By every meaningful measure, today's elites are gods. This should make us angry | Jeff Sparrow

It's easy for progressives to be cynical in the face of global inequality. But cynicism won't protect the poor in the coming slump

In a recent article, the novelist and academic China Mii(C)ville warns progressives against adopting the cynical savviness so characteristic of mainstream punditry.

"Becoming a radical critic of capitalism," Mii(C)ville writes, "involves a process of disenchantment, the dying of surprise at the system's depredations; but being one, a long-term witness to those depredations, is to repeatedly discover that we can be shocked by what no longer surprises us."

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I am ugly, but I can buy for myself the most beautiful of women. Therefore I am not ugly, for the effect of ugliness - its deterrent power - is nullified by money. I, according to my individual characteristics, am lame, but money furnishes me with 24 feet. Therefore I am not lame. I am bad, dishonest, unscrupulous, stupid; but money is honoured, and hence its possessor. Money is the supreme good, therefore its possessor is good.

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