Bill Keller’s throwaway line dismissal of Occupy Wall Street in today’s New York Times irritated me to no end. It’s a sign that end times are upon us when highly placed members of the fourth estate, supposedly the guardians of the common people’s interest, are siding with corrupt plutocrats and the oligarchs that run everything to the detriment of the rest of us, and dismiss our efforts to rectify the trespasses committed against us as just so much warmed over anarchism.
Which planet does Bill Keller think he lives on? He draws a salary himself, perhaps enough to put him into the vaunted 1%, but even he must recognize the difference between what he brings home and the salaries the gentlemen C students, with MBAs, on Wall Street draw from sitting behind computer terminals trading stocks and bonds by the technical charts.
Just whose work does he think is more meritorious and whose more meretricious?
The Wall Street meritocracy is nothing more than hypocrisy. The elevated function of the banking establishment in allocating capital where it can best be put to work is mythologized today in support of its role as a mere casino.
Shame on you, Bill Keller.