'The iron law of oligarchy' was a political theory that was first developed by Robert Michels in his 1911 book, 'Political Parties'.
The “iron law of oligarchy” states that all forms of organization, regardless of how democratic or autocratic they may be at the start, will eventually, and inevitably, develop oligarchic tendencies, thus making true democracy practically and theoretically impossible, especially in large groups and complex organizations. ...According to the “iron law,” democracy and large-scale organization are incompatible.
Looking back through history, at various different cultures civilizations, and business cycles - I see NO evidence that this ‘Iron law” is not exactly that...
.....An iron law.
Oligarchies ALWAYS emerge from the growth of any given ecosystem....
It happens all the time, exactly as described above...be it political, social, economic, or even religious....
To deny the reality of the formation of oligarchy - using evidence based on several thousand years of information - is as ridiculous as trying to deny the reality of the sun coming up every morning, just because you don't want it to be true , doesn't make it less true.
It makes no difference which political structure is in place, or which social systems are adopted.
The principals of 'the iron law' remain in tact.
If we are to accept this as a reality of life (the same dynamic occurs throughout ALL civilizations irrelevant of geographical location and point in history), then the question becomes, how do we lean into it - accept it - to then go on to maximize the profitability and benefits of it - for everyone.
What are the mechanics needed, for oligarchies to form?
Merit + capital.
That’s it.
Simple.
Oligarchies only emerge from the coming together of people with brains and skills (merit) with other people helping them to realize their potential (capital support).
The best will survive (with capital accumulation being the bi-product of the labor and investment), OR... they will ‘die’(in business terms).
With 'the death’ of poor ideas (poor judgment from the investor) so to to death of that capital invested in the project.
The strength of the system lies in its simplicity.
Merit , plus investment - works out for everyone.
Looking at history, we see that all oligarchies fail.
All the time.
Why?
Because the essential ingredients that went into 'the mixing bowl' to create the oligarchical structures in the first place (merit plus capital) now miss an important component part.
Merit.
The oligarchs – once established into the position of power, then alter their mindsets.
From one of wanting to achieve, to one of wanting to hold on to what they have.
From an expansionist (abundance) mindset, to an insular (scarcity) mindset.
The reality doesn't alter, the perspectives on that reality, do.
Maintaining the status quo becomes far more important in the oligarchical mind, rather than the risking what they have.
With this change of mindset, so to the structure of the oligarchy.
The emerging oligarch living in the expansionist time frame would be on the look out for people with merit in which to invest with - and hopefully make profit with.
In the status quo mindset the eye is cast firmly on keeping control of what they have.
With this focus on control, bureaucracies are put into place to administrator what they have.
Bureaucrats are not expansionist, they are 'process bots'.
Their talent is for fortifying what is, not looking beyond the office walls for more opportunity.
As the bureaucrats become more entrenched in the system (the midwit, the sycophant), their power , also increases.
Merit, once coveted, is now seen as a threat to the system. ( a system that was created by merit).
The essential ingredient is now seen as toxic by the bureaucrat.
To the pen pusher, people with merit are seen as a threat to their newly acquired power.
Which it is.
Those with talent and creativity become a threat to the status quo.
Thus, those having the power will attempt to stifle and quash merit.
To not do so would be the bureaucrat giving up his power.
Power does not give itself up.
And this is where understanding the dynamic system at play in 'the rise and fall of oligarchy' is important.
It is a dynamic system.
It is not fixed, but forever in a state of flux.
Neither is it linear.
There is no 'start' and 'finish' point.
It is cyclic in it's nature (as are all things in nature, are).
This series of posts about 'the dismantling of technocracy' are HIVE centric, but are also useful in the broader sense.
In the current cycle that we find ourselves in, we have a new element to go into the mix.
Digital technology.
The digital transformation over this last three decades or so has allowed the oligarchs (those interested in maintaining the status quo), to extend their control mechanisms. And to a far larger degree than has ever been possible previously.
Crypto currency potentially being THE biggest total control mechanism in the history of mankind.
…and so.... to hive…
Hive , (and steem before it) are exactly the same in the context of oligarchic structure.
(or a plutocracy – i.e the rich few controlling the ecosystem).
Taking the Hive ecosystem as ‘the whole’, the oligarchical structure did not emerge from a 'bottom up' evolution of merit + capital.
It did not emerge from a meritocratic system, but was a socially designed ecosystem, for people to then join.
The structure itself might well have been put in place by wealthy investors paying the techno nerds to create the block chain technology and social platform - but the rest of the people within the ecosystem (the users), had no participation in it whatsoever.
The oligarchy was designed without the participation of the population.
There was no population.
They came after the hive/steem city, was built.
The oligarchy didn’t emerge from some organic growth of merit and investment coming together over time – It was created.
The oligarchy - by it’s very nature – is committed to keeping the status quo.
The nature of oligarchy, want to hold onto it’s power.
Thought experiment....
Look at the incestuous distribution of rewards to observe this 'commitment to status quo', in action.
The smaller accounts (the plebs) are given crumbs to perpetuate the illusion of the 'redistribution of rewards' ideology - nothing more.
