Is the ruling class evil?

What caused Andrew‘s behaviour? (Pic: Wikimedia Commons)

Rich and powerful men are doing unspeakable things—from bombing schoolgirls in Iran to trafficking and abusing girls in Manhattan and Florida.

Why do men brought up with every privilege act with such cruelty to those less powerful than themselves?

In the Tory Spectator magazine, Flora Watkins suggested Andrew Mountbatten Windsor’s behaviour was the result of Queen Elizabeth’s “gentle parenting” style. But it wasn’t too much kindness that turned Andrew into an entitled monster.

Ruling class cruelty is systemic.

The rich may feel all‑powerful. But, as Karl Marx explained, the instinct to get richer, which “in a miser is a mere idiosyncrasy, is, in the capitalist, the effect of the social mechanism, of which he is but one of the wheels”.

The huge productive forces owned by the ruling class may bring them riches beyond our imagination. But they cannot control the vast economic forces of the system.

For Marx the ruling class is “capital as a person” and “capital endowed with consciousness and a will.”

The bosses have no choice but to compete with each other to accumulate capital.

This competition overshadows their lives. Their relationships with people of their own class are based on opening doors to exclusive worlds where lucrative deals can be made.

People from the lower classes exist only to be used, exploited and discarded.

The rich can buy yachts, diamonds and Picassos, but the only pleasure they get from their acquisitions is the confirmation of wealth.

Competition poisons the most intimate parts of their lives. Ruling class women have never conformed to the expectations of family life they impose on the rest of us—they outsource care to nannies and au pairs.

In their book, Ruling Class Men—Money, Sex, Power, authors Mike Donaldson and Scott Poynting argue that rich boys “are ‘nurtured’ by servants in the nursery, thus making love and emotion appear as a commodity provided by the market.”

They learn that imitations of affection and love can be bought.

The institutions most responsible for reproducing ruling class boys—private schools—institutionalise bullying.

The history of this toxic masculinity can be traced to the British Empire. Victorian boarding schools churned out men socialised to mow down indigenous people and send teenagers into enemy fire.

Today’s private schools remain infused with militarism and enforced conformity. Through the prefect system, bullies are rewarded and empowered.

This creates a breeding ground for widespread sexual abuse by masters and by older boys. Abuse is normalised and its perpetrators are enabled to protect the reputation of the schools.

In Wounded Leaders—British Elitism and the Entitlement Illusion, Nick Duffell describes how, “Young children are sent away from home to walk the path that leads straight from boarding school through Oxbridge to high office in institutions such as the judiciary, the army, the City and, especially, government.”

Social privilege means immunity. Daddy’s wealth can buy you out of trouble.

The only code of conduct rich boys accept is self‑interest.

Ruling class women justify and normalise their husbands’ and sons’ exploitation of servants, staff and working class women.

Capitalism alienates us all from what makes us human—our capacity to work collectively to produce what we need.

The masters of the universe are as enslaved to the system as the working class. But there is a crucial difference.

In The Holy Family, Marx argued, “The possessing class and the class of the proletariat present the same human self-alienation.

“But the former class feels at home in this self-alienation, it finds confirmation of itself and recognises in alienation its own power.”

The ruling class will fight tooth and nail to defend its abusive system. The working class is the only class that has a material interest in overthrowing it.