The Clash of Elite vs. People Interests.
A hidden ‘war’ of interests, we need open our eyes about.
How to change the world, when those in power aren’t listening?
Edit fall 2019. I wrote this in 2017. The Yellow Jackets in Paris, the Hong Kong uprising and Extinction Rebellion weren’t yet in sight. Yet this article (sorry for the meager grammar) exposes a big part of the problem. If these uprisings want to be successful, then a deeper understanding of the strive between elites and protestors is essential. Currently the Extinction Rebellion works with decades of protest experiences, improving their methods almost daily. Yet, in some ways they feel old fashioned. It seems a bit they improve old methods, yet should also look for new ones. I hope this text helps a bit.
Here’s a similar video, narrated by Caitlin Johnstone, asking the same question, but not giving a deeper background nor answer and tips I offer below.
(original text) There’s a clash of interests going on, and we are in the middle of it. It’s the ‘war’ of what ideas flourish, what ideas are believed and which die. This ‘war’ has been going on for centuries. It seems to be between an elite protecting what they have vs. the ‘people’ (read subjects, underclass, workers, plebeians) who might take what they have. The small group of haves vs. the larger group of have-nots. Or, perhaps on a deeper level, leaders vs. the collective intelligence of human progression. We all know leaders who are self serving manipulators. There’s also those that seek to protect their people against their worst impulses or raise them all to a higher level. As these ‘sides’, leaders, peoples are generally clearly struggling with each other. I’ll show how both learn lessons, and change strategies countering the lessons learned by the other side. From the rise and fall of kings, rise and fall of socialism to the advert blocking on Youtube (in case you missed it). I will look at it with rough Systems Thinking eyes. This is a blog of an idea, not an exact science. I didn’t do scientific research but once you see the pattern, it seems to be everywhere.
We’ll see how his division of ‘us and them’, of leaders seeking to keep control over their subjects, played out over the centuries and now actually has become a danger for all those making it! And remind all of you that the mass can move mountains when they smartly and consciously collaborate!
part I. The Players
The Elite*
Those who feel themselves to be above ‘the people’ at times forget they are people too. I believe, the elite are not a fixed group, but just those currently in power. It’s the very rich who collaborate to keep their wealth intact and thus become a distinct class. They adapt paradigms and strategies from previous leading groups. Some of these elite are great people seeking to help the poor and work on ending suffering. Others pretend to do so. The worst will consciously start wars for money or oil and set it up so, you believe it’s all for the ‘right’ reasons (“Terrorism!!! Aaaagh”). Some of them might indeed be involved in shadow governments or mafia like activities on a truly grand scale. Who really knows what is true. But they are not one happy family. These people may be buddies one moment, the next you fight a ‘war’ for one against the other. See the history of Blair and Ghadaffi, Bush and Saddam, possibly the Koch brothers and Mercer (which still happens in the shadows). For the last one, wonder how some Democrat pundits push for a new cold, or even hot, war with Russia. This, while Trump & Co rather seem to bond with them, as rumours go, for access to Russian oil fields.
The People**
And ‘the people’? They are a very diverse group too. We’re more than sheep, that rarely bite. The meaning of the people here is all those that separate themselves from who they see as oppressors, who actually are people too. “We the people” was once an ideal. It has become a propaganda idea of sameness, to rally people for a cause. Most of ‘the people’ just work for the elite, because it pays the bills. There’s even people, from lobbyists and marketers to false conspiracy people, who consciously lie for the interests of the elite. Think from Tobacco, Arms dealers to Monsanto a company fighting to the last to keep a cancerous poison on the market. Most people just don’t care, or feel safer by playing along. Many scream or do violence or steal from the rich. And millions on unsung heroes frantically try to help others, who are poor and needy. They seek to raise support or help for that.
