When faced with the decision to decide whether or not our country's power is concentrated within the hands of a few elite individuals, my first reaction was a very strong "yes, of course." But after thinking more about it, I've decided that the power is really spread-though not evenly-between the elites and the "unorganized masses." The reason I came to this conclusion is simple, yet significant. Basically, there are a select few individuals who hold a lot of our country's power, but these individuals are supported-directly or indirectly-by the masses. This idea is similar to the simple analogy of, let's say, a bridge held up by cables--the bridge itself is very strong, but would fall without the cables.
Having said that the "unorganized masses" do have a minor role to play in the scheme of things, it is the "power elites" who mostly run the show. In America, as in all countries, money IS power, and some of the elites in this country probably have more money than several small countries. I mean, just go downtown and the banks make up most of the huge buildings in Austin's skyline. This shows the significance that most people place in money, even though they might not have much of it. And that is exactly why most people don't have power. As in the bridge analogy, nobody really notices or cares about the cables (the masses), as long as the bridge (the "power elite") does it's job.
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3 comments:
Wow... did you come up with the bridge analogy on your own? Well said... though lets face it, the Golden Gate bridge wouldn't be as Iconic as it is without those awesome red cables. Way to stand up for the cables.
so wait: if the "cables" are controlled/deployed by the powerful builders, do they really have any power on their own with which to check said builders?
i really like your analogy with the bridge and cables, it's so true that without the cables the bridge wouldn't be able to function
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