Then as now

"Everywhere I could reduce men into two classes both equally pitiable; in the one the rich who was the slave of his pleasures; in the other the unhappy victims of fortune; and I never found in the former the desire to be better or in the latter the possibility of becoming so, as though both classes were working for their common misery...; I saw the rich continually increasing the chains of the poor, while doubling his own luxury, while the poor, insulted and despised by the other, did not even receive the encouragement necessary to bear his burden. I demanded equality and was told it was utopian; but I soon saw those who denied its possibility were those who would loose by it..."

The Marquis de Sade wrote the above before 1788. Wherever you look in the world today you will find a small, parasitical minority suffering an embarras de richesses and the toiling masses for whom suffering unnecessarily is very much part of their everyday lives. But even de Sade would find some examples of class divided society shocking. Consider King Mswatti III the absolute monarch of Swaziland. Virgins have vied for his favour: more than 50,000 of them sought to become his 13th wife in 2005. One of them, a 16 year old explained, not unreasonably, that she wanted a nice life, a BMW and a cellphone. This weekend, the king is throwing a party to celebrate his 40 indulgent years and Swaziland's 40th anniversary of independence. Eight of his wives have recently returned from a shopping spree in Dubai. Let's hope they read the Socialist Standard and therefore recall that he already has a ".. Daimler-Chrysler Maybach 62, powered by a six-litre bioturbo engine, and fitted out with a television, a 21-speaker surround sound system, a heated steering wheel, champagne flutes within reach of the fully reclining seats, a refrigerator, a cordless telephone, a gold bag and a pollen and dust filter..." The cost? A mere £360,000. But such is small change, after all million$ have been spent in order for the king to enjoy his right to party. Remember this is a country where "..more than 80 percent exist on one US dollar a day, and almost 40 percent of adults have HIV/AIDS, the highest rate in the world." There have been demonstrations at such waste amongst so much want, but if one report is to be believed even "...Mswati's sharpest critics say they don't want to overthrow the monarchy. "He can be a king, but with fewer powers," said 32-year-old Moses Gama, a member of a militant opposition group." Sharpest critic?! If only the journalist bothered to ask a WSM member existing in Swaziland, such as Mandla Ntshakala ( PO Box 981, Manzini)! Verily, the meek will not inherit the earth! No that will take an enlightened majority, as the first reasoned socialist recognized: "You can only govern men by deceiving them; one must be hypocritical to deceive them; the enlightened man will never let himself be led, therefore it is necessary to deprive him of enlightenment to lead him as we want..."