-Caveat Lector-
Understanding the New World Order
By Joshua2
Elites & Power:
OLIGARCHY --
" The discovery that in all large scale societies the decisions at any given
time are typically in the hands of a small number of people, confirms a basic
fact: Government is always government by the few, whether in the name of
the few, the one, or the many."
( The Comparative Study of Elites - by H. Lasswell and D. Lerner )
ALEXANDER HAMILTON --
" All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are
the rich and well-born,the other the masses of people.The voice of the people
has been said to be the voice of god; and however generally this maxim has
been quoted and believed, it is not true in fact. The people are turbulent
and changing, they seldom judge or determine right."
POWER --
" In general, we understand by " power " the chance ( ability to enact ) of a
number of men to realize their own will in a communal act even against the
resistance of others who are participating in the action."
-- Max Webber
Simply put, power is the ability of people in certain positions or roles,
or of certain social status to make decisions which direct the behavior of
others.
There is also power inherent in physical size, or willingness to threaten
the use of deadly force. But we are not concerned with these aspects of
personal power in this study of social power.
Powerful persons are not powerful because they possess remarkable
qualities or skills, like intelligence, beauty, ambition, willingness to
have sex, or being somehow related to a powerful individual. All these
things are certainly helpful, but it is the attainment of the position
( of power )itself that gives an individual control over others.
INSTITUTIONS --
instiòtuétion n.
1. an organization devoted to the promotion of a cause or
program, esp. one of a public character.
2. the building occupied by such an organization.
3. a place for the care or confinement of people, as mental patients.
4. any established law, custom, etc.
5. any familiar person, thing, or practice.ù instiòtuétionòal, adj.
" No one can be truly powerful unless he has access to the command of
major institutions, for it is over these institutional means of power that
the truly powerful are, in the first instance, powerful."
-- C. Wright Mills, author of " The Power Elite ".
" If we took the one hundred most powerful men in America, the one hundred
wealthiest, and the one hundred most celebrated away from the institutional
positions they now occupy, away from their resources of men and women
and money, away from the media of mass communication... then they would
be powerless and poor and uncelebrated. For power is not of a man.
Wealth does not center in the person of the wealthy. Celebrity
is not inherent in any personality. To be celebrated, to be wealthy , to
have power, requires access to major institutions, for the institutional
positions men occupy determine in large part their chances to have and to
hold these valued experiences." C. Wright Mills
While Mills keeps referring to men, this also applies to women operating
in the world of power and institutions. Though it is clear that " power "
is in the realm of the masculine mystique.
An institution could be viewed as a large powerful machine. Using that
analogy, the head of an institution takes on the powers and abilities inherent
to that machine. For example; a human can't lift and transport 40 tons of
material at 65 miles per hour. But a truck driver can.
A President, King, Dictator or General can subdue or kill a nation. A
Federal Reserve chairman can decide the value of your money. A boss can
decide whether not you will earn a living. A manager can tell you how to
expend your life energy. Etc.
SOME TOP POSITIONS IN AMERICA'S INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE --
1) Banking, (The Federal Reserve,) investments, and insurance ( Wall Street
).
2) The national government. (The Federal Reserve.)
3) State government.
4) The Supreme Court ( 90% from upper class ).
5) The military.
6) Corporations.
7) The privately owned media.
8) Private institutions of higher learning ( Ivy League ).
9) Private foundations.
10) New York and Washington law firms.
11) Private " Civil " groups like :
The Council on Foreign Relations, pro business think tanks
like the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institution.
The National Association of Manufacturers.
The Business Roundtable.
The Committee for Economic Development.
12) Cultural institutions, private and public. ( The Smithsonian Museums,
The Met, The Kennedy Center, PBS, etc.).
13) Religious institutions.
14) And More.
Persons occupying leadership positions in institutions like these are referred
to as " The Power Elite ." It is not uncommon for these " Elites " to hold
powerful decision making positions in SEVERAL of these institutions at the
same time, thereby accumulating enormous power. They also seem to cycle
themselves through a series of these institutions at different points in their
careers. At some point one may be the head of a bank, then become the
head of a corporation, then head a private foundation, then do a stint
in a top governmental cabinet position, then head an elite university.
Then they write a book.
At no point are these people elected by the individuals over whom they hold
power. Except for the Politicians who, once elected, can do the jobs that
they were bribed to do without any effective interference from the public.
I cite the Clinton " Impeachment " as an example.