Actually, I think society rests on the shoulders of all these unsung change-makers, who seek to make things better for everyone let alone groups of their interest. oops, that last might also become dangerous tribalism (read nationalism, religion, gangs, hooligans, race and such). If angry, the people may blame the elite for their poverty. Angry enough and they can rise in anger. Riots, revolts and plunder always under the surface when poverty and inequality become rampant. Something the elite always fears, whether the uprising would be justified or not. Indeed, rather than solve the real issues, the elite prefers to strike down any revolt first, or as they often do, point to scapegoats, be these Jews, Immigrants, Socialists, Woke, Crime, Islam, Terrorists, MAGA or whatever.
(new edit 2018: Great example article of this struggle, commons vs owners)
Why this clash is harming everything.
Some people have the hope that perhaps one day the elite awakens enough to actually make a difference for all. It looks very much like biologically we love to follow leaders. “Trump, eh shit, Bernie, save us!” Yet these people should realize they can start without waiting. Start building the better world (your heart knows is possible) now. All people, underclass and elite, should become aware what it really means that everything is connected; as science claims more and more. The distinctions, because of financial and power interests, between rulers and ruled are ultimately false. Daily millions of victims (from needless poverty to fleeing war and effects of climate change) prove that what happens far away, always will one day end up in your home garden (as refugees) and even in your body (as plastics, lead and hormones in food and water are doing more and more). Any progress being made in Flint, Michigan towards safe drinking water?
Part II. Short history of this clash of interests.
Here are some highlights just from me seeing this. The proof is all over the internet, documentaries, and books. I suggest starting for a few days, watching the news with these eyes, read the papers and observe. Because a process that once took centuries, then took decades is now speeding up to months, weeks and sometimes even days. We’re heading towards major clashes, all which should be collaborations towards things that matter much more. How to get there?
From Oldest Trick in the Book to Religion
The foremost and most ancient trick of coming to power and keeping it, is to divide and conquer. Make a distinction between us and them. Tell different ‘thems’ how dangerous the others are. Then help several of those to become a gathered us, to create a power overcoming the danger. You leading it off course. And after conquering, you keep telling the subdued they’re with ‘us’ now, until they believe it. These stories of division can become so powerful, that generations later, everyone is convinced of the normalcy of this story. Think race and cultures.
One way to break through these stories of division, is to understand the underlaying principles of oneness. We are all humans. Mystics spread these stories and spread ideas like us all being divine spirits. They spread the concept of compassion and kindness. These ideas turned into religion. And religious leaders corrupted these messages. They created a new us and them out of that: ‘us’ the believers (“We are supposed to live good and show compassion.”) and ‘them’ the heathens and heretics (“They don’t understand our higher concept; refuse to live it, thus must be punished or die.”). It’s an interesting object of study how early Christians went from pacifists willing to die for their belief, to a corrupt and conquering Holy Church in only a few generations. Christianity, and later Islam did the same, became an excuse for conquest against heathens in itself.
From Slaves to Serfs
A next great shift might be the shift from having slaves in Rome, into having serfs in medieval times. In Europe with small states, running away was easy, and the danger of invading neighbours plundering high. Then the extra worry of slaves stabbing you in the back is a bad idea. Thus Serfs were told they were not slaves. “Hey you’re not a slave, you belong to this land. And this conqueror, eh, sorry, noble is here to nobly protect you. And you need to help him, eh die for his, eh this, land if it is invaded.”
The word Noble is one of the greatest PR stunts in history. So much so the elite started to believe it themselves. Many nobles acted the part with chivalry and doing many ‘good deeds’ including killing heathens and ‘liberating’ Jerusalem. Kings also found that making distinctions for the people, between us and ‘them’, helped rally people behind their rule, rather than show up with pitchforks in front of the gate. Even today many nationalist leaders seek to be the leaders of a invented ‘us’ against those terrible ‘them’. Their ‘crusades’ giving them purpose and meaning, and often riches in life. One could call modern soccer fandom the ultimate training into taking sides, putting one group against another. Because a united people is quite scary for the top.
