What really made me laugh was that this was with the same cruise line that the last Nation Cruise was on, though not quite the same itinerary. So I knew the setting. Of course, to the conservatives, it is only right and proper that all the staff should be people of color from poor countries. (The article does not mention that they were mostly male, though.) The captain was a white man, of course.This means that god is in his heaven with everyone in his or her designated place. Some are designed to give, others to receive. The goodies will trickle down to the worthy who work hard to serve the rich and who know their place.
This failure of social insight has killed the Republicans. A subordinate destroyed Romney with a video where he contemptuously dismissed the unworthies who collect entitlements and so would not vote for him anyway. I wonder if he did not assume that all those hard-working worthy underlings who served him agreed with his assessment of the value and agency of the 47%.
Anyone who has been around rich people knows that they have pretty much the same back story about how they worked their way up to their present eminence from modest beginnings. All the people who helped them get where they were have been delighted to help them, as far as they know, and truly admire or even love them. They are full of noblesse oblige, and they have no sense whatsoever of how the people who work for them might actually feel about them. So of course they feel very personally this rejection of them by the majority of the voters.
We decided against the Cruise this year. Of course the contradictions are blatant to the point of absurdity-- eating fancy food while discussing the plight of the poor on food stamps is a bit much--but this really does not bother me. It is possible for me to function just fine in the face of these absurdities. In a way, the National Review bunch may seem to be walking their particular walk by participating in a luxury cruise; they are the best people, as they see it, and they are demonstrating their sense of entitlement. But they are so ridiculous, poor things. The hurt, the anger!
It is not wise to live in a bubble. Affluent people can fall into this trap. When things don't go their way, such people overreact and take it personally. A few good bumps may wake them up.
It is never too late to join the human race.
And I love this Kästner Christmas poem. Thanks, David. I'm sure the National Review Cruisers would approve of this message to poor children everywhere.
Thanks for posting the link to the article about the National Review Cruise. I'd like to make a considered and erudite comment, but I'm left saddened and shaking my head. I try to be fair minded, so when reading Kevin Hassett's assertions that "those guys are so evil," I reminded myself that after finishing Boss Rove (not sure if html code for italics will work here), I could have used the same phrase, too, when thinking about operatives on the political right. I kept reading, arguing with myself that we're all just people with different views and my off-the-cuff comments could seem inane if overheard and reported. Then I encountered other statements, and thought, no, some of us care about other people and some others just care about themselves.
Posted by: Linda P. | December 27, 2012 at 04:44 PM
Linda: I have relatives who share attitudes with the National Review cruisers. They really do see themselves as the good people who take care of their families and homes and are charitable and decent to their subordinates. Most of them aren't as mean as Romney. But they think they are better than the average herd. That is why it so hard to get through to them about obligations to the larger society. They are probably not as bad as the people who have wrecked the Republican Party.
Of course maybe it's just the Christmas season that has me in such a tolerant frame of mind or just the fact that I have been on those cruises myself and lead a pretty plush life.
What I can't stand is grinding the faces of the poor, as my mother used to put it.
Posted by: Hattie | December 27, 2012 at 07:46 PM
I read this article thoroughly last night and then I was called to dinner. It's hard to believe how ignorant these people are of reality and how mean their thinking is. I remember some guy not n our group said to me on the Nation Magazine cruise ship that he worked for a living. Helloooo..., having worked for a lving, I'll leave it at that, but I remember how mean and hostile he was. Also, when I was calling my old stamping grounds in Ohio on behalf of Obama this one guy told me I was harming the country and Obama was like a king. Invinciple ignorance.
Posted by: Henry Bellingham Chapin | December 28, 2012 at 12:58 PM
Hank: That was some article, all right.
As to the hostile guy you met on the Nation Cruise: I do not understand why people who are doing what they are supposed to be doing in life think people should pat them on the back about it all the time. We're supposed to work! It's a given, the price of membership in the human race. Why do they imagine others are not doing what they are supposed to be doing: working, take care of our duties in life, which, I believe, is what most of us do?
Anyway, It sounds as if you are having a good time with your family, who I am sure are doing right by you as you have always done by them.
Posted by: Hattie | December 28, 2012 at 01:14 PM
People of all kinds can live in bubbles.
Posted by: Brandon | December 30, 2012 at 01:16 AM
Brandon: The thing about rich people is that they have the money to design their own realities. Their main article of faith is that everything is for sale. But they forgot what the Beatles said: money can't buy you love. That is why they are in shock.
Posted by: Hattie | December 31, 2012 at 09:28 AM