Did you know that the term 1%ers used to describe the Hells Angels and their glamorous, violent, leather jacketed rebellion? Now, you could say that the term still denotes rebellion against the masses. But it is not gang members who claim the title any more - it is the high society elite whose identity is formed through the suits they wear and the status they achieve in life. To know that that the term 1%ers once described a motorcycle gang and to mull over the definition of the term, I can understand why it has come to claim these new "suited bandits" of North America. They might not seem like rebels to you at first, but let me explain.
These suited bandits want to achieve the "American" dream - that is, to make lots of money and own lots of cool junk they don't need. They also don't want to share any of it (a lesser recognized, but just as worshipped American ideal). Hells Angels would be proud I think. "Yea, stick it to the man...who's now ironically inferior to you"... Well maybe they wouldn't say it quite like that.
But to continue.... Many of the suited bandits see themselves as superior and don't like to stray too much out of their social circle. They want to spend their money in whatever way they please and have a good time in life. "But wait!" you might say, "The suited bandits crave the status quo. The Hell's Angels looked to shake it or stomp it entirely. They are different in that respect." To that point, I will concede. But in craving the status quo...the ideal...in wanting to be like others before them... in wanting all the cake and to eat it too... they have nonetheless gone against the status quo. They have been too successful in achieving their first world ideals and have therefore put themselves into a whole new class category, separate from the masses. Furthermore, they have seemed to break the staus quo forever. The 99% of "individualists" in Canada and the United States have united and come together for a common cause. Their values have shifted from prosperity to stability with the economic downturn and they see the suited bandits as "a bad kind of different". Too greedy, dangerous, and troublesome. Those damn hoodlums and their noisy sports cars. No one likes them, those rebels.
Well said!
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