From Kings to Republic
There’s a whole thread of shifting dynamics in the relationship between workers and elite. While up to this day the people generally accept division in nations or peoples, they will not accept always their leaders as such. When people no longer fell for the whole ‘divine rights’ of their own (abusive and inbred) kings anymore, the republic was invented. The people seemed to gain the advantage. Yet the elite sneaked a trick within voting: “We decide who you can vote for. And if someone rises up from the people, we’ll educate him into our system of politics, where things only get done .. our way. And hey, sometimes you get to win, because it’s in our interests too, or because we prefer a political loss over pitchforks in front of our houses.”
From Revolts to Nationalism
In the 19th century people, most led very poor lives. With the rise of industrialism, cheap labour became in high demand. Around the same time we all started to learn to read (thanks to the printing press and some enlightened elites, having good hearts or needing more knowledgeable workers to help rule expanding empires). Then when people demanded more rights and freedoms around the 1848 revolts, socialism as a solution for the people began to rise in popularity. In response the governments slowly came up with propagandised nationalism. It became increasingly important to be willing to die for the idea of your nation, not for money or your preferred leader. Except for the socialists, most accepted their leaders, through the nationalist propaganda, as their ‘hero’ and one of us, for us. So many people died for their Napoleons, Wilhelms, or Queen & Country. One can wonder how many died, because of an idea that never even benefitted their family, village or even community.
From WWI to WWII
The trap of nationalism showed its terrible way over the top finale during WWI. Millions of young men died in a senseless war. It helped the most disadvantaged people to find their way out of the nationalist trap, through the rise of socialism & communism. These ideals embraced the idea that the peoples of the world are united. The response from the elites came with more nationalism and heavy propaganda against the ‘red danger’. At the same time, communist leaders that did win, became an as corrupted elite as the Church leaders had become centuries before them. WWI also showed that nationalism and infighting between elites can become a dangerous madhouse. Not everyone learned their lesson. The angry German elite, who lost much power and prestige in WWI, sponsored the upstart Hitler to power. And throughout history upstarts have shown, quite often, to be more of the same, or even to be much worse as the elite they replaced. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Napoleon, Mussolini, Pinochet, Saddam, and Trump to name a few.
In India, however, Gandhi rose to show how non-violence could be a force of the people, that could sway public opinion and pressure an elite into negotiations.
From Infighting Elites to Shared Global Ownership
From WWII the elites learned that the idea of the UN might help the elite to live in peace with each other. Also the people have been trained to saty more peaceful. Indeed there are currently fewer wars happening than ever before, though the danger of a nuclear winter is still sadly way too close. And behind the scenes, the ruthless people kept conniving for bigger and bigger power. They told the people to fear propaganda, since it was a Nazi weapon. Since the Soviets used is massively we where told they were bad people. Yet the West was exactly the same. The USA being the ‘Land of the Free’, was a constructed story too. Too few realised the daily showings in schools of the ‘bad Soviets movies’ were propaganda too. Just utter the word ‘socialist’ in the USA and too many people freak out. As if there aren’t many nuances in the practice possible.
In this ‘land of the free’, the elite also learned that politics could be ruled by corporate ownership. From corporate positions the millionaires started more and more bribing politicians to do what they want. Lobbies loaded with money and ‘scientific proof’ became a tool of power. What at first was kind of illegal corruption is now made acceptable by law and massive celebration of wealth as the pinnacle of success. Currently 3 individuals own as much as the bottom 50% of the whole USA. And they use this money to control opinions and politics.
From an Educated People to Multiple Entrapments.
