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          America's cultural warriors have long used race, sex, ethnicity, natal language, religion, education, and political philosophy to divide their communities along predominantly class lines. According to America's cultural warriors, white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant (or in some cases "Christian" or even "Judaeo-Christian"), native-born, English-speaking elites -- usually well-educated and of the monied class -- are America's natural rulers. People of color, women, immigrants, naturalized Americans, non-native English speakers, those not of the dominant faith, their political opponents, and a host of others are to be ruled by the elites. Destined, in their opinions, by their self-proclaimed superior morality to be America's academic, scientific, political, industrial, religious, and political elites, America's cultural warriors expect to be the most financially successful Americans.

          Using the theory of social Darwinism, the rich and powerful claim to be rich and powerful because they have found favor in the sight of God and God has blessed them with riches. Consider several stories now in the news: of Enron's demise, of the Bush/Cheney administration's dealings with leaders of commerce (especially of the oil industry), of the favoritism shown by Congress and in the courts for the interests of the rich and powerful, of the influence of corporate campaign contributions on the votes of our elected officials, of the scandals at major accounting firms where fraudulent corporate earnings statements routinely pass audits (misleading stockholders into making bad financial decisions), of tax avoidance of rich individuals, of American the leaders of America's largest corporations registering the companies in off-shore tax havens to escape paying tax to American governments at all levels understands, of corporations shutting down plants in the US and rebuilding them in communities abroad where they can hire workers for subsistence level wages, where they are no worker health and safety regulations, where there are no environmental laws (and so can cut costs to the bone), and of industry flagrantly violating environmental laws Any one following those stories understands that America's rich and powerful are not rich and powerful because they have been blessed by God, but rather that the rich and powerful are rich and powerful because they are ruthless, unscrupulous, at best amoral (if not completely immoral), and possibly anti-American traders and wheeler-dealers motivated solely by greed and power.

          If we turn around the lens through which America's cultural warriors view themselves, we find that America's cultural war is a class war masquerading as a cultural war. It is so much easier to eliminate a competitor by claiming a person has the wrong color skin, the wrong sexual organs, speaks English with an accent, doesn't belong to an approved religion, belongs to the wrong political party, subscribes to a different philosophy of life, is not a life long American, or a raft of other unimportant distinctions than to triumph over the competitor by merit.

          Let's look at some numbers. Suppose we start with 100 people, a group which is statistically representative of America as a whole. Using the criteria of America's cultural warriors, how would a successful cultural war influence their financial opportunities?

          About 50% of American's are female: Right off the bat we can eliminate half of the competition for the best jobs, from positions of power and influence, from educational opportunity because they are female. Powerful incentive to encourage bigotry against women. Our pool of 100 people has now shrunk to 50 people.

          About 30% of American's are people-of-color, 70% are white. If we assume that, like America as a whole, about half of the people of color are female, then half are male. So, of the 50 people of which about 70% are white, about 35 people remain - 15 are removed from the pool for being people of color.

          About 20% of Americans self-identify as religious conservatives. Of the 35 people, 7 people will be religious conservatives.

          Less than 10% of Americans acquire post-graduate college degrees. Of the 7 individuals, less than 1 remains in our pool.

          Interesting, isn't it.

          Financial self-interest, otherwise known as greed, is a powerful incentive to become one of America's cultural warriors. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that all of America's best known and most influential cultural warriors are white, Anglo-Saxon, Christian, native-born, politically conservative men. A few women, people of color, people of non-Christian faith, immigrants, and others are permitted by the cultural warrior elites to spread their class warfare, but make no mistake about it, the interlopers are not among the influential, they are the servants of their taskmasters. Those token women and men have little, if any, influence on the direction of America's class war -- they are paid shills for the elites, and, as we have seen in the Enron debacle, are as disposable, dispensable, and influential on their taskmasters as the most humble mailroom clerk.

          America's cultural war is in reality a class war. The time has come America's silent and patient middle-class to become participants in America's cultural war, America's class war. If they don't fight for themselves, no one is going to fight for them. Remember

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