The sad and disturbing case of the metropolitan elites
Back in the day, when the seemingly endless post world war economic growth had come to a screeching halt and unemployment benefits offered youths the chance to use their brains for independent thought, the metropolitan elites were quite sure that capitalism had run its course and should be replaced by a more inclusive system, a bit like communism as it existed in Eastern Europe but without all the mind-numbing and fruitless control mechanisms. Everybody poor and happy in a harmonious society which was developing only ever so slowly. Imagine, the metropolitan elites’ favourite car, the Deux Chevaux, would never go out of production! What joy! What insignificance! For a while, we seemed to be going in this direction and new metropolitan cohorts enthusiastically embraced the idea. No future! Poor and free they sailed through the nineteen eighties, denying that around them the capitalist engine was restarting under the impulse of neoliberalism and its absurd premise that greed and disregard could ever be the lubricants of human agreement. Then came the nineties. New money was pouring into the economy and everybody was invited to take their little part in the great global grab fest. The metropolitan elites, still convinced that one day the system would fail, found arty niches for themselves where they could pleasantly spend their days and make only just enough money to pleasantly survive. While financialised globalisation was taking the world in a wrong direction, at least it wasn’t their fault. They were in and doing fine, just not quite that radical anymore.
And so the decades came and went. Crises, too. Every ten years, it seems, something nasty is befalling humankind, something organised and executed from above, something that hurts. First, the monied interests and their minions pulverised some skyscrapers in downtown Manhattan and blamed it on their good friend Osama bin Laden, who was living in a cave in Afghanistan at the time. Then they crashed the stock market and ran off with the loot, leaving ordinary wage workers around the world to foot the bill. And finally, they gave us covid, the perfect excuse to lock us up and destroy the remains of our livelihoods. You would be forgiven to think these people really hate us for our freedoms. Yet, the metropolitan elite no longer felt aggrieved by what was going on in their world, since they mostly had managed to steer clear from the real pain, living in the West after all. They had gone making kids round the turn of the century – often with their best friend’s ex – and they felt their old perspective was not the ideal atmosphere to have a child grow up in. They used to have it nice and easy in their youth because their world was expanding and they wanted to give their offspring a mimicked version of that. So, they began thinking positively. They chose to want to understand how country management works, rather than criticise it. They became moderate, and middle class. They had nice incomes and nice apartments and they preferred to look the other way when disaster struck.
Apart from all the other havoc it is wreaking, covid is having a devastating impact on the intellectual capacities of the culturally advanced middle classes in our metropolitan centres. They have seen themselves forced to go along with a narrative spun by a government and some international voices that simply had to be true in the name of uninformed consent. Don’t worry, our leaders know what they are doing. Yeah, sure, I just would like to be informed a bit sooner, sometimes. Well, you can’t know everything, you know? Nevertheless, authorities clearly can. And so, it has become accepted wisdom that government is basically good and merely needs our full support to get us through this ordeal as quickly as possible. Whatever the rules in the country you happen to reside in – wear masks in the street, stay at home in the evening, have a stick shoved up your nose every now and then – they are necessary to conquer the invisible and so far unproven menace. The unwashed masses that somehow feel things are not quite right and start gathering in the streets to protest the ongoing bullying, well, they are just that, unwashed. They have most likely been led astray by attention seeking internet bloggers who think they know better when they clearly lack the information our leadership possesses. You don’t honestly think these people can be right, do you? And if you do, you obviously also believe the Earth is flat. Come to think of it, you’re a dangerous fool and I don’t want to know you any longer.
All it takes is a deep breath to forgive such harsh words. I know that you are scared. You’re often not that young anymore and you’ve had your fair share of substance abuse in the day and you’re not so sure you can still trust your body’s inherent strength. Yet that should not be an excuse to hide behind when you see the elderly suffocating on their religiously worn mouth masks, steadily filling their old lungs with a deadly mixture of bacteria and fear, being left alone all of a sudden at an age when they are needing our support ever more. Or when you hear how children are instilled with guilt for their grandparents’ survival chances, forced to be living already for a year – sheer forever when you’ve only recently joined the party! – behind masks and screens when they should be jumping about like the little lambs they are, meanwhile slowly losing their interest in life. What about small businesses suffering from arbitrary closures that one by one disappear? When so many are losing perspective, can you still be on the side-lines? Let’s be clear here, - with due sympathy to the poor souls who’ve lost their lives or their health – overall death numbers show covid was under control as of May last year and we could have gone for herd immunity and kill the motherfucker before it could further harm us, being summer and all and there being a window of opportunity to face winter with a more resistant population. The powers wouldn’t have it, of course not, as they were busy pushing their injection, and neither, unfortunately, would the metropolitan elites, afraid to put their savings on the line. Revolution will inevitably destroy small fortunes, ask the Russians, which is why your hypocrisy is understood and certainly not looked down on. It’s just that we’ve been suffering for a full year and nothing good has come of it, people still dying in larger numbers than they should. That’s from the measures, mind, and the absence of health care.
And now the metropolitan elites want to get the jab when they have nothing to fear personally. They even line up their bloody children! This, in my mind, is simply too much, this is sheer madness. It is abuse of one’s body without gain. I do not usually submit my mind to the Abrahamic god, but I do believe we ought to celebrate and nurse our mother, Earth, the life giver, and live in harmony with Her, and I don’t see where changing her design is going to contribute to this idea. Creating life is not a pissing contest. So, I cannot consent with any mad GMO experiment. It’s against my convictions. I probably should leave it here. I have a family to care for, I have my own reasons for hypocrisy. Still, it hurts to see life being destroyed for younger generations. I’m sure there will be space for most of them in the new society, if it were coming to pass, but they’re not going to have the fun we had and we’re not going to mimic the coming control state away. Yes, I know, they make it look cool, our cities are getting greener and cleaner and not having to travel is a great idea, but there won’t be room for all of us inside the new world’s walls, not by a long shot. I wrote a novel about this phase we’re heading into, some years ago, no virus in sight but with similar results. I invite you to read it. Write to coospalmboom@gmail.com
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