During the 20th century, education improved very much. The dominant Western elite found the progress of science and management raised control and advanced profits. So a middle class rose to be. These people had good jobs and good education. Sadly, for the elite, they also had, through learning about the world, more ideas about what was going on. It was thus that the people stopped the Vietnam war. So how to keep control of well-paid people? You either distract them more with nonsense (rise of commercial TV), make universities suspect as leftish bunkers or you trap them in their jobs. “You want to keep your house; the one you can only afford with both partners earning? Better keep your jobs.” And meanwhile , in the USA, you keep minorities like the Blacks into poverty, and build a private prison system to steer a large percentage into a new kind of slavery pretending it’s justice.
And those that protested peacefully suddenly might find agents, pretending to be aggressive protestors, in their midst. These agents would provoke violence, like throwing the first stones, so the media would portray protesters as an unruly lot. The consequence being that normal civilians thought the activists were the problem, not the elite’s dirty tricks. Thus nowadays protesters have their own guards against these agitators, even up to a clown army seeking to reduce aggression wherever it rises. So
Everywhere protests find new tricks, like humor, arts, documentary making and the elite finds news ways to counter them. And the speed with which this ‘collective voice vs those in power’ game is played out started to increase as fast as the connectivity on social media rose.
From Investigative Journalism to Media Manipulation
While the people now were afraid to fall for propaganda, the elite now had to make sure they owned the media (goodbye investigating journalism) and could spin stories. Three tricks they use:
- The Press Conference. When journalists dutifully write down what has been said, it appears henceforth the truth. In 2004 George Bush claimed in a large press conference connections between Saddam and Al Qaida, while at the same time both CIA and FBI couldn’t find any such connection. The presidents claims got prime coverage around the world and thus decided what was acted upon. Press looking for access is somehow expected to never ask to difficult questions.
- False Flags. And old trick used more and more. From the Tonkin incident to Kuwait, to recent Gas Attacks by Assad and perhaps even the whole rise of ISIS. Emotions steer people’s opinion, so cruelties committed by a certain evil ‘them’ rule over sense and slow investigation. It seemed the elite could get away with it more and more. Now it’s clear the USA looks for excuses to interfere in Iran.
- Marketing and spinning to increase sales or influence media. That this has become a science and a huge industry with millions of people willingly committing to it every day. It should be a crime. Dot. This is where both the concept of fake news was born, and the distrust of the media as a result comes from. Somehow at times being counter effective to the elites steering the media.
From the Crony Capitalism to the Rise of New Activism
Then with so many instruments in place to control the people, and with the downfall of communism, the elite became too arrogant and too greedy. This led to the burst of the internet bubble in 2001 and then to the housing crisis in 2008. And through the rise of the internet and people now being able to do their own researches a new kind of movies and video’s and stories started to arise. From weird conspiracy stories to well-researched tales exposing the control, greed, and deceptions. And the people, including many renowned scientists, connected their daily reality with the destructions of nature and industrial activities of the elite. With the protests at Standing Rock and the rise of anti Trump movements activism is back and with an urgency. Destruction of our global natural systems really needs to be addressed, by us all. Here the self-serving agents of the elite must wake up too, also for their own sake. Sadly this centuries old paradigm, seeing the world as a chess board for power, doesn’t fade easily.
From Arabic Spring and Occupy to new Middle Eastern wars
Then the Arabic Spring and Occupy happened. It seemed for a moment the elite was at a loss. Hope among people rose, as a fundamental change of an oppressing and self-serving faulty system seemed possible. Yet, the elite found out how to drown the Arabic Spring in new worse leaders (Egypt) and blood (Syria). They used it to take out Ghadaffi for his threat to the dollar (look it up). And Occupy dwindled after one bank fell, some regulations were promised (are you still waiting?). The protest was portrayed as a hippie community camping freely on the streets, as a lazy work avoiding bunch. With them out of the way, the greed reformed and brazenly went developing tactics to take control of oil fields not yet in their hands. Iran, Somalia, Venezuela, Russia and whatever is discovered next can all await incursions towards their riches.
From well intended Educational Reform to Upperclass Training.
