A
BULLET GIST — Invisible Hands and Brandished Fists: The Three Dimensions of Power
By Jochen Szangolies
Central question: Why are small elites able to maintain power over the majority—even in democratic societies where political power is supposedly decentralized?
Provocation: Extreme inequality persists not because people lack numbers, but because power operates through multiple reinforcing dimensions, not just politics.
Why We Don’t Push Back
The top 1% avoid vast sums in taxes—enough to eliminate homelessness—yet public resistance is muted.
This mirrors the “billionaires in bunkers” question: what stops servants (or citizens) from revolting?
Answer: power is structural, layered, and self-reinforcing, not merely coercive.
Limits of Centralized Power
Centralized systems rely on simplified proxies (GDP, mean wealth, productivity).
Optimizing these metrics leads to a divergence from real human well-being.
This creates an “entropic slide” where appearances improve while lived experience worsens.
Conclusion: centralized power inevitably drifts away from serving people’s actual interests.
The Three Dimensions (Columns) of Power
Political Power (Brandished Fists)
Control through force, law, punishment, and the monopoly on violence.
Democracy distributes this power formally—but not fully in practice.
Economic Power (Invisible Hands)
Control over resources, labor, and the means of production.
Workplaces remain largely monarchic, even in democratic societies.
Economic inequality undermines political equality.
Inherited and monopolistic wealth contradicts democratic legitimacy.
Soteriological Power (Stories of Salvation)
Control through narratives of meaning, merit, and future reward.
Promises: “Work hard, obey, and you too can ascend.”
Effect: discourages collective action, encourages competition among the powerless.
Includes prosperity gospel, meritocracy myths, nationalist destiny stories.
How the Columns Reinforce Each Other
These dimensions do not operate independently.
When threatened, elites align political authority, economic control, and ideological narratives.
Fascism emerges where all three fuse:
Political strongman
Economic elite backing
Mythic promise of national or moral redemption
Key Insight on Fascism
Fascism is not an external anomaly—it is power’s consolidation reflex.
It arises when existing systems are destabilized (economic crises, democratization).
It presents itself as salvation while entrenching elite control.
Present-Day Warning
Recent crises (2008 financial crash, Arab Spring, democratic movements) have triggered power consolidation, not dispersal.
Signs include:
Rising authoritarianism
Corporate–state alliances
Weaponized religion and ideology
Technofeudal visions (e.g., “freedom cities”)
Conclusion / Call
Democratization alone is insufficient.
Economic justice without political democracy fails.
Meaning-making narratives must be decentralized, not monopolized.
Any claim by the few to direct the many—without being an expression of the many—should be treated with suspicion.
Core Takeaway
Power persists because it controls force, resources, and hope simultaneously.
Real resistance requires dispersing power along all three axes, not just one.
No comments:
Post a Comment