Austero-Erotic Fantasies For the Elites, Terror For Everyone Else

By Richard (RJ) Eskow

July 25, 2012 - 12:06am ET 

It was a dream come true for the austerity crowd when Great Britain's conservative/"centrist" coalition government took power in 2010. And for commentators like Slate's Anne Appelbaum it was that kind of dream. Her celebratory column reflected the orgiastic glee with which the new government's austerity plans were greeted, reveling in admiring (yes, admiring) phrases like these:

"Vicious cuts." "Savage cuts." "Swingeing (sic) cuts." "Axe-wielders."

As we noted at the time, never before had a government budget been greeted with such lurid, sado-masochistically charged imagery. Appelbaum's piece read like a cross between Free to Choose and The Story of O.

"Articles about the nation's finances are filled with talk of blood, knives, and amputation," Applebaum wrote about the UK press, adding with palpable envy: "And the British love it."