Dear Friends,
It seems to me, the nature of humanity, judging by our history, is that the elite want absolute power, with zero accountability. This is the real struggle of human history. The elite, whoever they are at any time, believe themselves wiser, smarter and more learned then the masses, and so should reign with unlimited power. When their iron fisted rule goes sideways, as it always eventually does, they believe it unfair to be held responsible. Instead, they demand more power, then severely punish the scapegoats. Anyone who has the least knowledge of our history sees this is true. From the Bronze age to today the elite are the same. They just have more technology today, growing the elite’s arrogance, self righteousness and myopia. Wouldn’t it be better to couple power inextricably with accountability?
Power, whether mechanical, electrical or political is not good or bad. It simply is. People turn it good or bad. So theoretically, unlimited power is not necessarily bad. It could be turned to mankind’s great benefit. Except the nature of Man gets in the way. Even if a saint gets unlimited power, and does indeed improved the lot of Mankind with it, he or she will eventually die, and those reigns will be turned over to another. That another, will not be a saint, saints don’t often rise to positions of power, choosing to serve instead. People with dark triad personalities rise to the top of organizations… as dross does molten metal. Atomic technology in the hands of people, limited and accountable, can lead to cheap electricity for everyone, in the hands of unlimited and unaccountable do gooders, the end of the world.
One of the features of the free enterprise system is that everyone in it is held accountable. If your work has no value to the market (mankind) no matter how well crafted, it will not make you rich. On the other hand, if your work is demanded by the market (humanity) then you will get rich very fast. In both cases, our work is judged, then rewarded or ignored by the market. This is both a system of accountability and a feedback mechanism to allow us to be productive. That is why the capitalist system has improved the lot of man so much. Meanwhile, other systems, that don’t have accountability or that feedback mechanism, reward political favor rather than effective work. Which makes self interested people turn to garnering political favor rather than improving the lot of Man.
When the elite are not held accountable, and are given unlimited power, the crimes against humanity, economic collapse, famine, genocide, disease and war that follows, is inevitable. Why? Because the lack of accountability will turn the elite from improving the lot of Man to using that unlimited power to gather political favor. That is the only self interested thing to do. For them not to would be inhuman. Such is to be expected. In the time of Dionysus the tyrant of Syracuse, he could only roast one person to death at a time in his bull, today a despot with unlimited power and zero accountability can, and has, starved millions to death, built a “gulag archipelago” to terrify its own population, and used gain of function to create a chimeric virus that has caused untold deaths, suffering and oppression.
The elite will always want unlimited power along with zero accountability. That’s human nature. It is up to us, the masses, to force the elite into limited power with maximum accountability. That is the only structure that will serve a nation, culture and society to provide the highest standard of living, with the most autonomy to the people. Thereby granting all humanity access to our best gifts to improve all our lots. There has never been an example of a genocide, crime against humanity or successful election fraud, by an elite who are strictly limited in power, and held accountable to the least of the laws. If anything, recent events teach us, even in the US (and everywhere else) those in our governments must be held accountable and their power further limited. Anything less would violate our self interest.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
