{"id":11527,"date":"2016-04-14T00:20:34","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T07:20:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/politicalhat.com\/?p=11527"},"modified":"2016-04-14T00:20:34","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T07:20:34","slug":"quick-takes-the-new-feudalism-the-autocracy-the-gatekeepers-and-the-one-percent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/2016\/04\/14\/quick-takes-the-new-feudalism-the-autocracy-the-gatekeepers-and-the-one-percent\/","title":{"rendered":"Quick Takes &#8211; The New Feudalism: The Autocracy; The Gatekeepers; and The One Percent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Another &#8220;quick takes&#8221; on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The focus this time: Bow down to your digital overlords<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;First, a little mood music:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uPsHgn4KqM0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Carrying on\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5372\" title=\"Eagle with Flag\" src=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/EaglewithFlag.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"203\" height=\"176\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Funny how those who most loudly cry &#8220;democracy&#8221; are the quickest to embrace authoritarian totalitarianism of our &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/articles\/2016\/01\/03\/how-liberals-are-the-new-autocrats.html\" target=\"_blank\">betters<\/a>&#8220;:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;Increasingly the call is not so much for a benevolent and charismatic dictator, but for an impaneled committee of experts to rule over our lives. Former Obama budget adviser Peter Orszag and Thomas Friedman argue openly that power should shift from naturally contentious elected bodies\u2014subject to pressure from the lower orders\u2014to credentialed &#8216;experts&#8217; operating in Washington, Brussels, or the United Nations.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;The new progressive mindset was laid out recently in an article in The Atlantic that openly called for the creation of a \u201ctechnocracy\u201d to determine energy, economic, and land-use policies. According to this article, mechanisms like the market or even technological change are simply not up to the challenge. Instead the entire world needs to be put on a \u201cwar footing\u201d that forces compliance with the technocracy\u2019s edicts. This includes a drive to impose energy austerity on an already fading middle class, limiting mundane pleasures like cheap air travel, cars, freeways, suburbs, and single-family housing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The past, of course, is prologue:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;There are some alarming parallels between these developments and the last days of the Roman Republic. There, too, developed a similar tendency toward vicious partisanship and a growing concentration of wealth in a few hands. In Rome\u2019s case, the old middle classes and yeoman farmers were gradually replaced by patricians with access to slave labor; in our society, cheap foreign labor has been perceived as doing much the same for our oligarchs. Much as in Rome, our republican virtues are also fading. Instead, society seems to require a sure hand, particularly if the central authorities decide to transform society in ways that the vast majority might not like (for example, essentially banning suburban development or gas-powered cars). It may take a strict nanny state, to paraphrase Mary Poppins, to make the bitter medicine go down.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5371\" title=\"Eagle Divider\" src=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/eag_line.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"37\" srcset=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/eag_line.gif 500w, https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/eag_line-300x22.gif 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;But it&#8217;s not like they will crush dissent just like every other <a href=\"http:\/\/cdrsalamander.blogspot.com\/2016\/02\/the-damming-of-free-flow-of-information.html\" target=\"_blank\">authoritarian totalitarian<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;I was thinking about this as I have been watching the slow motion train wreck that has been twitter in the last few weeks. There is something going on, what it is ain&#8217;t exactly clear &#8211; but this much is; it is not trending in the direction of individual liberty.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;I&#8217;m old enough that I remember when the internet was supposed to be this great open space for rough and tumble discussion. Regulars on the Front Porch here know that those who have a fetish for the jack-boot have always tried to silence those who differed in thoughts than their blinkered views &#8211; but they always seemed to lose out to the default towards freedom. Not any more. Freedom is waning.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;If you don&#8217;t like something, don&#8217;t read it. If you don&#8217;t want to hear something, block it, unfollow it, generally get on with your life. Sticks and stones may break my bones and all that.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;Well, no. In 2016, the bullies and fascists are on the march. Like rust, they never sleep.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;That is why the recent changes at twitter, where they have brought on a strange mix of Star Chamber and French Terror committee, has left me a bit flummoxed. In a blink of an eye, what was once a libertarian bastion has become almost Stalinist&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5371\" title=\"Eagle Divider\" src=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/eag_line.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"37\" srcset=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/eag_line.gif 500w, https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/eag_line-300x22.gif 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Unsurprisingly, those #Occupy whiners seem to have no problem with <em>real<\/em> plutocrats who want to treat them as iPad buying <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newgeography.com\/content\/003702-america-s-new-oligarchs-fwdus-and-silicon-valley-s-shady-1-percenters\" target=\"_blank\">serfs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;When Steve Jobs died in October 2011, crowds of mourners gathered outside of Apple stores, leaving impromptu memorials to the fallen businessman. Many in Occupy Wall Street, then in full bloom, stopped to mourn the .001 percenter worth $7 billion, who didn\u2019t believe in charity and whose company had more cash in hand than the U.S. Treasury while doing everything in its power to avoid paying taxes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;A new, and potentially dominant, ruling class is rising. Today\u2019s tech moguls don\u2019t employ many Americans, they don\u2019t pay very much in taxes or tend to share much of their wealth, and they live in a separate world that few of us could ever hope to enter. But while spending millions bending the political process to pad their bottom lines, they\u2019ve remained far more popular than past plutocrats, with 72 percent of Americans expressing positive feelings for the industry, compared to 30 percent for banking and 20 percent for oil and gas.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;Tech oligarchs control portions of their companies that would turn oilmen or auto executives green with envy. The largest single stockholder at Exxon, CEO and chairman Rex Tillerson, controls .04 percent of its stock. No direct shareholder owns as much as 1 percent of GM or Ford Motors. In contrast, Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s 29.3 percent stake in Facebook is worth $9.8 billion. Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt control roughly two thirds of the voting stock in Google. Brin and Page are worth over $20 billion each. Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle and the third richest man in America, owns just under 23 percent of his company, worth $41 billion. Bill Gates, who\u2019s semi-retired from Microsoft, is worth a cool $66 billion and still controls 7 percent of his firm.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;And now, these 1 percenters\u2014who invested heavily in Obama\u2014are looking to help shape the \u201cpublic good\u201d in Washington and, as with Fwd.us, what they\u2019re selling as good for us all is what aligns with their interests.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;The oligarchs believe their control of the information network itself gives them a potential influence greater than more conventional lobbies. The prospectus for Fwd.us\u2014headed up by one of Zuckerberg\u2019s old Harvard roommates\u2014suggests tech should become &#8216;one of the most powerful political forces,&#8217; noting &#8216;we control massive distribution channels, both as companies and individuals.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;TTFN.<\/p>\n<p><meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/><meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@PoliticHatBlog\" \/><meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ThePoliticalHat\" \/><meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Quick Takes - The New Feudalism: The Autocracy; The Gatekeepers; and The One Percent\"\/><meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The focus this time: Bow down to your digital overlords.\" \/><meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/EaglewithFlag.gif\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Another &#8220;quick takes&#8221; on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The focus this time: Bow down to your digital overlords &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;First, a little mood music: &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/2016\/04\/14\/quick-takes-the-new-feudalism-the-autocracy-the-gatekeepers-and-the-one-percent\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,6],"tags":[24,42,69],"class_list":["post-11527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-progressives","category-science","tag-leviathan","tag-mood-music","tag-quick-takes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11527"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11552,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11527\/revisions\/11552"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}