The Ruling Class

When de Tocqueville toured the United States about 1840 he was impressed with the manner the citizens took matters into their own hands. He was from an old French family that had been in the Ruling Class for many generations. He himself had been named a judge in a small district in France based wholly on his connections in the ruling class. His family temporarily fell out of favor and he lost the post. He was intimately familiar with how things were accomplished in France. For example: If a bridge needed repair, a letter was written to a minister in the local area and hearings were held. It was then forwarded to a larger district and again hearings were held. It went all the way up to the King's ministers (or Napoleon's ministers) who made the final determination, disbursed the funds, found an engineer, supported a work crew, and had everything inspected. At every level, he reported, there were excess payments to bribe all involved. As he looked at the United States, he was awed by the initiative taken by the citizens. Here, if a bridge needed repair, the local citizens got together in a meeting, decided what to do, went out and did the repairs and completion was achieved without resort to others.

Today, we have a Ruling Class that stops progress at every level of our society. Our judges are used to stop programs that do not comply with the niceties of the environmentalists. Our educators state that only when they issue a degree is a person able to work in a certain field. Our school administrators respond to central control to determine what is to be taught in the schools. Our main stream media determine what events or information the citizens will be allowed to know. Our politicians determine the laws by which we will live, how much we will pay for them, and who will pay.

Our Ruling Class is alive and thriving.