The Ruling Class Preservation Society (RCPS)

This is the official blog of the Ruling Class Preservation Society. The Preservation Society was created in 1934 by a group of influential citizens concerned about social stability. We are a nonpartisan organization.

In 1933 events unfolded that shook the American deep state and led to the creation of the Preservation Society. A coup was being planned against the US government. A who’s who of American industrial, banking and political might were involved. Major interests included the Du Ponts, JP Morgan, Remington Arms Company, Democrat and former NY Governor and presidential nominee Al Smith, among many others. These titans of society had become increasingly anxious at the rising popularity of socialism and the increasing radicalization of the masses as a result of the Great Depression. They saw FDR’s election as the embodiment of these forces and as a danger to their wealth.

This would-be junta of reactionaries needed a strong man to rally the troops who would lead them to the steps of Congress to save society from the ravages of the New Deal. The Morgan faction wanted Hanford MacNider, an Iowa manufacturer and former commander of the American Legion, for their leader. Others preferred General Douglas McArthur, who had recently destroyed a protest camp of veterans. The camp was set up by WWI veterans, many homeless with their families. It was a shanty town sprawled out on the Washington Mall. They demanded their war “bonus” that was promised to them years ago. McArthur charged in and set the “hooverville” afire. One person was killed and the bonus was voted down in Congress.

The ruling class world became deeply divided over the New Deal and the potential coup. Alarmingly, many ruling class members supported this misadventure of replacing FDR with a fascistic corporate puppet.

A certain member of the upper classes, whom we will call John Doe got caught up in these heady events. Society was at a fork in the road. One way led to dictatorship and  uncharted waters. The other, as John Doe saw it, led to a welfare state that basically resembled the status quo with a slight material improvement in the lives of the masses. The latter seemed to be the more reasonable and conservative route to take. “Public programs worked spectacularly well building Germany into a world power,” he pointed out to his privileged associates. But the conspirators would have none of it.

“I have $30 million,” Singer Sewing Machine heir Robert Sterling Clark told Doe, “and I’m willing to spend half of it to protect the other half.” A line he was to repeat to General Smedley Butler.

Doe pointed out that these set of programs would get the economy going again, and not cost him so dearly. It had the added benefit of pacifying the masses. Clark was unmoved and undeterred.

Doe was offered a position in the new regime if he gave the project his financial and public support. Fortunately for the US, Doe was a very patriotic member of the American upper ruling class. He politely declined the offer, saying he was not interested. But on the contrary, he was greatly alarmed at what seemed to him at first a bad joke.

Distasteful as he found politics, Doe decided to lead the conspirators on, and encouraged them to seek the services of General Smedley Darlington Butler as their potential Hitler. He recommended General Butler precisely because he knew Butler was not a sympathizer of the very wealthy and Doe knew full well that he would not stand for a fascist coup.

“The General has incomparable popularity among ordinary people,” he told the would-be usurpers. It was true enough. Doe told them the General would play hard-to-get, and to be persistent with him. John Doe knew the General well enough that he could count on the old man to blow the whole conspiracy up. The potential potentates lobbied the General aggressively. Robert Sterling Clark visited him and repeated his mantra of saving half his fortune.

Sure enough, a coup was foiled, a congressional hearing was held and forgotten, even though much of General Butler’s testimony was independently corroborated. Why must a wealthy country sink into depression and come to the brink of a coup? John Doe asked himself.

In the aftermath of the foiled takeover, he founded an organization dedicated to finding the holy grail of social stability. He named his proto-“think tank” The Study Group on Social Stability. He gathered like-minded fellow ruling class-mates to his Fifth Avenue parlor. The Study Group was more or less as a club where members smoked cigars, drank liberally, sang songs, cross-dressed, engaged in esoteric rituals, and discussed the attempted coup, the Depression, the relative merits of fascism, welfare states, and of course, they conducted routine business.

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The Study Group was not made up of scholars — and still isn’t — but of concerned citizens. They wanted no part of scholars. They wanted fresh thinking, so they studied and discussed among themselves. They did not want sycophants tailoring a message for them, or justifying obvious nonsense. They wanted to save capitalism, not justify it. The organization has kept true to this principle to this day. We do not even employ website managers which is why this a modest blog. We do not have political consultants, marketing experts or academics, aside from the few we may query.

Gradually, succeeding generations studied and debated more, and sang less, but arguably drank and cross-dressed just as much. Many of these ruling class-mates even strayed into theories of the extreme left and right in quest of truth. Tensions arose over previously unknown or blocked out facts. And as these facts came out, an unflattering picture of the Ruling Class emerged. As a result many members dropped out of the Study Group. They learned the “truth” about their society. The Group got leaner, but it also acquired a tough reputation for honesty among ruling class circles. We changed our name to reflect our ultimate agenda: The Ruling Class Preservation Society .

The more these leading citizens study and discuss, the more we’ve come to the conclusion that responsible management of the ruling class as an institution — as opposed to focusing attention on the individual motivations of the privileged — is the key to understanding and managing society. We have learned much and want to share that learning with those who want a more stable world. It is vital and incumbent upon all, whether members of the ruling class or individuals of the masses, to work together for a healthy ruling class, and a stable society. This is the mission of the Ruling Class Preservation Society.