A current educational weirdness. There are more and more leftist, democratic, putting-children-first educations. Yet, you need good money to pay for your child to study there. Thus the more wealthy people, closer to the elite, raise children who can and will speak out, while the lower classes just sit in public drilling schools (except where great teachers break the pattern and effects). Thus the well-meaning higher middle class prepare their children to have a voice and lead. Meanwhile, the lower classes sink, with ever more underfunded public schooling, deeper into recession and further away from equal opportunity. The only hope is, that the eco-systemic world views of these children in alternative educations stay when they grow up.
And that’s not even opening the can of worms called the ‘dumbing down of the nation’ as happening in the USA. Making education run by corporations, is giving them free reign to only train those aspects good workers need, eagerly forgetting global outlook and critical thinking. Google John Taylor Gatto’s criticism of education, and watch it only getting worse only a few decades after his works exposed the ‘worker training machine’ called schools of the 20th century.
From the free internet to the oppressing internet.
For a while it seemed the free internet became a stage for human diversity. Yet what promised a free world of interconnectivity, has become a collection of bubbles. Believers in angels may need never meet right winged opinions. Fanatical gamers may never see a spiritual growth video. Makeup girls may never learn how to guerilla garden from eco-warriors. And if they do, there’s cognitive dissonance to overcome. Even worse, most bubbles mainly speak to their own circle on social media. More and more algorithms, let alone tags, determine who gets to see your posts. Thus revealing news about the elite, may stay safely quarantined within a small circle, rendering urgent exposés powerless. (Find ways to get around that!) Meanwhile mainstream media will trumpet the world view of the elite as ‘normal’ reality. Still, the grip of the elite seems not strong enough, for them.
Earlier this year (2017), the Trump administration tried to counter criticism by the media as fake news. They offered instead ‘alternative facts’. This started to backfire as these ‘fake’ media shredded the lies uttered by the White house with facts. Now it was the Trump cronies who were ‘fake’. For the alternative media, both mainstream media and White House were fake. That needed to be stopped, found both government and mainstream media. Stopping fake news, became a possibility to counter loud criticisms. Facebook recently sought to take out ‘fake news’ (whatever that means for them). Youtube has started taking away the advertisements from popular channels, that do not support the main narrative, hitting both far left and far right. The advertisers seemingly don’t want to be connected to endorsing ‘fake news’, which makes the how-to-disappear-your-face-behind-mascara girls safe. Unknowingly to themselves they and all other idiot entertainment video channels are part of the distraction.
Why would advertisers suddenly care, what their advertisement is connected to? Take the Bill O’Reilly scandal, a famous FOX-anchor lost all advertisers because of his awful attitude towards women. Suddenly advertisers started to look at what they actually seemed to finance with their advertisements. Did they really get a conscience? Could it be more truthful to say that, a few billionaires use the voice of all their brands to silence anything that might create unrest to their preferred ‘reality’. Thus currently (April 2017) many alternative voices are losing their source of income on Youtube. Several now seek to find enough people to subscribe to their channels on Patreon to find guaranteed income. (note: a foil it seems being betrayed by Patreon this december 2018, where they too get blocked) Others already have become paid agents for the elite posing as independent voices. There’s even people, yes, professional Trolls, earning money adding comments attacking channels not favored by the elite. There’s even some evidence some counter protests were actually organized ‘income opportunities for the feeble poor’.
Towards Corporate Steered Intelligence Agencies
Thus far I have largely left out the increasing power of the Intelligence Agencies. Where in 2004 they still might disagree with the president, it seems increasingly like they work for the corporate donors of the political powers. And since corporate power more and more directly has started to own politics they have also started taking over essential services. Hospitals, prisons, schools, private armies like Blackwater, national media have become more and more directly owned by less and less billionaires. And through their ownership of politics they also more and more directly control the intelligence agencies. Thus manipulations to intervene in foreign politics, other countries and obtain access to huge oil fields and other natural resources becomes more and more easy for them.
