I don't know if anyone has posted a link to this site yet. It has a rather irritating Flash intro, and you have to click through it to get to the site itself.
It's worth it.
The information on this site needs to be widely known.
Even though it is a trifle out of date as to specifics (based on 2004 data) the reality is that at this level, the players don't change substantially.
"They Rule" (
http://www.theyrule.net/2004/tr2.php ) is a site that allows you to map the interconnections between the power structures controlling our lives.
It is a sobering testament to just how far the Oligarchy has succeeded in claiming control over our "democratic republic."
Leave your tinfoil hats at home. This is not a "conspiracy" in the classic sense. Bilderburg and Bohemian Grove aside, these few thousand individuals and the helots and minions who act for them have never sat down together and said "Okay, let's make a plan to take over everything."
Rather, this is the natural state of capitalism: The state it will always strive to return to, just as a plant will always grow toward the sun.
The Oligarchs do not see themselves as evil; they do not see themselves as destructive; they do not see themselves as abnormal. They are acting as comes naturally to human nature: They are trying to maximize the control of resources that benefit themselves and their family. They see it as a zero-sum game in which all players have an equal right and a theoretically equal capacity to compete.
The fact that the means they use to compete creates suffering for others is not their problem. All means are legitimate until they are caught by the law. They believe YOU'D do it that way if you were in their place. And anyway, they are not heartless. They give to charity. They provide scholarships. They see themselves as fundamentally good people who use the means at hand to benefit themselves and their families. And if that means using the means at hand (money) to keep slanting the playing field to favor them, well, so what? Wouldn't YOU do it, too? If you could? In fact, aren't you trying to, with your protests and your blogs and your Socialist rhetoric and your votes? It's the natural state of things, after all.
They take the "larger view" because they know that the system that put them on the top also increases the sum total of wealth and resources available, and that MUST benefit everyone, actually, even if the Oligarchs control that wealth and those resources. And they seriously believe that the regulations and laws that hamper them, the Oligarchs, must also be perceived as "hampering" to the rest of us as we step up to compete in the rough, tough, world of the marketplace and realpolitik. They profess that removing these "hampering" regulations and laws will not only benefit those who already have, they will benefit those have-nots sufficiently meritorious to step up and compete, as well.
They want us to understand this. Because it will, in their view, be better for all of us in the "long run." Our media, our educational systems, our entertainment should all carry this message, which is not a new one. It has been around for hundreds of years, ever since people started to realize that the "divine right" of a selected few to run things wasn't such a hot basis for organizing a civilization. It was a hell of an improvement on the old "divine right" theory, in fact. Opportunity should be there for all, and if you seize that opportunity to stack the deck in your own favor, well, that's natural, right? And ultimately good for everyone, because, face it, everyone would do it if they could.
They have been phenomenally successful in selling this idea, not because they are intentionally and systematically suppressing all other ideas (although some of that happens ad hoc, as it were,) but because, frankly, it's their ONLY idea. And they have a very loud "voice" of money and resources to make their case.
We, on the other hand, have many ideas. We believe that this or that group being systematically discriminated against is the critical pressure point. Or that the ongoing rape of the natural resources that sustain us all is the critical pressure point. Or that this or that specific economic remedy or imperative is the key wedge that will enable us to make change. Or that reforming the election system will put us on the road to a more equitable future. And we are ALL absolutely correct. And we are ALL out there making our cases, loudly and insistently, and frequently contradicting each other and elbowing each other aside to get more attention.
We ARE all correct, and that is the problem.
We have enormous power, more power than the Oligarchs, in real terms, WHEN WE UNITE. When we come together, not even coherently, around a concept like "things have to change" or "that's not fair" we can, occasionally, push back with a modicum of efficacy.
But we rarely, if ever, unite. And most of our efforts are focused around using a political system originally designed to maximize our power, to tinker with an economic system that is fundamentally structured to always return to its natural state: The Capitalist Oligarchy.
And therein lies the problem.
The political system, a Constitutional democratic republic designed by an amazing group of visionary philosophers, is an anachronism in respect to the economic system that it rests upon. And that economic system has made great progress in subverting and co-opting the political system to perpetuate itself.
We cannot take it back until and unless we create a unified and unifying message to create the public will to pry control of the Constitutional democratic republic from the Oligarchs.
Is this worth doing?
Yes. Because the Constitutional democratic republic is the best political tool for building a new economic structure that will take the best elements from the older systems, and weld them into an economy that provides incentive for creating, allocating, and preserving enough resources to support an expanding population. And for doing so in a manner that minimizes violence and the disruption that always causes the most suffering among the least powerful. And for maximizing individual liberty in polities with large populations with competing interests and beliefs.
What unifying message?
It must be powerful. It must appeal to emotions. It must reach a fundamental, reptile-brain part of the human consciousness. It must be accurate and truthful. It must be focused on the weakest point of the system we are trying to chance.
The Oligarchy itself.
Not as a matter of calling for the tumbril or specifying who should be up against the wall or taking vengeance. We cannot choose a method that will merely replace the old Oligarchs with new ones, as revolutions too often do.
No, we must focus on the FACT of the Oligarchy, not the Oligarchs themselves. On the FACT that these few thousands of people have a staggering level of power over the lives of billions, including ME. That there is no faceless shadowy conspiracy against us, but a systematic effort by these Oligarchs to maintain and increase their power and control over resources, regardless of the consequences to the rest of us.
It must be clear that "government" is NOT the problem, government controlled by THE OLIGARCHS is the problem. And that the solution to the problem is not "no government" or "less government" but a government freed from control by the Oligarchs and big enough and strong enough to meet the needs of all and resist the inevitable efforts to regain control by the Oligarchs.
And so: "They Rule"
That (or some variation of that, I'm not a powerful wordsmith) is the message. Not "We the People Rule" as it should be in our Constitutional democratic republic, but "They Rule."
We cannot focus our efforts on the helots and minions they use to advance their agendas. Elections are important but until we have public will behind us they will continue to be able to divide and conquer us and co-opt the officials we elect to do our will.
Only when we have a vast, swelling fervor in this country that it is NOT RIGHT that "They Rule" and we focus on that and demand that our elected officials change THAT, not some specific rule to be altered or injustice to be righted-- only then will we have a chance to make the change and have it stick.
It can be done. It HAS been done. It was done in the 20th Century as the robber barons and banksters were forced to give way to empower a government to benefit ALL of the people, not just the Oligarchs. They've been pushing back ever since. It's only natural.
Now we have a new crowd of banksters and robber barons: Our Oligarchs. Here they are:
http://www.theyrule.net/2004/tr2.phpThey Rule.
THIS is what we need to change.
adamantly,
Bright
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