Twilight of the Oligarchs (Act Two)

A celebrity oligarch has his say:-

"You, you the people, you the peoples, you accuse me of simply re-arranging deck chairs on Titanic. But what more do you want? What more have you ever want? Good government is all about understanding peoples and their needs for change. And what, I ask you, is more important than the changing of the deck chairs when the ship, it is sinking? For, the ship, if it is inevitable it will sink, then at least it will sink with dignity, with all the deck chairs nicely arranged and in good order and looking really pretty and with the violins playing nice Mozart music all the while. Yes?

"You peoples, you must accept and respect that I always have your interests at heart. I give you bread, I give you circuses. I give you television. I let you have computer games, Apples Mac, IPods, cars, washing machines - all of the latest accoutrement of a civil society. I allow you all the use of the internet (although, I accept, I don't do that so much of late). I let the television channels to broadcast reality TV - and what better example of reality, of real human life is there than reality TV? You learn the real experience of life, like it is for the ordinary people. And then you know that there is more to life than morality, than these ideals and all this Western bullshit about freedom and democracies. And what is so important about self-actualisations anyhows?

"So, I ask you to go back to your homes and switch on your television set and watch the latest edition of "Little Brothers, You're Fired". Much better, I say, to watch someone else be fired than to get fired up yourself. I should know. Cos that will only cause you stress and discontent - which none of us want after all, least of all me. I repeat, go back to your IPods and your Facebooks and do decent, proper, healthy things with them, like tell your friends who you got pissed with last night and who you have sex with and what undies you like your woman to wear. (Excuse me for exercising my right to be a raunchy, hot-blooded, testosterone male, oh peoples. For I am simply a man, like all of you are, I am sure!)

"And then we can all be happy and we can be living together in perfect harmonies, and we can realise that there is more to life than freedoms and democracy. There is much, much more, so much more - such as having the right to vote crappy fake person off the latest edition of that marvelous Simon Cowell programme: "I'm celebrity oligarch - get me the hell outta here!"