The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom - William Blake

Though I agree with you, I think it's clear that class and wealth interests can support and develop belief systems that are to their advantage. The analogy with religion and theology may be more or less enlightening. I prefer to say "belief system" (probably based on various mythological building blocks).

Fighting to win includes understanding these and proposing a more attractive alternative to the innocent victims who are taken in by them.

Would that we could do that with EU leaders...

They want their pound of flesh, simple as that. They lent the money, and now they will use all the organisations at their disposal to ensure that money be collected. And, they don't care who gets hurt in the process. Tis should be painfully clear to anyone by now, it's not as though reports of malnutrition in Greece are not now widely reported, see the right-wing US daily Washington Post yesterday for an example.

they are the impacted matter in the colon of capitalism.

they see money as a collection of static units instead of a fluid circulation of trust vouchers, ascribing this mentality to, by projection, all others around them.

by seeing others afraid of poverty, this conflates with their own terror at their imminent non-existence and the fear of loss of control makes them insatiable for the power that being perceived as rich appears to give them.

they trust no-one, because they know they are without scruples and imagine everyone else to share the same mental architecture.

they have managed to condition the hologram that for the majority passes for reality to the point where they feel invincible, when they feel at all.

apparently their reign is coming to an end, as people educate themselves and realise that modern economics is a sophisticated series of shell games, and anything but what it seems or is purported to be by those nice politicians we get offered to vote for.

you know the ones who always have a great plan to put a chicken in every pot before elections, and then after tell us things were much worse than they had realised (due to the last coterie of incompetent, conniving buffoons who were believed by last cycle's gullible electorate), and now we're going to have to tighten our belts for the good of the country, extra hard so their buddies can be bailed out, let off their taxes and their idiot gaming habits further enabled for the next swing with OPM round the green baize.

the only thing they have to fear is exactly how deep the corruption goes being revealed, and enough people becoming wise to the Great Scam.

till then some mothers and fathers will be raising the next generation of thugs and predators, prison guards and city/wall st. flyboys.

the cure for economic diverticulitis? more fibre of truth, leading to increased peristalstic efficiency  and elimination of the societal toxins from the collective colon.

the parasite can draw a veil around itself as it embeds itself into the intestinal wall.

very tricky buggers, even repeated colonoscopies can easily miss them.

frequent and copious irrigation with bankruptcy, and judicious doses of keynesian steroids can be temporarily useful in removing stagnation and restoring/promoting proper circulation of potential fertiliser.

It's a fine line between homage, parody, and consumer opportunism. Jess Walter

Sometimes the reward sought is not even admission into heaven but the approval of the Guru-du-jour:

"Rajoy manifested [to Merkel] the need that countries which deliver have to be helped by the European institutions. He explained that not all can be treated the same, the ones that deliver and those which don't", asserted Cospedal, suggesting that Spain, which according to Brussels is fulfilling what was asked of it, should be among those countries that the BCE should aid with its purchases.