Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Friday, March 16, 2012

Quiet Rooms Deep Underground

You will recall that when Matt Lauer asked Romney if he believed questions about wealth inequality should ever be part of a serious political discussion, Mitt Romney allowed that perhaps such conversations could happen "in quiet rooms" among the elites. Lauer's question was triggered by Romney's declaration that protests sweeping the country against economic injustice were really all about "envy."



According to the Wall Street Journal, there is a "trophy basement movement" among the rich (I love that people are actually calling it "a movement") who seek to hide the extent of their mansions by tunneling their compounds underground like hobbits or comic book sooper-villains. Needless to say, opportunities abound underground for bomb-shelters and hidey-holes and clean-rooms should it ever come to biowar or revolution, not to mention home theaters and bowling alleys to insulate elites from unphotogenic slave personages beyond the walls.

It is little surprise to discover that Mitt Romney is busy quadrupling his oceanfront California mansion by delving deep into the turf. Nothing could be clearer from his performance on the campaign trail that Mitt needs a retreat from the excruciating demands of HU-mon customs. And when it comes to the construction of Quiet Rooms in which our sooper-elites deliberate about how many crumbs should flutter to the envious masses, what could be quieter than a vault deep inside the earth?

2 comments:

Irenist said...

Silver lining: If this trend became more common, at least it might lead to a higher ratio of plant cover to built land per residential lot.

Dale Carrico said...

Even as we speak, there is probably a Very Serious Futurologist somewhere predicting that twenty years from now the Trophy Basement Trend will transform all cities into the Shire.