The (re)distribution of inflation - the rewards pool - is more reminiscent of a 'share buy back scheme' that the corrupt corporations love than any 'spread the wealth' ideology.
The wealth is firmly growing within the large accounts and the sycophantic hangers on, using this mechanism that we see today.
If you are part of the favored inner circle, the sycophant or midwit bureaucrat - then the system is working fine.
For now.
There is no merit based system in play.
And this where it gets very worrying….
When opportunistic oligarchy emerges, and then morphs into the desire for maintaining power and keeping the status quo – entropy and decay ALWAYS sets in.
I see no historical evidence to suggest anything the contrary.
It could be argued that HIVE is still growing, and therefore we are not at the stage of status quo and entropy, but this is an incorrect argument.
Entropy begins the moment the oligarchy is in place and bureaucracy becomes power.
'The seeds of it's own destruction' have already been planted.
The independent thinkers, the controversial, the original creators, are shunned or vilified...I'm sure get the point.
Mediocrity and boring are supported by TPTP.
'Tea leaf reading' (crypto cultism) is rewarded 100x times more in rewards, than a logical examination of a subject....
(this is what happens when the insane run the asylum...)
...We've seen the same thing play out time and time again, since the early days of steem.
...Seeing original thinkers, and ' the controversial' people going unrewarded by ‘the whales’, and, at the same time, ***seeing the conformist, boring bureaucratically minded individuals (the midwit), being handsomely rewarded.
And still are to this day.
These nepotistic actions - ones that would be easily recognizable in the days of Caligula in Rome, are easily verifiable now.
The dynamics of ‘the fall of oligarchy’ are already at work.
This is not about crypto, this is not about Hive – This is the dynamic that forever repeats itself, irrelevant of the time in history, culture, or anything else.
The rise of the technocrat.
How?....
Oligarchy, minus merit , plus bureaucratic control , plus technology = Technocracy.
By changing the equation we can change the result.
Simple.
This means dismantling the oligarchy.
By NOT dismantling the oligarchy and allowing the bureaucratic midwits to perpetuate control using technology, we will, inevitably , end up with a technocracy.
If all politics is local... and we dismantle the oligarchy on Hive, we could offer a blue print to the world on how to go about it!
Now that's revolutionary.
Dismantling an oligarchy is no easy exercise.
They have the money (power), they have an army of sycophantic midwits actively wanting the oligarchy to succeed in it’s aims.
...and they have the technology.
Even as I’m writing this, I’m fully aware of the irony.
I’m writing about dismantling 'the powers that be', on their own technology.
Do you really think I cannot be silenced on THEIR platform?
Do you REALLY think the small ‘stakeholders’ are the real power here?
...it’s no different than believing that voting makes difference in real life politics...(only the terminally naïve believe that to be the case).
If you refer back to the opening paragraphs and 'the iron law of oligarchy', you can see this to be true.
‘Oligarchy and democracy are fundamentally incompatible’….
HIVE BEGAN - not emerged - as a fully functioning oligarchy.
After observing the hardfork in action away from steem, it seems to me that it had nothing to do with ‘free speech’ principles, or ‘ revolt away from a central control - Justin sunny'.
It was simply different oligarchs fighting over the same territory.
Think about it...I see on hive the continual argument ‘not your keys not your crypto’.
Are you really that gullible?
You obviously weren't following the steem/ hive oligarchical split.
If you actually argue the 'not your keys not your crypto', bilge, then you're either low IQ, or being disingenuous and trying to create a false reality. Midwits are good at that
What about the taking over of accounts without permission, and the vast sums of money that were confiscated (stolen)?
HOW is it any different on hive, if the powers that be decided to do the same thing?
Gullibility, and the midwit mindset, are both very good friends of the oligarch ...and I see a dangerously large amount of both on this platform.
Seeing hive as 'the ecosystem unto itself', then the entropy is already in action. As such, so is the collapse.
It’s inevitable.
The timing, and growth of the crypto-sphere in general, may hide the reality for a while, but reality won’t be denied.
Oligarchies do not endure.
The only serious question is:
How are we to dismantle it to a place where merit is rewarded by capital investment ?
(and so the same cycle begins again.)…
I have no interest in becoming a sycophant.
Or a bureaucrat.
I do have an interest in seeing originality, controversy, and independent thinking, becoming the valued commodity it always has been (before the stagnation of the oligarch).
Oligarchs do not give up their power.
They hold onto it by rewarding mediocrity, and the sycophant.
It's madness if you're looking at it from a place of logic.
This 'stray from sanity' is out in the open right now - for everyone to see...
...When you have large stakeholders (i.e the 'in crowd') , posting three times a day about the same things - day in day out – and then being rewarded handsomely for it, which is nothing more than happy clappy 'crypto tea leaf reading' and giving out primary school levels of examples of ‘if hive was worth this much, then we would be that rich....really?... seriously ?. ...ffs...It embarrassing to see - and this is coming from 'adults' !...
The rewards allocations show a desire to reward the sycophant and the brain dead.
The actions of the oligarchs tell you that’s it’ s an environment of decadence and decay.
