{"id":16361,"date":"2024-10-28T09:39:57","date_gmt":"2024-10-28T08:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/28\/our-perverse-respect-for-immense-wealth-allows-musk-and-zuckerberg-to-run-riot-john-naughton\/"},"modified":"2024-10-28T09:39:57","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T08:39:57","slug":"our-perverse-respect-for-immense-wealth-allows-musk-and-zuckerberg-to-run-riot-john-naughton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/28\/our-perverse-respect-for-immense-wealth-allows-musk-and-zuckerberg-to-run-riot-john-naughton\/","title":{"rendered":"Our perverse respect for immense wealth allows Musk and Zuckerberg to run riot | John Naughton"},"content":{"rendered":"

The megalomaniacs who control X and Facebook are only able to pollute the public sphere and undermine democracy because of our deference to money<\/p>\n

There are two kinds of aphrodisiac. The first is power. A good example was provided by the late Henry Kissinger<\/a>, who could hardly be described as toothsome yet was doted upon<\/a> by a host of glamorous women.<\/p>\n

The other powerful aphrodisiac is immense wealth. This has all kinds of effects. It makes people (even journalists who should know better) deferential, presumably because they subscribe to the delusion that if someone is rich then they must<\/em> be clever. But its effects on the rich person are more profound: it cuts them off from reality. When they travel, writes Jack Self in an absorbing essay<\/a>: \u201cThe car takes them to the aerodrome, where the plane takes them to another aerodrome, where a car takes them to the destination (with perhaps a helicopter inserted somewhere). Every journey is bookended by identical Mercedes Vito Tourers (gloss black, tinted windows). Every flight is within the cosy confines of a Cessna Citation (or a King Air or Embraer)\u2026 The ultra-rich never wait in line at a carousel or a customs table or a passport control. There are no accidental encounters. No unwelcome, unapproved or unsanitary humans enter their sight \u2013 no souls that could espouse a foreign view. The ultra-rich do not see anything they do not want to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nThe megalomaniacs who control X and Facebook are only able to pollute the public sphere and undermine democracy because of our deference to money
\nThere are two kinds of aphrodisiac. The first is power. A good example was provided by the late Henry Kissinger, who could hardly be described as toothsome yet was doted upon by a host of glamorous women.
\nThe other powerful aphrodisiac is immense wealth. This has all kinds of effects. It makes people (even journalists who should know better) deferential, presumably because they subscribe to the delusion that if someone is rich then they must be clever. But its effects on the rich person are more profound: it cuts them off from reality. When they travel, writes Jack Self in an absorbing essay: \u201cThe car takes them to the aerodrome, where the plane takes them to another aerodrome, where a car takes them to the destination (with perhaps a helicopter inserted somewhere). Every journey is bookended by identical Mercedes Vito Tourers (gloss black, tinted windows). Every flight is within the cosy confines of a Cessna Citation (or a King Air or Embraer)\u2026 The ultra-rich never wait in line at a carousel or a customs table or a passport control. There are no accidental encounters. No unwelcome, unapproved or unsanitary humans enter their sight \u2013 no souls that could espouse a foreign view. The ultra-rich do not see anything they do not want to see.\u201d Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The megalomaniacs who control X and Facebook are only able to pollute the public sphere and undermine democracy because of our deference to money There are two kinds of aphrodisiac. The first is power. A good example was provided by the late Henry Kissinger, who could hardly be described as toothsome yet was doted upon …<\/p>\n

Our perverse respect for immense wealth allows Musk and Zuckerberg to run riot | John Naughton<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":16362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16361"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}