Michel Pinçon (1942–2022)

I read this as part of the research for my book, as I wanted to know how I could create a believable villain from the dominating class (the rich, the politician, the judges and the finance) and understand the motivation of this character.

I was however struck by the fact that the reality was way beyond than my wildest fantasies. At some point I had to take a break, remembering myself that this is a non-fictional piece of research done by two of France most famous sociologists, not a apocalyptically horror story about a corrupt society in an other dimension. The power of the neo-liberal bourgeoisie (the wording of the authors) has penetrated every part of the French society to a point where you ask yourself if there's any way back to a democratic republic build on equality. Because of the professionalization of the politic, there's no such a thing as political parties any more. All politicians have the same background and the motivation, to keep the dominated class dominated. It's only a different warping. The numbers doesn't lie, the rich are getting richer on the back of the workers and the poor are getting poorer.

And this is not a French problem only, this is according to the authors a global problem. There is no way you can understand the upper class in France without its links to that of the UK, the US, Switzerland or the world as a whole. The world is their playground and they laugh at the national populist politicians who points to the immigrants as the cause of the failing labour marked and financial problems, while they all know they are themself causing it by their greed. Knowing this, it is a shame there's no translation of this book, which I take as a proof of what the authors are stating. The rich and mighty don't want you to know.

And you know it is true when you read the critique of the book (added in the end of my copy) done by members from the dominating class, dismissing the work as communist propaganda, as they defend their class interests as common interests, and hid their crimes in their blame.… (more)