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The following is excerpted from the Toronto Star article Mr. 1 Per Cent meets his match by Rick Salutin.
[Tom Naylor's] new book, the one that chimes with the times, is called Crass Struggle. It’s based on “a quantum leap in sheer numbers of those loaded with loot. The emergence of this band of socially insecure parvenus vying for status with an established überclass dramatically intensifies the traditional competition for ‘bragging rights’ that propels the market for collectibles (and other luxuries) forward.” That’s an example of the vigour of his writing. The appalling esthetics and detestable ethics of the 1 per cent seem to energize, not deplete him.
It’s a brilliant strategy: focusing not on their depredations, but their pretensions: the cant of high income conmen full of their own superiority who try to prove it with their haute tastes and styles, like “the 25-year-old financial whiz kid waxing eloquent over the bouquet of a 1945 Mouton-Rothschild or a 1947 Cheval Blanc in a glass he waved under a nose whose septum had been burned out by cocaine.” Or like an epicure I know who proudly serves you “the third most expensive Chablis in the world.” Feel free to add your own version of the archetype, based on personal experience. Dwelling on affectations rather than their (almost never prosecuted) felonies, is a delicious form of revenge.
There’s nothing puritanical or ascetic in this. In fact Naylor sounds like a bit of a sybarite himself, who’d enjoy a good wine, cigar or work of art, all of which he writes chapters on. It’s the monetization, posturing and often sheer fakery or fraud concerning these goods (think about the word) that make him heave. As often with a relentless exposer and scourger, a romantic idealist lurks under the surface. What really bothers him in the art scams, for instance, is the waste and disparagement of true creativity and beauty that genuine artists can reveal.
(…)
I present this as an early suggestion for a Christmas present, in the tradition of jumping the gun on the season and in the rapacious spirit that motivates Naylor (to write, not accumulate). It’s an appropriate gift to any of the 99 per cent. Merry Onepercentmas.
To learn more about Crass Struggle, or to order online, click here.
To arrange an interview with the author, contact MQUP Publicist Jacqui Davis.
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