Disclosure: I think that George Carlin did the BEST Job of explaining "It's a Big Club...."
(but stuff like "F-Bombs" limit its use in teaching).
[Poll] Does Grok Do a Good Job Explaining "It's a Big Club, and You Ain't in It"?
[Prompt to A.I. provided at bottom of Post]
[Grok Output]
It's a Big Club and you ain't in it. In the quiet corridors of power, a select few - politicians who craft laws to line their pockets, globalist billionaires who bend economies to their will, banks that manipulate markets with impunity, and media moguls who shape narratives to protect their allies - form an unspoken alliance that operates above the fray of everyday struggles. Drawing from Thomas Sowell's sharp economic lens, this "club" thrives on the very policies they champion, turning government intervention into a tool for self-enrichment while leaving the common working people to bear the costs.
Sowell often reminded us that knowledge is dispersed among millions, yet these elites presume to centralize it in their hands, imposing top-down solutions that favor the connected over the capable. Consider Bastiat's "legal plunder," where the law itself becomes the instrument of theft: politicians pass regulations that shield billionaires from competition, allowing them to amass fortunes through subsidies, bailouts, and tax loopholes - all funded by the sweat of the average taxpayer. Banks, with their too-big-to-fail status, engage in risky speculations, knowing the public will foot the bill for their failures, as Sowell critiqued in his analyses of moral hazards and incentives gone awry. The media, meanwhile, serves as the club's propaganda arm, selectively amplifying stories that distract from this collusion while demonizing any challenge to the status quo, much like Sowell's observations on how intellectuals and journalists perpetuate myths that sustain inequality.
Then there's the judicial tyranny that cements their dominance - courts stacked with ideologues who reinterpret laws to protect the powerful, overriding the will of the people and enabling a neo-feudal order where the elite act as lords over serfs. Sowell warned that such systems erode the rule of law, replacing it with arbitrary decisions that benefit the few at the expense of the many, fostering dependency and stifling opportunity. The working class, grinding away in jobs that barely cover the bills, watches as their taxes fuel this machine: inflated home prices driven by billionaire investments, stagnant wages amid corporate cronyism, and a welfare state that Sowell saw as trapping the poor in cycles of poverty while enriching administrators and lobbyists.
In the end, as Sowell might put it, the incentives are all wrong - the club designs the game so they always win, leaving the rest of us to play by rules rigged against us, wondering why hard work no longer paves the path to prosperity.
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Note: This post provides a test case for Lunduke Readers to make a judgement on "Fidelity to Source Material", and may provide a perspective on WHY Horrible Legislation is proposed with a claim of KEEPING HUMANITY SAFE by "Checking the Age of Users on the Internet" (because they "care" about children).
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/7720097/george-carlin-said-the-big-club-which-includes-government-wanted-school-to-create-worker#comments
[My Prompt to Grok] Frederick Bastiat talked about "Legal Plunder" where men with power eventually work together until "LAW" says it is Good for them to Steal. Consider the concept of "Judicial Tyranny." I want the "It's a Big Club and You Ain't in It" re-written in more modest language. Therefore use Thomas Sowell's economic and social commentary to write a very cynical accusation against the "Big Club" of Politicians, Globalist Billionaires, Banks, Media, and the other people who George Carlin saw as Neo-Feudal Lords exploiting the common working people of society. Start with the sentence, "It's a Big Club and you ain't in it."
