Couldn't it be said that power over others is and has always been appealing? Political systems vary, but the idea we see around the world both now and in the past is for those holding power to maintain it by keeping the mass in thrall to a mythology that endorses the status quo.
The United States is an example of how even the most carefully designed political system can be gamed by power. The Congress could not be more captive to big money (business) and business is the plaything of the venture capitalists who, sitting at the top of the wealth pyramid raid businesses for personal profit.
The USSR was supposed to be free of the accumulation of personal property, but it had it own elite living in their dachas and holding power over the many who had to endure bleak lives waiting in line for everything only to find shelves bare. It couldn't produce consumer goods
The secret of elite rule is to have a system that produces plenty of stuff and keeps the mass at least pacified and wanting just a bit more. That is what keeps the US going. John Q. Public is outraged at his government allowing the 1% to get away with everything, even letting it prey upon him as in the Great Mortgage Crisis, but he can always get a loan for a new car, get a loan for college and most important get a large screen that can keep him thoughtless for endless hours. The US is a nation of debtors (99%) in hock to creditors (1%), and has seen the income disparity steadily increase while remaining docile, certainly by European standards.
Efforts to build a left in the US have come and gone one after another because just enough adjustment is made to keep the pitchforks in the barn. My point in all this is that I doubt any deep analysis of political systems is needed. The few cleaning up while managing to provide bread and circuses for the many is the heart of the issue. Cheap mass produced products of technology have given us relative stability, a self-satisfied elite and a complacent mass regardless of political system. The mass has enough creature comforts that revolution is out of the question and ideology is moot. Just keep the goodies coming.
Couldn't it be said that power over others is and has always been appealing? Political systems vary, but the idea we see around the world both now and in the past is for those holding power to maintain it by keeping the mass in thrall to a mythology that endorses the status quo.
The United States is an example of how even the most carefully designed political system can be gamed by power. The Congress could not be more captive to big money (business) and business is the plaything of the venture capitalists who, sitting at the top of the wealth pyramid raid businesses for personal profit.
The USSR was supposed to be free of the accumulation of personal property, but it had it own elite living in their dachas and holding power over the many who had to endure bleak lives waiting in line for everything only to find shelves bare. It couldn't produce consumer goods
The secret of elite rule is to have a system that produces plenty of stuff and keeps the mass at least pacified and wanting just a bit more. That is what keeps the US going. John Q. Public is outraged at his government allowing the 1% to get away with everything, even letting it prey upon him as in the Great Mortgage Crisis, but he can always get a loan for a new car, get a loan for college and most important get a large screen that can keep him thoughtless for endless hours. The US is a nation of debtors (99%) in hock to creditors (1%), and has seen the income disparity steadily increase while remaining docile, certainly by European standards.
Efforts to build a left in the US have come and gone one after another because just enough adjustment is made to keep the pitchforks in the barn. My point in all this is that I doubt any deep analysis of political systems is needed. The few cleaning up while managing to provide bread and circuses for the many is the heart of the issue. Cheap mass produced products of technology have given us relative stability, a self-satisfied elite and a complacent mass regardless of political system. The mass has enough creature comforts that revolution is out of the question and ideology is moot. Just keep the goodies coming.
Well said. The U.S. functions on a system of distributing pleasures and disciplines.
“Just as bad as the worst anarchy?” When have we ever had anarchy? What was the worst anarchy? Lol I feel like we’ve never really tried anarchy...
Not anarchy like planned anarchism, I actually like that. Just a sense of disorder and with no law to appeal to.
Gotcha. Same. Thanks for this book summary though! I appreciate it, as I prob won’t read that one, but I’m interested in the takeaways.