This isn’t to say you cannot profit from the system as it is, but to believe it’s a system that will endure is naïve.
The time scales involved ?... I don’t know.
I do know the final destination of this current cycle of oligarchy.
Dismantling the technocracy begins with dismantling the oligarchy.
And this can only be done, by first dismantling the power of the sycophantic, authoritarian loving midwit….The supporters of the oligarchs.
And THAT begins with supporting me (because no other fucker is doing it right now).
I can - and will - attack them relentlessly.
My sole objective is the undermining the the legitimacy of the midwit and all the sycophantic shenanigans that go along with it.
The more I investigate the incestuous circle jerking and nepotism that never, ever stops. - the more I realize just how many of those with a bureaucratic mindset, control the ecosystem.
They will not give their power away.
Never.
They CAN have their power taken away from them.
It's all about the money.
And all of that - starts with the de-legitimizing the accounts supporting the oligarchs.
IF I get the support – I’ll go all in on this.
Interestingly, and quite paradoxically – putting all my energies going into trying to dismantle the oligarchs, fundamentally, changes nothing.
The end result of the decay - with or without my efforts - is not in question.
The end result has already been written.
What has NOT been decided – is the time scale.
I want to speed up the time scale and start afresh.
We all know the film The Matrix, right?.... The premise of the film was this..
That there's a necessary glitch in the system ('Leo', 'Zion', 'the anomaly'... and that the glitch itself was required so as to maintain the system...i.e the cycle was essential for it to endure (where have we heard that before ?...Mmmm...).
The oligarch can only be dismantled by first dismantling those that support it.
These means dismantling the accounts that support the oligarchy.
This can only be done by changing ‘ public opinion’.
Changing the ‘public opinion’ can only be done by shining the spotlight onto these accounts.
....And by doing so - letting everyone else see the realty of whats actually going on.
And that, my friends, entails getting mud deep in the trenches and, metaphorically, firing bullets of light at the enemy, for everyone to see, and then make up their own minds.
I have faith in people, not the oligarchs or sycophants.
I’ll keep firing the bullets - and keep taking the flak - but only if the support is there.
I'll do it, because I enjoy it.
I could right 3 post a day about CUB, Defi, and any other crap- if I just wanted the rewards.
People do this every day and get stupidly rewarded for it.
I could do it to - easily.
It's low IQ kindergarten stuff.
I want to aim higher.
I want to offer real value.
I do not want to lower my thought processes to fit in with the idiots.
I want to do something worthwhile.
Dismantling a shit show, and re- building a palace (before it inevitably becomes 'the shit show' again), seems like a fun truly rewarding endeavor.
In the last part of the 'dismantling the technocracy' - I'm gonna get into some details - and then you'll see exactly why I'll need your support to do this..
I won't be pulling punches...
Excellent perspective! Keep it coming.
Independent thinkers and fellow contrarians unite! (each in their own way, of course)
Thank you sir...it will be never ending , as long as the support is there.
The trenches are a calling !
While the independent thinker don't unite ( a very broad umbrella), the oligarchs _are winning...(divide and rule).
Pragmatism , in certain circumstances , trumps idealism.
This is getting jiggly now! Calm before the storm...
Holy cow, now I'm getting nervous again!
bless...
Now that you bring it up, one of the subjects I'd like to discuss on Hive that seems to violate community standards is the idea the cryptos are being set up for centralized control, none more so than Bitcoin, and unless we use real privacy coins, cryptos are not some sort of savoir, but the ultimate tool of social control.
Watching this Trojan horse being worshiped like a deity on places like Leo Finance, but not being able to so much as mention this obvious plan in motion, is driving me into a frenzy of wanting to beat midwits with sticks...
Never get get between a
nasgulMidwit, and their group delusions of greed......but you can laugh at them instead - until the psychological pain becomes unbearable and they look for safe spaces...
Laughing at them is hard to punish - they look like even bigger twats than they already are.
Wherever possible go outside of the experience of the enemy. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat
Ridicule is mans most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage
self portrait?
I have to say this was one of the most thought provoking posts that I have encountered. Your diligence is inspiring and I appreciate you contributing your thoughts here. You have my support.
Thanks, matey!
I may have missed reading number two, so maybe I'll do that tomorrow, after this sleep cycle. One day normal people might come up with an acceptable system, but I highly doubt it, one thousand monkeys would be able to type out Gone With The Wind, before one thousand people could agree on anything as simple as a meeting date, place and time. Some one would would have to step forward and "Lay Down The Law* of the first meeting day
The trick is knowing what of the cycle we are in,(and not disregarding the reality of things), and being educated to know the signs...
Sometimes the most positive thing you can be in a boring society is absolutely negative" - John Lydon
...try telling that to to happy clappy delusionists......
In tiktok people like funny things, in hive it's about how your stake will rise... This is a matter of interest...
It's an interesting experiment, that's for sure...
...
@newexperience
Some might say you're crazy. I hope they're right.
Thanks :(
Just so you know, sometimes I hope I'm crazy too when I consider my world view.
Upvoted!
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