Wednesday, October 31, 2007

The Spirit of Billmon?

Glenn Greenwald:
Rockefeller, Hiatt and their friends plainly see themselves -- along with the telecom executives and lobbyists who flatter and feast them and are their peers and colleagues and friends -- as our elite vanguard. They know best, and when they break the law, it is for our own good. "Laws" are for the masses, to keep social order, to ensure that the Rockefellers and Hiatts can rule in peace and telecom executives can develop their extremely profitable relationships with government agencies without being bothered by "unfair" disruptions, such as court proceedings when they break the law.
"Punishment" for lawbreaking is not for them. Rockefeller -- with his wise and genetically implanted noblesse oblige -- has looked at everything in Secret and knows that there was nothing wrong here. And that's all we need to know. We should place faith in his Judgment that there need be no further examination of what his telecom contributors did.
I've noticed that Billmon has dropped a couple comments at Greenwald's blog. Now, of course, Greenwald is generally much more strident than Billmon--who had that wonderful ironic streak--but to read Greenwald writing that laws are for the masses, it warms my heart. Greenwald has a strong libertarian bent--as do many gay men--but the more he rails against the Beltway elites, the more like a class warrior he sounds. I love it.