Prince William (left) travelled in economy class during New Zealand trip … Prince William flew "cattle class" under the pseudonym Mr Pinkerton-Smith during his recent visit to New Zealand, it has emerged. The Prince and his security team are understood to have taken their seats with other passengers in the economy class cabin of an Air New Zealand Boeing 737 on the flight from Auckland to the earthquake- stricken city of Christchurch. Air New Zealand has refused to confirm the media reports, a spokesman saying only: "We don't release details regarding individual customers." The revelation will only enhance the Prince's soaring reputation in a country that prides itself on a tradition of egalitarianism. The Prince spent five days visiting people in disaster-ravaged regions of New Zealand and Australia last week, in what his aides described as an "emotionally raw" tour. – UK Telegraph
Dominant Social Theme: They're handsome, talented, wealthy and so very kind. True, they represent the Western, monied elites, but one has to forgive them for backing the status quo as they are genuinely "good" people.
Free-Market Analysis: Sometimes when one looks for emergent power elite dominant social themes they are easy to spot. One of the most obvious, though least discussed memes of the elite, is the presentation of powerful and talented people who are backers (or part) of the status quo as exceptionally generous and empathetic. Just yesterday in the mainstream media there were three examples of this sort of gambit featuring Prince William (see article excerpt above) Winston Churchill and Lady Gaga.
Prince William first. The UK Telegraph (known for royalist sentiments) yesterday ran a story about Prince William's travels to flood-and-earthquake-ravaged New Zealand "down under." According to the Telegraph, the Prince's "easy-going charm and empathy with the grieving resonated widely and have clearly boosted the popularity of the monarchy."
The Telegraph recited Prince William's itinerary in some detail. He stopped off in Christchurch to attend a memorial service for 182 people believed to have died in the February 22 earthquake that flattened parts of the city. According to the Telegraph, New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key said the Prince had been "met with much enthusiasm and goodwill from New Zealanders."
The Telegraph then the New Zealand Herald – the country's "biggest selling" newspaper. A headline, "New Zealand finds fresh heir in Prince William," was attached to a complimentary editorial on the visit. "… In him we have met a future king who knows when he should be here and, even more important, seems comfortable when he is here." The paper's editorial concluded: "The man New Zealand has seen over the past few days may be the saving of the British monarchy in distant English-speaking realms. He is at home here."
Prince William's trip provides us with a good example of thematic mechanism we referred to at the beginning of this article. In fact, Western elites are as almost never before under sustained attack for the failure of the larger economic environment that they have created and promoted. Thus media coverage of its most prominent representatives busying themselves with good works and doing so in a self-effacing manner (Prince Williams took a one-hour trip in "coach") can be seen as valuable promotional aids in fighting back against the perception that the elites are manipulative, exploitative and uncaring.
We can see this meme represented in another Telegraph article published yesterday featuring Winston Churchill and devoted to, of all things, the continued popularity of food items once belonging to the famous wartime politician. The Telegraph story is mainly devoted to the auction of a slice of "Christmas Cake" that once belonged to Churchill. The story expands on the items to be auctioned as follows:
The lot also includes some leaded glass from the Houses of Parliament, broken by an air raid in 1941. So at an estimated price of £150-£200 it seems a snip, at least in comparison to the spare pair of Churchill's false teeth that recently fetched £15,000. Perhaps the false-teeth collector will want the cake too, which, though housed in a closed tin, is not guaranteed to melt in the mouth after 75 years.
That Churchill remains a figure of magnitude enough to attract relic-hunters is cheering. It says something if a buyer can imagine the pleasure of owning a sugar bowl broken by Churchill or the very cigar that he left off smoking when news came of the landing of Rudolf Hess in Scotland – two items now on sale … Will a pressed rose from the garden where David Cameron and Nick Clegg pledged their pact even make the reserve price?
Notice the Telegraph is "cheered" by Churchill's continued popularity. In fact, we would suggest it is not the Telegraph that is necessarily cheered but the British establishment, which is comforted to know that after a decade-long sustained attack by the Internet on its serial failures, certain elite icons yet retain credibility and even affection.
