gene pools that dominates human existence, and while a fewrnprivileged individuals may be spoiled into believing they canrnlead their own lives selfishly, most of them end up marryingrnand rearing families whose interests they promote as ruthlesslyrnas a mother tiger.rnThe American ruling class holds power by pretending to believernin equality—racial, ethnic, political, social. But whenrnthey send their children to private schools, while a few editorialistsrnmay sound off against the hypocrisy of the first couple,rnno one even hints at the obvious significance. Our schoolsrnhave been systematically gutted of content, turned into warrnzones in which teachers dare not stand up to youth gangs,rnand for what? For the principle of equality, which roughlyrntranslated means; “If my kid can’t get an education, then I’llrnmake damn sure yours can’t either.” So, who is exempt?rnWhy the very ruling class that has taken steps to insure the illiteracyrnand powerlessness of our children. That is the wholernpoint. It is us against them, and them gots the power to dornwhat them likes with us, and that, by the way, is how a publicrnschool graduate talks in the I990’s.rnSome years ago, Paul Fussell pointed out that the Americanrnstatus hierarchy is determined by education. The rich andrnpowerful attend Ivy League schools to which they also admitrnselect members of the minority groups who keep them inrnpower. The middle classes struggle to afford state universitiesrnof various types, and the rest of the population—I do notrnspeak now of the welfare/criminal classes—go to communityrncolleges and trade schools. But in this land of opportunity, itrnis important to note that the gap between Harvard and thernUniversity of South Carolina is almost as wide as the gulf betweenrnSouth Carolina and a secretarial school. Of coursernthere is upward mobility and a process of circulation, butrnwhen middle-class kids can graduate from Madison andrnAustin without learning English or math, their chances ofrncracking the real glass ceiling are very slim.rnTo what degree the Clintons and Kennedys are aware ofrntheir motives is almost beside the point. The only conspiracyrntheories I believe in are genetic, and most of us play out ourrngame strategies in blissful ignorance of our goals. But most ofrnthe white population of the United States is now being treatedrnlike the downtrodden nobility of Florence, even though thernruling class consists almost exclusively of Europeans, nominallyrnJewish, Catholic, and Protestant, who treat their fellowcountrymenrnlike Spartan helots.rnThe reason should be obvious. The members of our rulingrnclass do not regard themselves as our fellow-countrymen.rnLike the patricians of early Rome, they are of a purer stock,rnmingled with the race of the gods and heroes. Isolated inrntheir bunkers and fortified compounds, they look upon thernrest of us as so much canaille, fit perhaps to work and payrntaxes but not to have a say in how our money is spent or howrnour children are educated. Some of them are old WSPs;rnothers, like the Kennedys, descended from shanty Irish bootleggers,rnhave never entirely succeeded in acquiring the patinarnof old Boston and old New York, but, at this late date, who canrntell the difference? Besides, such distinctions belong to thernworld of the Old Republic. One generation of wealth andrnpower is enough to raise even a Middle American to a positionrnon the board of the Council on Foreign Relations, if he isrnwilling to grovel hard enough.rnThe real point of the second “Rodney King trial” is notrnabout special privileges for the urban underclass that is readyrnto riot whenever the Republicans or Democrats give themrnleave, which they did the last time around. The entire Americanrnregime is now built upon a foundation of inequality andrnredistribution, and any challenge to that regime will be met byrnthe unrestrained power that has already been used againstrnRandy Weaver, David Koresh, Gordon Kahl, and God-knowshow-rnmany religious crackpots and tax protestors who havernbeen gunned down by federal agents.rnIn a republic, the citizens have some chance of gainingrnequal access to justice. In a polyethnic empire, like Rome inrnthe third century, or America on the verge of the 21st, thernmixture of tribes, races, and nations reduces the privilege ofrncitizenship to a trifle. For the subjects of an empire, it is statusrnalone that counts, and it is only the privileged classes ofrnhonestiores who can escape torture, receive due process, orrnparticipate in polities. We take all this for granted now andrnrarely give a second thought to the condition of servitudernthat has been forced upon us. If, listening to talk radio inrnthe dark of night, we entertain any wild thought of freedom,rnthe cold blue light of day dawning on our TV sets brings usrnback to reality. The news is what they report, reality is whatrnthey show, and in their morality all the real evil in the wodd isrncaused by overzealous cops and Christians who want to defendrntheir families.rnThe Spartans used to declare war annually against thernhelots, just to show them they could be killed with impunity.rnThe helots knew their place, and we, contemplating the simultaneousrndemonstrations of power staged by the federalrngovernment in Los Angeles and Waco, Texas, had better knowrnours.rnLIBERAL ARTSrnIT’S INSURANCE, NOT PROMISCUITYrnIn South Carolina blacks make up a third of the populationrnand 58 percent of the AIDS cases. According to a recentrnwire report, South Carolina’s official AIDS educator,rnHenry Murdaugh, explained the situation thus: “Thernnumber of minorities infected with HIV or AIDS continuesrnto rise because this group of people oftentimes cannotrnafford health care and many are uninsured.”rnJUNE 1993/15rnrnrn