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Steve Browne
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Crisis in the Ruling Class: How a Ruling Class Not Fit to Rule is Falling and Dragging the Country Down With Them Paperback – March 3, 2022

by Steve Browne (Author)
4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars 16 ratings
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This is the print companion to a series of video lectures I started in 2017. The theory has evolved as I discovered others thinking along the same lines. Basically the important points are:
- There is a ruling class because every complex society has a ruling class.
- The historical functions of a ruling class are: arms, land (production), and knowledge.
- A ruling class can be stable as long as it fulfills those functions, loves or at least identifies its self-interest with the country, and is open enough to admit the ambitious but not too open.
- We have a ruling class which is unfit to rule. They do not fight, they are increasingly invested in rent-seeking and influence peddling rather than wealth production, and the knowledge they peddle is crap. (Anything ending in "-Studies.)
- They not only do not love their country, and their civilization, they appear to hate it.
- They have fostered a generation which believes they are owed a place in the ruling class for the price of getting a college degree and holding all the correct opinions within a very narrow range of permissible disagreement.
- They are destroying this country in their desire to feel important.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    109 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    March 3, 2022
  4. Dimensions
    6 x 0.26 x 9 inches
  5. ISBN-13
    979-8414046806
  6. See all details
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09TN1J9JN
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published (March 3, 2022)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 109 pages
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8414046806
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.26 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars 16 ratings

About the author

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Steve Browne

Steve Browne

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Steve Browne is an award-winning reporter and columnist, famous in rural newspapers of the Midwest where he’s known as, “Steve who?” He entered journalism by accident while living and working in Eastern Europe from 1991 to 2004, when he met a decayed Austrian count in a bar who said, “Gee Steve, you sure can talk, can you write?”

His very first published and paid for article about Polish health services provoked a call from the then-Minister of Health demanding to know, “Who is this Steve Browne guy and why is he saying these terrible things about our wonderful Polish hospitals?”

He is the author of two books for English students: “Word Pictures: English as it is REALLY Used,” published in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and Novosibirsk, Russia, and “English Language Humor: Puns, Play on Words, Spoonerisms, and Shaggy Dog Stories,” privately circulated among English teachers and students in brown paper bags around the world.

He possesses a constitutional inability to stay out of trouble which resulted in him being elected an Honorary Member of the Yugoslav Movement for the Protection of Human Rights in 1997.

Steve is co-founder of the Language of Liberty Institute now in more capable hands, which hosts English camps on three continents.

He is currently living with his two children in his beloved Midwest, which he considers “the most interesting foreign country I have ever lived in.” (He stole that line from Kipling, he loves to kipple) He writes a column for rural newspapers and teaches martial arts out of his garage, backyard or basement as the case may be.

Steve blogs at stephenwbrowne.com and vlogs at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNup41MXR1H4m7dUSUWjm_A?view_as=subscriber

Customer reviews

4.9 out of 5 stars
4.9 out of 5
16 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Jack
5.0 out of 5 stars Quick easy read with a powerful, timely message for both sides of the political divide.
Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2023
Verified Purchase
It's a pleasure to read a such powerful little book. The author thoughtfully considers the very concept of "ruling class" and how it applies specifically to the United States, then proposes a simple, elegant and perfectly logical explanation for their beliefs and behaviors, and supports it all with convincing evidence (both current and historical). Then he encourages you to consider it on your own terms regardless of your own pre-existing political views. It's a thoughtful, balanced essay that everyone with political opinions should consider.

What makes this book unique is the author's theory about why the ruling class can't just leave well enough alone and enjoy life in our beautiful, prosperous and mostly free country. What makes it so important is the dire consequence we face of losing our freedoms, and here the author draws from first hand experience in countries like Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia where people don't take their freedom for granted.

It's a quick read (3 sittings for me) and, although it lacks some of the polish of a professionally published book, the author's personal warmth and conversational style make it appealing to the end.
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Dan
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book!
Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2022
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America is facing serious problems. Just about everyone knows we are in decline. Author Brown has a very thoughtful explanation of the true hidden causes of what is going on here. Short book so nice quick read but with fascinating ideas in it.
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Wayne Lusvardi
5.0 out of 5 stars Self Help Manual on Dealing with Radical Revolutionaries
Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2023
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This self-published book is plainly written and not full of academese about “how the Ruling Class Is Not Fit to Rule, Is Falling and Dragging the Country Down with Them”. The author is a former graduate student in evolutionary anthropology, political activist on behalf of the working class apparently against political coupes in Eastern Europe, and part time journalist. The first half of the book describes his Four Rules of Power (or four group strategies of gaining power):

1. Making them constantly afraid of giving offense unintentionally
2. Making them give up cherished customs, symbols, pastimes
3. Making them pay lip service to ideas of breathtaking absurdity
4. Making them do things which disgust and repel them.

