There is something in the human psyche that seems to crave subjugation.

Oh, don’t roll your eyes at me. Give me a chance to explain before you get all huffy. Besides, people pay good money to be told what to do, how to do it, and when to. Throughout history people simply did what they were told, no questions asked. From local warlords to princes and kings, historically speaking, people believed that they were worth less than those who rules over them. The way things are now are, historically speaking, in its infancy… which explains why there seems to be a definitive push to end it.

I don’t get political too often on here because, well, I’m not really a political guy. I never vote for a party but for the individual and, if they all suck, then I just don’t vote for that particular office. But last weekend at Dragoncon an old friend called me the “liberal champion of women authors at Baen,” which was both cool and kinda cracked me up a bit because, until that point, I hadn’t ever looked at things that way. Perspective is in the eye of the beholder. I’m just some random dude who happens to be looking for the best stories around. I’ve never paid attention to what they may or may not be packing in their pants.

Back to where I was going with this… lately it seems like there is a push for American politicians (and Canadian as well, it seems) for us to be more like Europe. I think this actually began to gain a foothold in the 80s, but it wasn’t as noticeable until 2006 or so. I didn’t understand it at the time though. I thought that maybe it was just because the idea of “European” was cool and chic. Well, that was the prevalent theory at least. But it wasn’t until 2020 was when it really clicked for me just why the Euro mindset is so appealing to the younger generations.

It’s all about class.

No, not the “class lady” phrase older people like to toss around. I’m talking about the whole social class thing that Europeans seem to crave.

It’s no secret that Europe was the bedrock of aristocracy throughout history and up until modern times. Even then, we still have a fascination with the idea that princes and princesses, kings and queens, and even dukes still exist in modern day politics. Tabloids still follow the British royals, even when they’re pretty much worthless–and mean even less to American politics. Monaco, Spain, even the supposed democratic stronghold of Belgium (so if Brussels ever gets high and mighty about being democratic, kindly remind them that they still have a king and his name is Philippe) has royal families, so we know that someone out there seems to like hearing about them.

In the United States, we only briefly had anything royal and that was pre-Revolutionary War. The closest thing we’ve had to a “royal family” here were the Kennedys, and that narrative was pushed hard by the press more than anything else early on. And that was to cover up the whole “Joe Kennedy Sr. loved him some Nazi Germany” more than anything else during JFK’s 1960 presidential campaign. Later, after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the myth about the Kennedys seemed to only grow, pushed again by the media.

Back in 2020-21, we all remember the lockdowns. I regularly gave them the middle finger and walked around outside because, well, outside is better than being trapped in a house. Meanwhile, people were getting jailed in more authoritarian states here. Governors were setting up hotlines to snitch out your neighbors (and now we know how the Germans were able to say “I was against everything the Nazis were doing” but stayed quiet or sometimes even celebrated when their friendly neighborhood Jewish family disappeared in the night after some anonymous tip) and in some places like Australia, they even built camps for those who refused to be vaccinated against Covid-19 (again, people, 1930s Nazi Germany SHOULD NOT BE A DAMNED PLAYBOOK!!!!).

But a funny thing happened during the so-called “lockdowns.” Social media began showing politicians out at fancy, empty 5-star restaurants with donors and other famous people while we pathetic voters and lowly mere citizens were locked inside our homes, forbidden from visiting our dying relatives in the name of public health. We couldn’t get a haircut but politicians were able to go to expensive boutiques for their appointments. The media defended them (as the media is wont to) because they “needed to do these things for public good” or some such malarkey (such a fun word). But while people are stupid, they do have a very cultivated sense of fairness, thanks to politicians themselves constantly asking “is this fair?”

It might not be the same across the board, but when 93% of the population here in the US was being forced to stay home, not be allowed to go out to eat, ordered to wear masks all the time and arrested if they didn’t, get vaccinated against their wills, all while the political elites and connected individuals could still go about their regular lives and not suffer any of the consequences for not following their own laws, people began to talk. Complain (and boy, let me tell you, us Americans love to complain… it’s like our 3rd most popular past time). And then… the lowly peasants stop obeying the mandate and get all uppity, and next thing you know the midterm election is imploding in your face and random people (not the party’s chosen) are being elected to run. WTF, amiright?

Why is all this important? Because for decades politicians and celebrities alike have been saying we need to be more cultivated, like Europe. I said this earlier, but a lot of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s were taught that Europe had culture, history, legacy. The US was just some upstart country who got lucky (yeah, so did France a few times, so shut it, frogs) and doesn’t have any sort of history. The problem with that is, as any history major who is honest will attest, we’re one of the more stable countries around and have been in existence longer than most of the countries that are currently bragging about their culture. Germany, for example, has only existed (at best) since 1866. There were the Germanies (leftovers from the Holy Roman Empire), but those were disunited principalities run by shed princes and minor dukes. It took Prussia kicking all their asses into shape to even begin to form a united Germany. And then, it took France invading them to really get it going. They might have culture as the Germanic peoples, but they have no united history… they still hate each other to this day. Seriously. If you’re a Berliner, go to southwestern Germany and make a Swabian joke. I’ll wait.

