Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Oligarchy in the 21st Century



 Unable to present credentialed bona fides, I take a rather simplistic and layman approach to the issue of oligarchy which hot topic has been trending not only locally by even in places like the US.

First of all, I take oligarchy simply to mean rule and influence of a few over others.  For simplicity’s sake, currently I take it to encompass four major areas, political oligarchy, economic oligarchy, academic oligarchy and media oligarchy.  The four do not necessarily reside in the same group, though invariably these vested interests are in close cooperation and share common interests.  And are deeply bound by affinity and unanimity of anointed goals and ideologies.

With this kind of generalized premise, we find this unholy situation in most parts of the globe, however shallow or deep in their stages of development certain places are.

In their numbers, we can identify and sort the many-flavored elitist groups that hold collective power and sway in the realm of business and government, and the polity.  They define their respective turf, enhance and fortify them, and wage battles over each other when threatening moves are made over their defined spheres of rule.

When certain members of one particular group are eliminated or curtailed, others take their place.  The powerless, non-minded and disjointed majority are left as awed spectators to observe and take sides to get their yeoman share of the crumbs thrown around.  They curry favors from these masters, unable to marshal forces and resources to fend for or survive on their own.  Sometimes they follow or are led blindly, fed with convoluted narratives that when exposed are divorced from realities and deleterious to their own common interests.

And this is basically how we find the world today since as far as memory allows.  And the cycle goes on and on, and unbroken.