Of course we would argue that in retrospect, Churchill – a warmonger of the first stripe – is not necessarily a logical choice for such sentimentalism. In a letter to his wife Clemmie, just before World War I, he confessed, "Everything tends towards catastrophe and collapse. I am interested, geared up and happy. Is it not horrible to be made like this?" In another letter to a "friend," he added: "I think a curse should rest on me — because I love this war. I know it's smashing and shattering the lives of thousands every moment — and yet — I can't help it — I enjoy every second of it."
Churchill was constitutionally adapted for war. One could certainly speculate on what in his unusual childhood created such an attraction to chaos and destruction, but nonetheless, Churchill's persona has been managed with savvy and determination by the British elites; he still remains popular within the context of the larger Anglosphere. An elitist by birth, character and sympathy, he is nonetheless perceived by middle classes as something of a genuine hero – an irreplaceable man who helped save England.
This is an incredible resource for an elite class struggling with the modern perception that it is out-of-touch and even malicious. History and those who write it resolutely ignore Churchill's predilection for violence, which probably helped cause the very conflicts in which he rejoiced, but this is understandable given that the modern-day Churchill is a promotional construction rather than a valid presentation of a flawed human being.
Finally, there is Lady Gaga, also, increasingly, an iconic figure whose success in our view is considerably abetted by her support of elite promotional memes. Even leaving aside the bizarre incorporation of Illuminati symbolism in her videos , Lady Gaga can be seemingly counted on to espouse every politically correct thematic element of the larger elite agenda. Her persona is as violent and sexually exploitative and graphic as her vocabulary and avowed sentiments are peaceable and non-confrontational. It is an odd combination.
She recently appeared in musical programs in Thailand where, according to the Telegraph she "thumbed her nose at Malaysia's Muslim-majority conservative culture and urged its young people to fight the censorship of her hit song promoting acceptance of gays." What most caught our attention in the article was the following:
The outspoken Lady Gaga refused to hold her tongue when asked about the Malaysian censorship when she visited the headquarters of Google, in Mountain View, California. "What I would say is for all the young people in Malaysia that want those words to be played on the radio, it is your job and it is your duty as young people to have your voices heard," she said in an interview posted on YouTube. "You must do everything that you can if you want to be liberated by your society. You must call, you must not stop, you must protest peaceably." AMP Networks, the largest private radio operator which boasts the largest English-language station, said it had to tread carefully for fear of breaching laws promoting good taste and decency and safeguarding against offending the public.
In fact, as we have been reporting, the Middle East's various color revolutions have been supported by various youth movements cultivated by the US State Department (see AYM) and various US intelligence agencies, which have provided training to "youth leaders" in how to destabilize various authoritarian governments. Google itself, a quasi-corporate asset of US intelligence according to many reports in the blogosphere, has been closely identified with these youth movements. A young Google marketing executive helped bring down Hosni Mubarak's reign in Egypt.
Perhaps Lady Gaga's presence at Google headquarters endorsing "the job and duty of young people to have your voices heard" is merely a coincidence. On the other hand, it could be seen as part of a larger, deliberate campaign to incite the "youth" of developing countries to rebel against traditional Islamic religious strictures and to create – via peaceful, "color" revolutions – Western-style democracies or neutered Islamic republics that will provide the West with the perception of an Islamic enemy without the inconvenient reality.
In all three cases mentioned above, we would argue that Western powers-that-be are mustering elite "personalities" to promote certain messages that benefit elite goals, most importantly an increasingly energetic world government. The message at root is that elites, generally, are born to lead because of their genuine compassion and grasp of troublesome issues (economic, military and environmental).
Prince William, an elitist by birth and rank, is presented as a man of the people, even flying coach class to comfort earthquake ravaged victims in New Zealand. Winston Churchill, another elitist (self-avowed as well as closely related to the topmost ranks of British royalty) is continually offered up as a courageous war hero rather than as the aggressively flawed individual he really was. Lady Gaga, a politically correct and elite-manufactured pop star, has apparently embarked on a campaign to support CIA-manipulated color revolutions overseas.
It is not, of course, surprising that Western elites use their most attractive and personable assets to buttress their collective credibility while advancing their causes. But it is rare to come across three such obvious examples of this promotional mechanism in one newspaper in one day.
