More than 11% of the world’s more than 2,000 billionaires have run for election or become politicians, according to a study highlighting the growing power and influence of the super-wealthy.
While billionaires have had mixed success at the ballot box in the U.S., billionaires around the world have a “strong track record” of winning elections and “lean to the Right ideologically,” said the study, which is by three professors at Northwestern University.
“Billionaire politicians are a shockingly common phenomenon,” the study said. “The concentration of massive wealth in the hands of a tiny elite has understandably caused many observers to worry that the ‘super-rich have super-sized political influence.’”
The old capitalists were smart… they knew that hiding behind politicians camouflaged the class structure that enabled their privilege and power. But now it seems they’ve forgotten the lesson of the guillotine…
And you have forgotten the power of the bread and circus.
I think they’ve combined politics with the circus. Now even people who think they’re paying attention are really just watching a show.
Oh? And what power is that?
People don’t care what the rulers do if they’re well fed and entertained with distractions.
Yeah, the annual inflation rate reached 3500% in France before the start of the revolution. Things have to start looking pretty destitute before people are willing to put their own lives at risk. When they’re faced with potential starvation, though, eating cake starts to sound pretty good.
Yeah… I’d say that ole’ trope has been thoroughly disproven… but even if it wasn’t, I wouldn’t worry about the ruling elites keeping people well-fed any time soon.
It’s a term from the Roman empire. Basically it’s saying if you keep people well-fed and entertained, they’ll let you do anything.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_circuses
I wouldn’t put too much stock in that… the internet itself has proven that no matter the distractions, better-informed people will always have a habit of caring about stuff the elites don’t want them to care about. And that’s just a very recent example.
Even if we are assuming those who consider themselves well informed actually are, which is a joke unto itself, as most people are capable of and already are victims of misinformation regardless of what side you’re on (believe it or not propaganda exists for both the left and the right) it’s just not realistic to think they’re a sizable enough chunk to do anything of value.
If you equate the miniscule amounts of narrative that can be called “leftist” with a straight face with the gargantuan pro-status quo right-wing propaganda machines that sucks up next-to uncountable amounts energy and treasure it simply means you, yourself, must be counted as one of those that aren’t all that well informed.
And you know this… how?
They didn’t forget it, they discarded it when they realised a docile middle class will vote against their own self interests almost indefinitely.
FTFY - it’s the only true “western” contribution to statecraft.
The new capitalist never bothered to read their Machiavelli
That’s because they have the technology to just fuck off to some private island surrounded by a private army if things get shitty.
That’s why they don’t fear the people anymore, they can’t just be dragged from their castles and chopped to bits like the French Revolution.
You mean… technology they don’t have the foggiest clue how to maintain and operate themselves? Who will be mining the precious minerals and extracting the fuels that technology requires? And if things really get that shitty, their money isn’t going to be of much use to their army of private goons, is there?
Oh, they do… the fact that their first-choice in goon institutions - publicly-funded police - still exists prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt.