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eugyppius
@eugyppius1
Some have argued, in response to my threads on elite stupidity, that the guys I’m laughing at are actually a pseudoelite — mere puppets. Behind them lurks the true, secret cabal that actually runs things. Here I will argue that this is a mistaken view of power and its nature.
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eugyppius
@eugyppius1
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A parable from my time in American academia: One day, the Gates Foundation descended on a field related to mine, with enormous bags of money. They wanted to fund /encourage a certain flavour of historical research. The orders had come on high, from Gates himself.
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12:33 PM · Jul 11, 2021Twitter for iPad
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eugyppius
@eugyppius1
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@eugyppius1
It *is* true that power in western democracies is exercised informally. Elected officials have a largely ceremonial role. Whatever their party or political philosophy, they collaborate with other unelected powers, in implementing an agenda that is for the most part set elsewhere.
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eugyppius
@eugyppius1
But “informal” & “corrupt” are not the same as “secret”. The powerful operate largely in the open, by steering government bureaucratic agencies, organising & directing NGOs & various international bodies, heading academic societies, etc. They don’t have any choice. They have to.
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eugyppius
@eugyppius1
The reason is simple: Secretive cabals that try to govern from the shadows, through puppets, will soon find that these puppets ignore them & issue orders in their own right. At that point, the cabal will have no recourse, because nobody knows who they even are.
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eugyppius
@eugyppius1
The phenomenon, of intermediaries seizing power from the formal rulers they represent, is pervasive. None of the actors have to be secret. We find it esp. in the case of rulers whose legitimacy is founded in some cultic aspect. For example, the Fatimid caliphs and their viziers.
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eugyppius
@eugyppius1
Originally, the viziers resembled chiefs of staff. They implemented the caliph’s orders. But if you always your orders through the same ppl, they’ll soon start ruling for you. It took the Fatimid viziers just eight caliphs, to consolidate all royal power in their own hands.
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eugyppius
@eugyppius1
Thereafter, the viziers put their caliphs in a golden cage. They gave the caliphs large harems to have fun with, lives of incredible luxury, while the viziers ran everything. This lasted until the famous vizier Saladin abolished the Fatimid caliphate outright in the 1170s.
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eugyppius
@eugyppius1
There are other examples too: the Frankish Merovingian kings, the old American WASP elite from the later 19th c. Governing through intermediaries is unstable & often reflects the *declining* power of the puppet-masters, whether they be outgoing elites or a waning dynasty.
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eugyppius
@eugyppius1
Now to our own world: The American president (to take another example) does command some cultic veneration, & many of his policies are funnelled through various mediating agencies. This is that subset of the permanent bureaucracy that Americans call the ‘deep state’.
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eugyppius
@eugyppius1
In the past, this bureaucracy was shaped by (& in harmony with) a long line of globalist presidents. Trump ended this pattern, & the American bureaucrats gained a new consciousness of the president as a ceremonial ruler, and of themselves as the real locus of executive power.
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eugyppius
@eugyppius1
The presidency in America is thus experiencing an historically typical decline. This decline might even remind us of the fate of the Fatimid caliphs. The formal presidential office is increasingly sidelined, as the new bureaucratic viziers act ever more openly on his behalf.
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eugyppius
@eugyppius1
Fatimid caliphs were often mentally infirm, like Bidan. Child caliphs were also very typicals. Perhaps someday soon constitutional obstacles will be lifted and the Americans will have child presidents.
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eugyppius
@eugyppius1
Notice that even here, there is no secret cabal. The government agencies behind this are well known & the subject of regular reporting. Internal chains of command might be hidden, the origin or purpose of specific policies obfuscated. But all the actors are clear enough.
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eugyppius
@eugyppius1
Power isn’t some magical mystical game. The people who wield it have to command the loyalty of bureaucrats, the military, and the security services. You can’t do this as a totally secret and unknown group of people.
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eugyppius
@eugyppius1
Even secret underworld organisations, like mafias, have bosses who are known on the outside. Ceremonial rulers and their intermediaries operate in the open, most of the time in highly formalised roles. Fin.
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Niklas Brunn 🇸🇪
@barnsban
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@eugyppius1
Have you seen the work of Stephen Corbett who can very clearly outline how some powerful families and groups wanted, then planned for, then got some specific result historically? Also something as banal as event 201?
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eugyppius
@eugyppius1
if it helps, I think more conspiratorial views can be right in specific cases, but not as a rule; and that the conspiratorial scene often has good political instincts, even if they’re wrong about the details
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eugyppius
@eugyppius1
the error is thinking, this ethno-religious group is necessarily the answer to all questions about power, because tech platforms do this.
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Medelsome Monkey
@Medelsome
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@eugyppius1
While I like this interpretation of institutional power, the storefront route to accessing power, I believe parallel structures lurk in the shade and the shadows that intersect with the mainstream. Economic and tech oligarchs, finance power-brokers. They shape the status quo.
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