Concentration of Power [The Rise of Reason III]

[pe7erpark3r]

Ever heard of the french king Louis XIV the "Sun King"? He was absolute king of france, for the longest time any king ever ruled in european history. What he said was law. It is no wonder that the french revolution happened in france. (Duh! LOL) By which I mean ofc that it is no wonder, that this kind of revolution happened there. The kings of france had concentrated so much power in their own person, that no other power could stand beside them. Nothing good was allowed to grow, if it only appeared like a threat to the kings power.

So what is the problem with the concentration of so much power? There are many actually, I'll just enumerate some:

• justice will always be swayed in the direction of those related to the central power in some way
• the state/society cannot adapt to problems that the ruler does not see. this always becomes a problem, because every one of us is blind to certain problems. blindness is inherent to any ruler, because it is inherent to human beings
• nepotism/partisanship will gain more and more power as the same group keeps the power. to an extreme if it happens over generations as we have seen countless times in history
• those who rule also make the laws, so they actually do not have to bend to law, they just bend the law instead

So what can you do against something like that? The answer is simple, yet hard to implement: You divide power. This of course has disadvantages too, for then it is hard to make effective politics. So you need to choose carefully where power should be divided. And very smart people came up with some good ideas on how to divide power.

You divide power between:

• those who make political decisions so they have the power to do what is necessary
• those who make the law so that those who make political decisions have to bend to the law
• those who judge wether someone is acting according to the law

And you go one step further, you make sure that the people in all those categories, especially the ones who make political decisions, are being replaced regularly. This ensures that those who are being replaced and are blind to certain problems, can be replaced by people who see the problems that have arisen in the meantime.

And then you add an element who's responsibility is to investigate everything that is going on and bring dark happenings to the light of day.

You prolly have recognized the western model by now: Democracy, with separation of power into executive, legislative and judicative and the media as the investigative force. But as we all know something is wrong with the system. Something is acting out. Is anybody seeing what is acting out? Has the system really become racist? Why are soooo many people calling out for its destruction?

Concentration of power... Yes. A group of people has been concentrating power behind the curtains. How? Lucky folks have realized that technology and science enable concentration of power to an unprecedented degree. And it even enables you to make the people even be "happy" with being controlled and follow your every command as you manipulate them to your heart's content.

Let me just draw the outline. Throughout the last decades global trade has enabled economic empires to grow, empires so large and powerful that even the strongest states cannot escape their influence. There are a few people on the same level as Bill Gates, who have concentrated so much power that they can throw a country into an economic crisis by moving a single finger.

And of course those people are interested in what? increasing their power further. And they know that cooperation with other people of the same capacity will increase this power. They have established networks throughout the globe. Nothing can escape their reach, because enough people in every organization in every country can be bought with money, power and a bit of manipulation.

It was a lucky coincidence (or was it not?) that in the 80s news networks discovered that one can make money with news. Before that, the media was usually state funded. Now it started making money. And money hungry people strove for positions of power in the media. And money hungry people are easily bought with money. And they are easily invited to join the club, to become insiders, and to gain more money and more power.

And thus the fourth leg of democracy (the media) was broken. And as constant dripping wears the rock away, the fourth leg has increased its influence over the other legs.

Also those pulling the strings have done their best to increase the state apparatus, e.g. the amount of people who work for the state, the bureaucracy. This is important, because the people who make up the bureaucracy, they are not being replaced in a democratic state. They run things in the background. It is kind of like the fifth leg, that is somewhat divided below legislative, judicative and executive. But if you control this group of people, you already have immense control over the state itself.

So where are we now? We are shortly before the open appearance of those who pull the strings. They have almost amassed enough power and influence to take control. Already they are – through their followers – openly attacking the very foundation of the democratic state:

Because above all that we talked about now stands something formerly untouchable: human dignity, natural law, being created in the image of God. This is on what all good that we know and still profit from in the west was founded on. But it is no longer. It has been replaced by democratic choice, through the power of the opinion makers. And as you may have felt by now: this fact is actually quite anti-democratic. I will explain how this is the case in another article.

It is concentration of power and putting yourself in the position of God. And it is not done by you, even if you think you are destroying an evil system. It is done by those who control you, and who have been undermining a good system for a few decades by gaining more and more power over you (e.g. the people).

[kaia_]

This is one popular system of modern day to survive democracy. More of a concept to tackle the fact that absolute power leads to absolute corruption. They work side by side in their respectative fields and also check others if they misuse their power. Some people believe in this system. Debatable, but... haven't seen anything better suggested

[pe7erpark3r]

@kaia_ said in Concentration of Power [The Rise of Reason III]:

This is one popular system of modern day to survive democracy. More of a concept to tackle the fact that absolute power leads to absolute corruption. They work side by side in their respectative fields and also check others if they misuse their power. Some people believe in this system. Debatable, but... haven't seen anything better suggested

Lol, that's like the short version of the first part of my article! :+1:

[kaia_]

@pe7erpark3r Then who has more power? politics or money?

[pe7erpark3r]

@kaia_ said in Concentration of Power [The Rise of Reason III]:

@pe7erpark3r Then who has more power? politics or money?

People have power. It exists in the form of relationships, technology, goods, contracts and money. Money is the one that is most easily measurable, but those with a lot of power are easily able to hide their money from other people's eyes.

[pe7erpark3r]

@kaia_ said in Concentration of Power [The Rise of Reason III]:

@pe7erpark3r Then who has more power? politics or money?

What I just wrote was not exactly the answer to your question :sweat_smile:. I think that currently we have a concentration of power outside of politics, that is greater than any state's power.

[kaia_]

@pe7erpark3r Maybe because money is now an ethos, represented by wealthy people who act against the rest of society’s interests. The power is when money is enough to builds strength, and its organization of profiting contributes to that power. Money creates political power even for politicians who do it because it creates wealth.

It makes me think about how great communist in confiscating properties of rich in the past