Chase Morgan and Exxon Mobile don’t have to manipulate politicians to do their bidding anymore. Since Trump’s election, they are the government. Yet within these agencies, as we saw with Snowdon, and Wikileaks, are also people who think towards the whole. Some aren’t willing collaborators to an oppressive system. Perhaps the propaganda for the ‘Land of the Free’, really makes them stand for freedom. Oh Irony.
Part III. Last Call of the People
Thus the people are once again at a disadvantage, even when they know what’s going on. Being afraid of Islamic terrorists, created by the USA(!) and the West, seems to be more important than the death of thousands of species and children. 20.000 children die daily on average from causes that could easily be prevented with some investments. 200 species disappear daily as we aren’t protecting the environment serious enough. The activists, like Extinction Rebellion and the Sunrise movement are rising, yet mostly within a contained bubble. They are plagued by terms as hippies, neo-liberals, and or socialists, or worse Soros cronies, conspiracy crazies and terrorists.
Break the Bubble
For the activists, it is essential that they work hard on seeking methods to reach everyone. Send your posts to people outside your bubble to incite conversations and learn from what comes back. You too may have facts wrong. When you listen, they may listen. When you fight, they have you where they want: back at the chess board. That’s their home turf. The activists need clear facts that cannot be denied. They need compelling arguments, not exaggerated shouts full of half truths to counter the ‘lies’ of the other side. They need more people like Bernie, Naomi Klein, Jane Goodall, Noam Chomsky, speaking up with honesty and integrity, not as just one more side in politics seeking power from people looking for saviors. They need to keep on developing strategies faster and faster that are harder to counter than current protests.
Play, I keep telling it, Play
Here I think a purely playful attitude, meaning not willing and manipulating outcomes, can make activists more untouchable. The ‘powers that be’ need seriousness! They need their ‘opponents’ into the Us vs. Them mode to understand them and counter their strategies. Thus being free from that game, is the way to overcome it. That’s where real higher consciousness becomes meaningful.
To a Green Economy
Our collective has an urgent need for a massive shift in our economic model. It’s clear that thousands within the establishment will lose investments over that shift. They seem to be blind for the fact that a Global overhaul to a Green, Fair and Sustainable economy will also provide millions of jobs and business opportunities. Perhaps they fear too much, it might not be theirs. Thus the activists really need to rally the general public on a grand scale.
The activists have ideas for alternative economies and models enough. (If you have never heard of these search the internet, start with the trailer for ‘2040’ and ‘Demain’) For this they need to find a way to show the general public how to participate in the change. For this they need to raise awareness first. Climate change is real, 7 billion people can’t continue living like this. The Great Barrier Reef decaying rapidly is real, as is the massive extinction of species. Parts of the oceans(!) are dead zones. All because of human activity. But do enough people care?
The elite claims it’s not in their hands, because this is what the consumers demand. However we shouldn’t forget the heavy marketing they use. How consciously they spin stories. Advertising shows awesome products, making us forget how the production was done, and what poisons they leaked (illegally) away for it. Tech always promises new solutions, so no one needs to worry. Solutions will soon be here. Side effects aren’t shared, like with 5G soon hitting the market.
How to make that visible or even experiential to the main public? A dead whale in Central Park? Putting bamboos with estimated new waterlines in every street? What? If you got an idea, try it out! Because within this world, one successful idea can go viral in hours. As we rise above the false distinction between the elite and the rest of us, we ‘the collective of us all’, need to speed up our learning for a flourishing future on this planet.
And most of all the new Activists need to have the integrity of Nelson Mandela, a clear purpose like Gandhi, and the friendliness of the Dalai Lama, and the childlike innocence of Charley Chaplin when he delivered ‘the greatest speech ever made’. Look that one up on Youtube. :)
If you’re still here and seek bottom up change, here is more.
And the Elite?
