Watch this video. It’s only 39 seconds. It’s worth it.
What’s interesting to me about this video is NOT what Bernie says, it’s the reaction. It’s how genuinely uncomfortable the people interviewing him (The NYTimes editors) are.
They really think he’s saying something terrible. Something awkward. Something embarrassing.
What is he saying? “I ignore the social niceties, because I’m concentrating on helping people.”
To the people running the most important newspaper in the US, and probably in the world, this is embarrassing. Sanders manner is embarrassing to them.
These are courtiers. These are people who know how everyone should act.
The problem with Sanders, to them, is less the content of his policies (though they despise those too), than his display: his manners. It’s not what he does, it’s how he appears while he’s doing it.
This is straight, fifteenth century Italian courtier stuff. Straight Louis the XIVth Versailles stuff.
These are broken people. They are influential, they have a tiny bit of power, but they are broken. The system has shaped them (no one gets near the top of the NYTimes without having kissed ass all their life) into the perfect servants to power. Their judgment is pure aesthetics; pure look-and-feel. It is nearly void of content. Yes, they oppose Sanders’ policies, but if they became the elite consensus, these people would adapt and defend the elite as fiercely as they do centrist politics.
Broken people. Courtiers. Empty of principle, knowing only aesthetics and the pleasure of being hangers on to power.
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