Exterritorial Elite

Here is a long and interesting article on mass immigration to Great Britain. Note that even in the absence of an understanding of nation-state’s trajectory the author arrives at the same conclusion: liquid capital favors the highly mobile, educated, specialized minority (a.k.a. exterritorial elite) that is not tied to any locale. For the low-skilled, not very educated majority that is incapable and unwilling to flit around the globe easily and carelessly, liquid capital has no use. So capital discards the people who don’t follow it with ease. 

The interests of this rooted majority will be easily sacrificed to the smallest whim of the exterritorial elite. It’s not a conspiracy, it’s not something anybody does on purpose. It’s simply that capital tends to get what it needs. Capital’s needs don’t have to resonate with most or even with many. If it benefits capital to reward its exterritorial elite with slightly better eating out options, the lifestyle, the hopes and the entire culture of the less mobile minority will easily be sacrificed to that goal.

4 thoughts on “Exterritorial Elite

  1. ” For the low-skilled, not very educated majority that is incapable and unwilling to flit around the globe easily and carelessly”

    For the record, there are also plenty of high-skilled and highly educated people that are incapable and/or unwilling to flit around the globe easily and carelessly.

    They might be able to relocate when necessary and/or really favorable but constant movement is a recipe for alienation and/or nihilism. Note that groups that travel a lot invariably practice group morality and either ignore or prey upon the more rooted.

    Like

    1. “For the record, there are also plenty of high-skilled and highly educated people that are incapable and/or unwilling to flit around the globe easily and carelessly.”

      • They, at least, can flit symbolically, using the networks of knowledge and connection they can generate.

      Like

    2. “Note that groups that travel a lot invariably practice group morality and either ignore or prey upon the more rooted.”

      • That’s precisely the problem. “My need to eat out at different restaurants trumps your need to have a job and feel safe.”

      Like

  2. “liquid capital favors the highly mobile, educated, specialized minority (a.k.a. exterritorial elite) that is not tied to any locale”

    Note:

    “The centre-right Christian Democratic Union, led by Angela Merkel, and its conservative Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, insist on the fiction that Germany does not have permanent “immigrants” (Einwanderer) but rather temporary “in-comers” (Zuwanderer), such as guest workers, who will one day leave.”

    http://www.theworldin.com/article/10466/new-germans?fsrc=scn/tw/wi/bl/ed/thenewgermans

    Like

Leave a reply to Clarissa Cancel reply