It is important to emphasize Skullism is very much about the old idea of class, a notion that was also once quite prevalent in the psyche of most Americans, very heavily in the 1930s and dominant until at least the 1940s, but which since ebbed away and has largely been exorcised from the collective view of society.
This nearly complete disappearance of the notion of class from the American collective social self-consciousness is precisely one of the great assets of the Skullists, in that it has allowed them to become effectively dominant within American society while, as T. and I used to say, hiding in plain sight.
The idea in this day and age that such a group of "elite-thinking" people could be so snobbily class-conscious strikes modern Americans as somehow rude---a violation of an assumed universal social compact of Pop Culture egalitarianism.
The vague idea that taken hold is that yes, the rich are an indeed an oppressive and greedy class, and they pursue their own screwed-up interests, but to use the terminology of a Jazz Age artist, the rich are actually not much different than you and I.
Their motivations are mostly like our own types of greed, lust and pettiness, but on a much larger scale. They are ultimately as chaotic and shortsighted in their mode of living as ordinary citizens who live paycheck to paycheck and hope that someday life will be different.
Most important of all to the success of Skullism has been the cultivation of the Postmodern idea that there is no longer any significant distinction between old money and new money.
A quick illustration of how the true principle of class used to function within American society can be found in the history of the American diplomatic corps, and specifically of the ambassadorships. Until recent decades, there has arguably been no greater preserve of the old moneyed elite than this group.
In former times, as a matter of pure necessity, this collection of public servants would have been necessarily drawn from the set of Americans who were comfortable moving in foreign cultures with some form of ease. They had to be cosmopolitan enough of mind and habit to represent the nation among the nobility who have historically represented the nations of the Old World.
More so than any other branch of the government, these public servants would largely have come from the elite of the Northeast and especially graduates of the elite boarding schools and the Ivy League. They would have been the well-connected, well-heeled sort of people who are comfortable commanding a staff of servants. They would have spent their youth abroad at times, and become accustomed to behaving properly while interacting with the upper class of Europe and other continents. That is, they would have given America a semblance of "class" in a roles where such things were not optional but mandatory.
In the era when Americans still understood this idea, all Americans any class would probably have agreed that these people were exactly the ones all of us would have wanted representing the nation among the crowned heads of Britain and the continent.
It is the kind of dignified public role that only certain people are bred to do. Others, no matter how wealthy they have become, simply cannot fill this kind of role. They retain a vulgarity of mind and habit that only serves to discredit America in the eyes of the rest of the world. The egalitarian notion that people of all backgrounds are capable of filling these types of roles can only lead to disaster.
At least, that is how a Skullist would probably think about it.
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