Phew. That went sideways for a minute. Anyways…

Politicians and celebrities here in the US really liked the idea of going to the places they wanted to without having to deal with, you know, us plebes. The individuals who see famous people in public and whisper excited, maybe go up and ask for an autograph or picture (pro tip: don’t do this while they’re at dinner. I hate it when my waitress asks me how things are when I have a mouthful of food. I can’t even imagine trying to deal with 20-40 people asking for autographs while I’m shoveling carne asada into my maw). They liked the idea that the “peasants” (us) weren’t allowed out at the swanky digs while the nobility (celebrities and politicians) could do as they please and go where they wanted. Hell, multiple news conferences showed politicians standing around close to one another, masks off, until aides reminded them that they were about to go live and suddenly the masks came back out. Kabuki theater, something which we have not ridiculed them enough for yet, nor should we ever stop making fun of them for.

I don’t care if they were conservative or liberal. If they screamed about masks and six feet spacing, MOCK them.

For the past 20 years (maybe 30) there has been a decided and concentrated effort to destroy that “buffer” class between the poor and the rich. You know, that pesky middle class who drive the majority of the economy (or did before corporations began buying everything from homes to apartments to farms to…). I used to laugh at the idea that the rich hate the middle class because it’s the middle class who help the rich build their wealth. But as I’ve grown older and become entrenched in the middle class working my way up, I can see a concerted effort to push the middle class down while keeping the lower class in its place. And why? Because the “ruling elite” really like being the ones who rule.

Rules for me, not for thee

You see it every day. “Public servants” getting into congress who enter with less than $50,000 (as an example number) to their name are suddenly multi-millionaires within one election cycle. They’re suddenly magicians in the stock market, own four properties when they barely could afford rent before, and make every perfect trade imaginable, enough so that they should have been working on the market instead of somewhere like politics, am I right?

There was a lot of implied sarcasm there, people. Do try to keep up.

Throughout the history of nobility in Europe, we saw it all the time. The nobles would do what they wanted, and the peasants had no say. Oh, sure. Once in a while they’d throw them a bone by executing some noble (or in the case on the Tudors, wives, cousins, and anyone else remotely inconvenient… we saw this again during the Bolsheviks and later, Soviets) but this served more to remind the peasants that if the King or Queen was willing to kill someone who might be considered a “peer” then what might the King or Queen do to a lowly peasant?

It wasn’t until the French Revolution and later, the Summer of 1848 (which was really when the musical Les Misérables is set and NOT the Time of Terror, you illiterate apes) that the nobility began to realize that the peasants were improving their livelihoods faster than the nobility was. There was an actual burgeoning middle class not, not just a group of bourgeoisie merchant class who rubbed elbows with nobility on occasion. Peasants were breaking free of their classes and starting to (gasp!) become wealthy.

Europeans hate the fact that a poor American can become fabulously wealthy through hard work and a little luck. It simply does not compute in their brains how we are totally okay with this and, if asked, we admire the person and want to emulate their success. Seriously. The Euro mind simply cannot comprehend the American one. Which is why I really don’t get the push to be more European.

But the politicians here in the US have gotten a taste of absolute rule… and they don’t want to let it go. Nothing is more permanent than a temporary government program. Ask the TSA. Or hell, the IRS if you really want to get angry.

The biggest issue right now is that we do, in fact, treat politicians and celebrities as though they are the ruling elite. We make excuses for their behavior, apologize for them when they themselves can’t be bothered, and try to normalize their egregiously poor behavior and lack of morals because, well, “they’re different.” No, they’re not. We just allowed them to become that way, and it’s all in the mistaken belief that the US needs some sort of nobility class because we were told (often and frequently) that we needed to be like Europe.

I think Europe needs to be a little more like us. Look at Poland. They’re doing it, and their history is rife with horrible nobility (trust me, the Polish-Lithuanian Sejm in the 1600s and 1700s made modern politicians look like beacons of virtue).

We don’t need a ruling elite. We need representatives. We can’t control celebrities, but we can stop worshipping them. I don’t care if some guy bats .300, can do a 360 degree dunk, win an Oscar pretending to be someone else on film, drive a car real fast, happens to be the daughter of a billionaire, or throw a football half the field. We can celebrate their achievements, but there’s no reason to venerate them. By venerating them, you excuse their behavior which would land anyone else in hot, hot water.

Besides, we don’t need to be like them. They need to be more like us.