level delegates cannot walk 500m because of security issues. The town use to be guarded by 5000 Swiss military and police.
In the well guarded conference area the ignorant politicians and wealthy financiers talk about what they think is important: global warming, zero-interest rates, confiscating of other peoples money by a global “haircut” etc.
They think normal taxpaying people are stupid, bigot, ignorant xenophobe etc. They want their subjects to show more compassion and contentedness. This is neo-feudalism!
UPDATE: “Expert” Says Rising Rapes In Sweden Due To Global Warming Not Soaring Muslim Immigration. Let them eat cake.
