The caste system comes to America

Earlier this evening, I was helping my fifteen year old study for a history test.  As we were going over the notes for her upcoming test, we began discussing the caste system.  After completing our study session, I couldn't help but notice the similarities between the caste system and the modern progressive system.
 
If you are not familiar with that caste system, it is a social system that divides it's society into hereditary classes based on occupation, social class, endogamy, culture, and political power  In it's original form, these classes were made up of four castes; religious and political leaders, military, skilled workers, and servants.

If we break down the caste system and modernize the terminology; we get academics, activists, unions, and citizens.  I realize that this may be a Machiavellian approach to the subject, but it is plausible non the less.  Let's look at the system one caste at a time.

Academics
Within the caste system, an academic is tantamount to royalty.  This level of society believes that their status allows them to make decisions others are not intellectually capable of making.  They place themselves on a pedestal and marvel at their own superiority.  They do not believe in getting their hands dirty (this is better left to the "common folk"), and generally agree that the rank and file are to dumb to understand the complexities of their own society.  If you think about the number of progressives within our Universities you can clearly see that academics prefer a socialist form of government.  Socialism is very close to the caste system as it promotes a class system within a society. 

Activists
This would be the military level of the caste system.  The activists work very closely with the academics within the progressive movement. They are the community organizers, liberal media groups, lobbyists, and progressive organizations.  These activists work closely with the academics to put in place their ideology and manipulate the society.  Yellow journalism, biased and even untruthful ad campaigns, propaganda, and hate speech are the tools of the activists.  The activist is not selfless in his or her actions, they believe that by working close to the academic, they are elevating themselves to a higher level within the society, thus improving their station in life.

Unions
Unions represent the skilled worker level of the caste system.  The basic idea of a union is to protect the individual worker from unfair treatment by his or her employer, however this idea has been corrupted throughout history as unions gain more and more power. The unions desire control over the production of goods for society, and the subsequent power that accompanies this control.  They use this power to accomplish the goals of the academics and activists.  In this way the unions pay tribute to the academics and activists in return for special favors. 

Citizens
The citizen is the lowest level in the caste system.  They are viewed as individually unimportant and expendable.  The overall goal is to treat the citizen like a mushroom, keep them in the dark and feed them lots of manure.  The citizen may be the largest overall caste in the society however, academics treat them as so many sheep in the field.  To the activist they are only a tool to be used for manipulation, and to the Union they are a commodity to be traded at will.

Currently, India is the only country that has a caste system in place.  However, I believe that there are valid similarities between the modern progressive movement and the caste system within the United States.