Neil Howe: It’s going to get worse; more financial crises coming

[beechnut79]

(05-30-2016, 10:34 PM)MillsT_98 Wrote:

(05-27-2016, 11:42 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:

(05-26-2016, 12:12 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: I'm not worried about rich "individuals" having to pay more, and do not consider this "authoritarian."

Not so many years ago, it was standard partisan (expletive deleted) to call any Democrat a Communist, any Republican a Nazi.  I tried to suppress this false argument as ridiculous abuse of words which ought to have real meaning.  While I won't claim significant credit, the free use of Communist / Nazi descriptors seems to be far less fashionable these days.  If nothing else, it has just been over done.  If somebody uses these inappropriate descriptions, it reflects poorly on the person using the description more than the person allegedly being described.

These days, instead of 'Communist' or 'Nazi' people are using 'authoritarian'.  Same thing.  The word has been changed to protect the propagandists.  

Who is the word being used to attack?  What is the new meaning of the word?  It seems like an 'authoritarian' is anyone who dislikes the corrupt politics as usual that favors the wealthy few.

Now, I'm not authoritarian.  I'll express dislike of Stalin, Hitler and Saddam equally and vehemently.  I'm the modern Whig.  I'm in favor of democracy, human rights, equality and freedom.  At the same time, I see an element in all of the crises in modern Anglo-American history of a wealthy elite establishment having too much power.  There is generally a new elite who acquired wealth using a new technology allying with the People to weaken the hold of the old elite in the name of the Whig virtues.

From my neo-whig perspective, the authoritarian is generally the establishment rather than the People and the new elite.  The authoritarians using force and coercion to subdue and subjugate the People are the kings, nobility, slave owners and robber barons.  This generalization might not apply so cleanly this time around.  Still, applying it to the anti-establishment side doesn't feel right to me.

Anyway, when you see the word 'authoritarian' thrown around, compare it to the recent use of 'Communist' or 'Nazi'.

Speaking of which, when did the "new elite" become the "old elite"? I know right now the Boomer elite is now the old elite but I know back in the 2T they were the new elite, but when was the turning point?

The Boomer elite had not materialized yet during the 2T. They were in their disco phase at that time. Their version of elite materialized in the mid-1980s with the Yuppie phenomenon. Officially the Yuppie craze lasted only about four years and ended with the stock market crash in the fall of 1987. By then it had  become as fashionable to bash Yuppies as it had once been to be one. And yet the term is still very much with us today.