…and promoting rites — think “etiquette” — to make it clear that the weak respect the strong, and that the strong have obligations to the weak.

Yeah, but our tastemakers ritualize exploitation.

Thus our “capitalists” import replacement workers and claim they are doing oh so much for GDP; so not only are they in need of praise, they need to do more of it and we are obligated to help them.

Our Too Big To Fail banks are doing the Lord’s work, so they can’t pay us anything on passbook savings accounts and complaining about it is gauche.

Our politicians can’t do much in the nation’s interest because they are now helping the whole world. And we are trained to sit back and enjoy it all.