ECONOMIC POWER ( Where things are REALLY at.) --
Political power exists at the pleasure of the " Economic Elites " in
Capitalist societies. Control of economic resources are the base of power in
any society. The economic elites decide what you will eat, what you will earn,
what you will wear, what you will hear, what you will read, what news you will
have access to, what medicines will be made available to you,
and how all these things will be distributed.
Unfortunately for us, they also decide which politicians will be made
available to us for rubber stamping at election time. In the modern Capitalist
State, this is the true " Ruling Class " and those who have or want power,
know it.
PERSONAL WEALTH AND INSTITUTIONAL POWER --
" As of now ( 1969 ), in the United States and in W. Europe, the rich man
has little power merely because he is rich. [ He ] amounts to little unless he
connects himself with effective institutions. He must master past institutions
or must create new ones. However large his bank account, he can do nothing
with it but consume.
So, if he wishes a power position, he must find it outside his bank account.
He can, it is true, use the bank account to buy into, or possibly create, an
institution. He can buy control of a small corporation. Then he can derive
power from the institution -- if he is capable of handling it. Whatever power he
has comes from the corporation or other institutions, and from such
intellectual or organizing skill as he may have--not from his wealth."
( from - "Power" by Adolf A. Berle, economist )
What Berle is saying does not ring true on a personal level. If one has
money, he / she is often sought out by others for any number of reasons.
One may wish to involve the monied person in a business deal, or beg money
for charity, or wish to marry that individual for comfort and status. On a non-
institutional scale a rich person can * get things done * while a person
without money must either do * things * himself/herself, or wait and
accumulate the money necessary to * get things done *.
A small rich person has more personal power than a three hundred pound
weight lifter. He/she can hire bodyguards for protection or intimidation, and
can hire twenty men to lift an elephant. The weightlifter might have a problem
with that.
In a money based economy, money = power. Not because of its inherent
value, but because of what people are willing to do for it.
IN NATURE, POWER IS IN NUMBERS --
Finally we come to the source of all power. Leaders, bosses, generals,
presidents, chiefs, team captains, popes, and godfathers are ALL ineffectual
and impotent without numbers of people willing to do what they are asked or
told to do by elites.
The masses or " Non-elites " are now and have always been the source of
power in every human endeavor worth mentioning, both good and evil. Hitler
and his small band of fanatics, could not possibly have murdered 12 million
people. There weren't enough hours in the day to accomplish such a task,
and besides, they would have gotten really tired. It took the might of the
willing German masses to accomplish massive extermination, and create
the power of the war machine that conquered Europe.
In history, when elites became too greedy and obnoxious, the non elites,
have always had several options available to us to remedy the situation:
1- Throw them in prison, and kill them. This was done by the French and
Russian non-elites to their respective elites in their respective
revolutions. It was also done recently by the Romanian people to their
communist elites. Elites don't like this plan.
2- Take away the source of their powers. Refuse to cooperate. The entire
management of GM could not build even ten cars a day without non-elite
cooperation. General Powell couldn't attack a sandwich, much less the
fearsome nation of Panama, without the cooperation of enlisted non-elites.
Elites don't like this plan either.
3- Make all occupiers of Elite Positions of Power accountable to, and
dependent upon the willingness of the rest of us to allow the "best and the
brightest" to serve OUR interests, as well as their own. Rotate often. The
rich don't like this plan, but I think they might prefer it to plan #1.
"THOSE WHO MAKE PEACEFUL CHANGE IMPOSSIBLE WILL MAKE VIOLENT CHANGE INEVITABLE"
J.F.KENNEDY
ELITES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN WITH US --
Elites are part of human social order. Social order is necessary for a group
to function. Humans are social anthropoids who could not survive and
reproduce without the group. Someone must decide when to hunt. Someone
must initiate an attack on an enemy. Someone must decide who gets the
juiciest tidbit. Who gets to decide?
It would stand to reason that the best hunter should decide all things
pertaining to hunting. Warrior types should organize fights with rival or enemy
groups. But who gets the juiciest tidbit? The Elites of course.
Until they become insufferable.
They are so close.
Joshua2
******************
* London bankers sent a circular to the American Bankers during the Civil
War expressing agreement with freeing the slaves because owning slaves
carries with it the care of the laborer While in England the capital
control of labor was accomplished by controlling wages. This was done by
controlling the money.
========================================================
Historian Arnold Toynbee studied 21 past civilizations,
looking for common factors in their demise. The two most
important ones were the EXTREME CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH,
and inflexibility in the face of changing conditions
within and around them.
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