It sounds crazy, right? How can it be that the manifestly least fortunate in our society could possibly be considered an "Aristocracy"? Well, sadly, that’s the way this group of people are being treated.
The "Homeless" has now become an untouchable class of people who are destroying our cities, immune from prosecution for destroying public property, and committing every imaginable violent crime. Naturally, all decent people have a natural sympathy for the less fortunate. Americans have historically been the most generous people on Earth, both in spirit and financial largesse, aiding virtually every nation on Earth. We fed Europe after World War I, and we fed and rebuilt all of Japan after World War II. Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, however, while politically conceived, broke the bank in trying to feed the hungry and create opportunity. Just ask George Foreman what the Job Corps did for him. But those days are over. The vast Social Programs helped many of those who wanted to help themselves but, on so many levels, have been failures in every regard unless you consider the bankruptcy of America an accomplishment.
That notwithstanding, the failed Social Programs were America’s way of saying to our poor, hungry, unemployed, and uneducated: “We can help you if you put in the elbow grease to help yourselves.” What happened next? The Grift took over, and the Mission Creep of the vast government programs created the something-for-nothing mentality that now grips our nation.
The something-for-nothing mindset fomented the broad usage of what I consider to be the most heinous word in the English language, "Entitlement”. The Entitlement Disease has conveyed to those infected by it that, by virtue of the simple fact that they are breathing, they have the right, by their birth or status, to things of value. The Traditional Aristocracy has historically embraced the idea that their lineage, social status, and/or wealth give them special privileges to eschew social norms and enjoy rarefied privileges. The vast majority of people who breathe less rarefied air than the Traditional Aristocracy despise the idea of that genre of special treatment; however, they understand how it is derived. It is obvious to most that wealth and social status have been the historical instruments of privilege and special access.
But now there is a New Brand of Aristocracy in the land…
I'm separating out those of the "Homeless" class who, through no fault of their own, have ridden the downward vicissitudes of life into a trough of tragedy, poverty, and despair. But the "Homeless", as writ large, are increasingly not of that brand… They have become an untouchable class, destroyers of our way of life. They have destroyed the health, safety, and aesthetics of virtually every blue city in America and many of the not-so-blue variety. They are allowed to remain permanent vagrants, often criminals and defilers of every space they occupy without consequence. While powerless as individuals, they have formed a class that has become noxiously impervious to authority. They have become a currency for every Leftist in America who, for the price of the spare change jingling in their pocket, give to the able-bodied beggar on the corner and have confused virtue signaling with virtue.
The term "homeless" isn't really a term that was coined to describe the condition under which such a person is housed. It was a term likely spawned by academics cognizant of the fact that the term "homeless" evokes spontaneous emotion and challenges to anyone who says to the able-bodied but on the corner: “Get a job...” The homeless class as it manifests itself in the ruins of America's cities is no accident. The pro-crime mayors of New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, and others have been instructed by their Leftist overlords to do nothing in trying to solve the problem.
The Homeless Aristocracy that has emerged and has been nourished by the Left to thrive is obvious and compelling evidence of the failure of American Capitalism. Just like the Traditional Aristocracy of the rich and powerful, the "homeless" have their own special entitlements that are untouchable. They have built their own gated communities where things are so filthy and dangerous that the police, even in the rare instance that they have the right to do so, will never enter.
Isn't it strange that the New Brand of Aristocrats has attained their brand of aristocracy in a way so different than their preppy, more traditional counterparts? The old-style Aristocrats convinced the rest of us that they were better because they lived in more elegant places, dressed better, and comported themselves with customs and manners that exemplify civility and civilization. The new brand of the Homeless Aristocrat has attained their special status and privilege by defiling every space they occupy, and guess what?
It has worked brilliantly.
Just like their Traditionally Aristocratic brethren, they have the finest legal representation, and the best connections in government at every level, and just like so many wealthy criminals and ne'er-do-wells of the upper strata, they have become legally untouchable. Try to arrest a Homeless Aristocrat for defecating in public, and the ACLU will bankrupt the city.
The Aristocracy of Homeless is on the rise. You too can support them by just giving them that change in your pocket on every street corner and public space in America… Although, I have a better suggestion before dipping into our pocket for that feel-good quarter. Is it virtuous to give a bum a quarter? Are you helping him, or helping yourself?
-Emes