That’s right, America, he IS that stupid, and he is advocating for just exactly that. In the American Spectator, Stupid-Boy Ben really raises (or lowers) the stupid bar by saying stupid s*** like:

We want there to be a high number of rich people who function as a brake on government just as the nobles did on the crown in long-ago England.

My humble observation is that most long-term poverty is caused by self-sabotage by individuals. Drug use. Drunkenness. Having children without a family structure. Gambling. Poor work habits. Disastrously unfortunate appearance. Above all, and counted in the preceding list, psychological problems (very much including basic laziness) cause people to be unemployed, have poor or no work habits, and enter and stay in poverty.

Of course, he cites no facts to back his “thesis”, and for good reason: there aren’t any. In fact, the data either points to the exact opposite conclusion (in re poverty), or leaves out important details (as in feudalism). Vis and to wit:

Feudalism cannot work in the modern world. Click the link to see why. Also, feudal nobles were not acting “nobly”: they were kissing up and kicking down, like any present-day politico or plutocrat.They were (and are) looting from those under them and stacking their ill-gotten gains where the hoi polloi could not reach them, and acting like they were (and are) entitled to do so.

Reading Stein’s “article”, one thing stands out (besides stupidity): it is the smug, elitist, arrogant assumption of personal superiority with which the 1% are so densely infused. Put another way, Sir Ben of Stupidstein suffers from a self-esteem problem: far more self-esteem than is justified.

Were he the only idiot in his Village of Privilege, it might not be so damaging. But alas, he is but one of many ig“nobles” controlling our economy. These purblind fools truly do believe in a neofeudal system with themselves as nobles and the rest of us relegated to an imposed status of serfs, villeins, merchants, and such. Please note: in feudal society, there is NO upward mobility. None. Not ever. Not a bit.

Given the lack of such mobility across the globe in recent decades, it seems that the emperor Reagan and empress Thatcher and their successors have already started moving us towards a neofeudal society. One in which we are born into a certain place, and remain there uncomplaining, knuckling our forelocks at the idiots among the nobility who take all the riches and leave us with naught but scraps and dregs: all the while telling us we are inferior because it’s our basic nature and thus our fault.

The differences between Ben Stein and an idiotic, syncophantic noble in King John’s court? Only of degree and location. King John bungled his kingdom into wreck, losing territory and causing a disastrous civil war. And contrary to Stein’s assumption, the much-vaunted nobility royally screwed the pooch right along with him, instead of acting as a check upon him. Only after thousands had died and much wealth was lost forever was the Magna Carta signed: if the nobles had truly functioned as Stein says, the wars would not have happened in the first place.

We can count on a similar outcome to this harebrained system in our time. Stupid is as stupid does.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky