My Theory on the Cycle of Natural Aristocracy to Authoritarianism
I have heard it claimed that an aristocracy is an antonym of oligarchy, but what if it just part of the same cycle that constantly leads to resentment, authoritarianism, and populist revolutions?
Throughout history, every time the people rise up against the abuses by those in power, it in veritably leads to promises of reforms by the newly minted natural aristocracy that arises.
I do believe some of those promises are initially heartfelt and sincere, but what happens when their children take their place, and that merited aristocracy become inherited?
How do they protect the money they earned from insider trading, political favors, and money laundering from progressive politicians hellbent on reform?
As they have for thousands of years, they will turn one group against another using the ‘divide and rule’ strategy. Eventually, democratic norms become a threat to criminal oligarchs and authoritarianism becomes their only option to maintaining their power.
How do we stop the cycle of tyranny and revolutions? Or is it just baked into the cake of politics?
Past American aristocracies tried to institute slavery in the South, Latin America and the Caribbean. Or the 1933 Business Plotters and the German American Bund who tried to institute fascism in the United States. The CIA and the Mossad flooded our inner cities with crack cocaine during the Iran Contra Scandal. They’ve been fixing elections since the days of Tammany Hall, 2000 ‘hanging chads,’ 2004 Diebold voter machines, 2016 Cambridge Analytica and Psy-Group, and notoriously Trump allowed states to make unconstitutional changes prior to the 2020 election that gave us Jan 6th.
Where have all the lies and coverups gotten us? How can we prevent today’s natural aristocrats from turning into tomorrow’s oligarchs?
Maybe the answer has always been a merited ‘Deep State’ that is America’s last line of defense. Democracy also can’t exist when voters are constantly lied to because they will eventually lose faith in our institutions. Voters must have faith and trust that the people they elect to office will actually represent their interests, not the oligarchs.
Hopefully, someone much smarter than I will solve this dilemma.
D.C.