On this date in 2009, Dredd Blog looked at the science fiction ideology of the Ferengi, and found it very much like what we now call the 1%, the Plutocracy, or in some cases the Plutonomy.The fusion of religion, economy, greed, and blood lust into one governmental entity which the Ferengi ultimately call the Blessed Exchequer, but which Dredd Blog calls MOMCOM was the subject of that post which had this text:
What does one do when your home world ("homeland" is so yesterday) is attacked and you are the Grand Nagus or The Decider of the Ferengi?
You issue a call for everyone to go shopping, the metamorphic transcendence and the one immaculate concept of the realm. The Ferengi have fused religion and government into a monetized way of life:
Their home planet ... is the center of the Ferengi Alliance and is governed by the Grand Nagus and a Commerce Authority made primarily of the Council of Economic Advisors (formerly Board of Liquidators). Like most of their culture, their religion is also based on the principles of capitalism: they offer prayers and monetary offerings to a "Blessed Exchequer" in hopes of entering the "Divine Treasury" upon death, and fear an afterlife spent in the "Vault of Eternal Destitution".(Wiki Ferengi, emphasis added). Now the reason for the famous words of the Grand Nagus "Go Shopping" immediately after 9/11, his removal of the robber barons, and the current plunder of America via military spending ("bigga badda boom shopping") is becoming more and more clear.
The reason for the prosperity gospel in current preaching is becoming more and more clear as well.
In a home world where killing and torture are becoming secondary subjects not fit for the front page, where the real concerns are credit cards, lucre, and plunder, there must be a camouflaged ideological fusion of religion and government at some level.
An interesting problem faced by this perspective is that audiences see the Ferengi as a weak social energy:
... but viewers could not see the ridiculous creatures as posing any kind of consistent threat. Thus, Paramount scrapped them as true threats, and they were usually shown as being somewhat of a one-dimensional nuisance, and plots involving them were usually comedic ones.(Wiki Ferengi). Nothing a little propaganda can't fix? The problem with this notion is that the massive propaganda engines of our time target Americans, and the bulk of the world is entirely immune to that propaganda even though many Americans are not.
Thus, Americans are more and more being seen as a dangerous circus that not only does damage to the world economy, but is very armed and very dangerous.
Imagine the mob and syndicate of organized crime infamy forming a circus as a means of impressing the world. They bring down their economy, damage the world economy, and as a solution the American banksters are given one or two generations worth of taxpayer dollars as the solution to the problem they caused.
If we remembered the Rules of Acquisition more accurately, we would likely have already lucratively invaded ourselves, and thereby would have prospered a bit better.
Ferengi comics ... gotta luv em.
Noam Chomsky has a piece about plutonomy, indicating that:
For the general population, the 99% in the imagery of the Occupy movement, it’s been pretty harsh -- and it could get worse. This could be a period of irreversible decline. For the 1% and even less -- the .1% -- it’s just fine. They are richer than ever, more powerful than ever, controlling the political system, disregarding the public. And if it can continue, as far as they’re concerned, sure, why not?(Tom Dispatch). As it turns out, then, the Ferengi in the U.S.eh? are far worse than their cosmic counterparts.
Take, for example, Citigroup. For decades, Citigroup has been one of the most corrupt of the major investment banking corporations, repeatedly bailed out by the taxpayer, starting in the early Reagan years and now once again. I won’t run through the corruption, but it’s pretty astonishing.
In 2005, Citigroup came out with a brochure for investors called “Plutonomy: Buying Luxury, Explaining Global Imbalances.” It urged investors to put money into a “plutonomy index.” The brochure says, “The World is dividing into two blocs -- the Plutonomy and the rest.”
Plutonomy refers to the rich, those who buy luxury goods and so on, and that’s where the action is. They claimed that their plutonomy index was way outperforming the stock market. As for the rest, we set them adrift. We don’t really care about them. We don’t really need them. They have to be around to provide a powerful state, which will protect us and bail us out when we get into trouble, but other than that they essentially have no function. These days they’re sometimes called the “precariat” -- people who live a precarious existence at the periphery of society. Only it’s not the periphery anymore. It’s becoming a very substantial part of society in the United States and indeed elsewhere. And this is considered a good thing.
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