Oligarchs are us

We wonder how billionaires became our overlord in just the blink of an eye. I grew up in an era when Bill Gates remained the richest person in the world for a long time, with just over a billion dollars. Now, a billion is the new million, and there is a guy trying to become the world’s first trillionaire. What hasn’t changed is the income for the 99.999% of us. I know I am exaggerating. Our income, or living standard, has gotten worse, actually, taking into account inflation, taxes, and such.

I look over at the political upheavals in the last few years, another phenomenon that puzzled a lot of us: how come we keep electing the very people who screw us up? That question, in my view, reveals more about both the proliferation of billionaires and the political coup by the mafia. We, the ordinary, let that happen, either directly (voting) or indirectly (ignoring). Everybody has their hands on collective decision-making, that is the basis of democracy, right?

So the question is, why did we choose the oligarchs? For the part of me that wants to scream that I am different: Enabling is an indirect way of choosing. Deal with it.

When I frame the question that way, I have a good answer to it: Because we wanted to be like them. We idolized the oligarchs as the modern-day antiheros. The forces that destroy the corrupted system, kill the even worse guys (because even in the shadow there is a morality clause), and disappear into the dark once again when they finish their job. The dark knight we deserve.

That is not the reality of oligarchs but the fantasy we projected onto them, and we know that. What wasn’t fantasy was their immunity from consequences and the speed of wealth/power accumulation. We witnessed those in real time, thanks to our ever-sensationalizing media, and while we lamented the corruption, we also wanted a piece of the pie. The oligarchs knew it and used it to shield themselves further, by posing as the mysterious-funny rich uncles.

I think the oligarchs came into power efficiently by manipulating people because… they used to be us. They aren’t from the lineage of people who stayed secluded for generations (like the monarchs). They might have gotten a big handout from their parents, but they are, at the core, peasants. They know how to use us peasants, because they used be one, and still am.

That is why they do everything they can to separate themselves from the have-nots, by showing off their wealth or buying certifications and ranks by money or befriending royals. It is an act of self-hatred. In the movie Titanic, the heroine’s mother is disgusted by the peasant boy while the other riches are greeting him with curiosity. It is because the heroine’s house is in decline and the mother knows they may join, or more possibly return to, the class of that dirty boy.

I think we the ordinaries need to look at the oligarchs not as external enemies but as unlived versions of ourselves, who show what happens to us if we meet certain favorable conditions in life, and yet do not make the right decisions. They are us, when or if we get an absurd amount of money and power, and ugliness as a package deal.