The author does not adequately describe who is the “them” is in his above four rules. It is apparently the skilled Working Class or merchants (or Bourgeoisie in Marxist terms), but one is left guessing.

The author mentions how communist revolutions failed in producing a “worker’s paradise”. But the author disavows studying Marxist revolutions. Thus, he does not adequately describe how these same tactics have been previously used in revolutions and coups throughout history.

The author does a better job in identifying those insurgent revolutionaries who he describes as “not fit to rule” and who are trying to become the new ruling class in America and elsewhere. He calls them over-educated “globalists” and “overproduced (wannabe) elites” who justify their attempted takeover the economy and culture because they are unarmed, don’t produce anything material and lack superior knowledge. He points out they mostly “don’t fight, produce no tangible goods but seek subsidies by influence peddling, and their knowledge is crap”. This is consistent with all previous Communist revolutions. He is apparently unaware that communist revolutionaries were previously described by Milovan Djilas as “The New Class” as well as the Knowledge Class, as opposed to the Business Class.

A better understanding of revolution can be found in sociologist Peter Berger’s book Movement and Revolution (1970) where he outlines a conservative, skeptical case against revolutions as follows:

“A conservative accepts the messiness of history and it suspicious of the idea of progress” (social justice)
“A conservative is skeptical of innovation”
“A conservative accepts human beings as they are”
“A conservative values order, continuity and triviality in social life”
“A conservative is skeptical of grand intellectual designs for the improvement of society”
“A conservative is skeptical of ‘movements’”.
“A conservative is inclined to leave people alone”.

The second half of the author’s book is a sort of self-help manual on how to engage in conversation with radical revolutionaries, something I believe is sociologically fruitless given “cognitive dissonance” of “true believers” doubling down one’s beliefs when confronted with contradictory evidence.

Nonetheless, I give the book five stars.
2 people found this helpful
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Mike
4.0 out of 5 stars A really good premise that could use a bit of editing
Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2023
Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot. The author took the time to explain and distill his premise that our ruling class isn't really fit for ruling us. He also provides his personal viewpoint on why this is the case, and perhaps more importantly, why some of the absurdities and schisms we're seeing across the political spectrum are occurring, particularly on the left wing.

Where this book left me wanting a bit was in the editing of the second half of the book. Having read through a concise and thoughtful analysis, the latter part of the book is comprised of various columns the author wrote. The material in the columns is certainly relevant to the subject, but the shift in style feels a little hasty, and the presentation just isn't as solid as the first part of the work.

Overall, I thought this was a great and thoughtful read, and well worth the time and money I spent on it.
One person found this helpful
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SB
5.0 out of 5 stars Great thesis
Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2022
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I have often wondered how so many could grow to hate the system that has provided them so much success. Mr. Brown has provided a logical and well reasoned description of why the West’s elites hate western culture. There is a lot to unpack in such a short book. I highly recommend reading it.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2022
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I'm fortunate to be able to read many of Mr. Brown's Facebook posts they are always salacious and many are witty. Same with "Crisis in the Ruling Class." There are tenants in the book that are stated in new and thoughtful ways. A good read relevant to events now. Courage!
One person found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars The author's premise is supported by events and stated intentions of the prime movers of society.
Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2022
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Steve Browne's four rules of power and doing the opposite. Don't fear of giving offense unintentionally. Don't give up your cherished relationships. Speak the truth as best you can see it. Lastly, if something feels disgusting, don't do it.
If you act on these rules you challenge the cult of the omnipotent state and you will be defending your own rights as an individual and the rights of all individuals.
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Ethan Brand
5.0 out of 5 stars Succinctly nails the central issue facing us.
Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2024
Browne cuts through the myriad individual issues facing the US to get to the overarching one: our ruling class has never been so incompetent, yet so insulated from the effects of that incompetence. The rigged system reelects 95% of our politicians who vote on bills they've neither written nor read. They inflict policies on the middle and working classes that they've immunized themselves and their kids from. It is useless to argue over individual issues unless the people in charge are re-incentivized to do something about them.

Browne doesn't pretend that he has a solution for the situation, but as they say, identifying and admitting the problem is the first step.
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