The White American elite acts much like the White Apartheids regime of South Africa. By turning all colors, races, minorities into possible aggressors they choose politics that in the long run exactly has that effect. They create the reality they so fear. They are making their rule into a bastion under siege. They do use political tricks like Gerrymandering, bribes, reducing polling stations in selected neighborhoods and blacklisting over a million minority voters because of the fear they might vote twice. A thing for which so few people have ever been caught, that the real crime, stopping a million+ people from voting, continues to this day. Because how often do you see this being discussed on main stream media as a form of corruption or voting manipulation; especially with 2020 in sight?
We Are All Crew of Spaceship Planet Earth
The new rulers use more force, heavier penalties, worse education to keep the minorities down. And we all see and know it. A new kind of oppression and fascism is staring us all in the face. Yet since Obama, the elite should also know, blacks too can be elite. They too can be cronies of a broken system, as much as they might take the system down. Blacks are not different. Neither are Asians, Gays, Liberals, Socialists, Indigenous Peoples or Women. They all can be crooks or saints. The whole distinction between sides and people is becoming daily a more deadly trap. We are all humans. We are all crew of spaceship planet Earth. And what happens to earth, will happen to all of us. The Chess Board mindset, the ‘Us vs. Them’ is a huge obstacle for the progress we really need. You can be the heroes of everyone! When you, the elite, would take peace on earth and ecological demands serious, when you would put your money and power behind it you might safe us all. If you don’t, you will be enemies and eco criminals in the eyes of every human on the planet, within less than a few decades. Because we’re either approaching a finale in this ancient division of the ‘collective vs the establishment’ and shift towards the needs of the whole. Or we. all. go. under.
Luckily there’s many people around the world working on solutions. Which one will make the difference? I can’t tell yet. Most likely it’ll be a mesh of solutions. Yet, every step forward is one.
The global awareness of the whole system interdependency, in which we live, cannot be longer denied to the peril of us all. And you, the elite, taking up this story, this idea ‘we’re all one’, is also your way out of the false division, threatening to become a violent clash. Let the shift in paradigm towards overarching unity, thus also be a new beginning, and a wise step for all of us.
LINKS
If you’re elite, or work for them, and got this far, wow. Here’s more info for you.
Here’s another different approach I recently blogged about: how collaboration outperforms competition. And the “Competition leads to progress” might be the ultimate divide and conquer trick.
NOTE: Because of some good comments (here and on other forums) I re-edited parts of this text. These comments helped me put more emphasis on how the elite are people too, and it’s the disticintion of elite and people itself that is the danger. The elite makes it to protect wealth and power, and subjects or other elites may seek to take it away from them. The conflicts this distinction creates is what I write about. I hope this has become much clearer now.
More on this can be found in this great documentary: Century of the Self And in this article about the weaknesses and erosion of our Democracies.
- ) More on how I see the Elite. The may hail from old families, some are upstarts making their ranks on their own, or are promoted upwards for skills needed in their ranks. There’s always people eager to play the game like them. Hey, otherwise you don’t get to play with the big guys, no? Also because they train people to be disconnected from feelings, but ambition. This disconnection creates a hunger that never can be fulfilled, thus they never stop hungering for more. So a way to change them is help heal this wound, rather than fight them. Sadly many are so lost, that even when doing spiritual work, it’s just Ego vanity.
**) More about the People. Most support their own ruling elite. It’s what we got used to. Our whole educational system is about learning to get a job working for them or catering to the companies they own. Some may even become buddies with elite. That goes for those best at getting targets; hence all these tests you got to score on in education. Currently the elite seems to prefer managers who aren’t concerned what the real world consequences of their targets are in the real world. And they love those being the right kind of psychopath fitting the profile. Yet most of us, the people, just work sensible jobs for a salary, not having the urge to go always higher. Notwithstanding, I think, around 85% of the economy is bullshit anyway, which is a whole different story.
