Bowser, you know I have a very small budget for agreeing with Tom, but I have to side with him on this one: What?

While you and I may have some issues with the way that our civilization is organized as a plutoligarchy, you can't deny we have a civilization; and capitalists are the masters of our civilization, for better or worse. You're trying to argue a paradox: If the masters of a civilization are barbarians*, then it isn't a civilization.

Masters on the inside, barbarians on the outside. Right?

--Robert

(*Were you thinking of the word "barbaric", perhaps? I might agree with "barbarian-like", judging by plunderers like Ken Lay and Bernie Ebbers et al. But a someone who plunders from the inside is an exploiter, not a barbarian. Exploitation is so very civilized, you see.)