The American Ruling Class (2005)
Caton Burwell: Jack Bellamy
Quotes
-
Jack Bellamy : Well, I've got an offer from Goldman Sachs to work in investment banking in New York City.
Lewis Lapham - Fmr. Editor Harper's Magazine : That's fantastic. Are you excited about that?
Jack Bellamy : Sure, I guess.
Lewis Lapham - Fmr. Editor Harper's Magazine : No guess. Great career. You meet a lot of nice people. Make a lot of money. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, Jack. And what about you, Mike?
Mike Vanzetti : Actually, I thought I might take a year to write and work some odd jobs.
Lewis Lapham - Fmr. Editor Harper's Magazine : A shocking misuse of your parent's money.
Mike Vanzetti : So they tell me.
Lewis Lapham - Fmr. Editor Harper's Magazine : Both you gentlemen have a chance to become members of the American ruling class and I don't see why you don't avail yourself of that opportunity.
Jack Bellamy : Ruling class?
Lewis Lapham - Fmr. Editor Harper's Magazine : As was true in the early years of the Republic, the country is governed by a commercial oligarchy and the citizen who cannot afford the luxury of a contrary opinion learns, of necessity, to dance the beggar's waltz.
-
Jack Bellamy : We've been trying to discover: if in fact there is an American ruling class?
Walter Cronkite - Fmr. CBS News Anchorman : I'm afraid there is. I don't think it serves democracy well, but that is true, but I think there is. The ruling crass
[sic]
Walter Cronkite - Fmr. CBS News Anchorman : is the rich, who really command our industry, our commerce, our finance, and those people are able to so manipulate our democracy that they really control democracy... I feel.
[Cut to historical footage]
Walter Cronkite - Fmr. CBS News Anchorman : And that's the way it is.
-
Jack Bellamy : How do you get into the ruling class?
Walter Cronkite - Fmr. CBS News Anchorman : If you are smart enough, the ruling class will invite you in. They need smarts, they need intelligence, they need education, and they need to continue to survive as a ruling class.