Who Were the Sea Peoples?

Something like "marriage equality" isn't really about "marriage equality," which is really just an empty slogan: who is actually in favor of all potential marriages being treated "equally"? In reality it is a weapon in the battle between the old elite of the ancien régime and the new elite of a highly educated bureaucracy. Traditional morality and traditional religions are aligned with the old elite, so the rising elite tries to blast them out of its path to power. What people like Paul Krugman are working for is not an egalitarian society, as that's impossible : "The conservative position has never been simply that a hierarchical society is better than an egalitarian one. It’s that an egalitarian society is impossible. Every society includes rulers and ruled. The central question of politics, therefore, is not whether some will command while others obey. It’s who gives the orders." What they are fighting for is a society in whic...

"You are right, the idyll of peace and virtue of which our philosophers sing is about as real as a fable. But look what lies hidden behind these words, and you will see that an oligarchy is arising, ready to defeat and replace the one in power. The victory of the new oligarchy is certain because energy and strength are on its side." -- Vilfredo Pareto, The Rise and Fall of Elites , pp. 38-39 Reading Pareto just give me a whole new perspective on the libertarian "movement." Of course a world of entirely voluntary interactions is a pure fable. That many people like believe this fable is understandable: what really needs explaining is the large amount of funding behind it. But looking at all the talk of a world of peaceful cooperation as a smokescreen for the rise of a new oligarchy makes it comprehensible. "I am fighting for a world without coercion" is going to motivate many more people than is "I am fighting for a world in which the Koch brother...

"Except during short intervals of time, people are always governed by an elite. I use the word elite (It. aristocrazia ) in its etymological sense, meaning the strongest, the most energetic, and most capable--for good as well as evil. However, due to an important physiological law, elites do not last. Hence--the history of man is the history of the continuous replacement of certain elites: as one ascends, another declines... "The new elite which six to supersede the old one, or merely to share its power and honors, does not admit to such an intention frankly and openly. Instead it assumes the leadership of all the oppressed, declares that it will pursue not its own good but the good of the many; and it goes to battle, not for the rights of restricted class, but for the rights of almost the entire citizenry. Of course, once victory is won, it subjugates the erstwhile allies..." -- The rise and fall of the elites , p. 36

"there is a rhythm of sentiment which we can observe in ethics, in religion, and in politics as waves resembling the business cycle." -- The Rise and Fall of the Elites , p. 31

"It is well known at the Stock Exchange the public at large buys only in a rising market and sells in a declining one. The financiers who, because of their greater practice in this business, use their reason to a greater extent, although they too sometimes allow themselves to be swayed by sentiment, do the opposite, and this is the main source of their gains." -- The Rise and Fall of Elites , p. 94

Vilfredo Pareto , after being a reformer interested in abolishing privilege for some time, finally realized that efforts at abolishing privilege never seemed to actually do so: they merely ensconced the leadership of that movement to abolish privilege themselves in positions of privilege. He called this "the circulation of the elites." So let's say, as some friends of this blog wish, we successfully campaigned to eliminate "white privilege." (I put this in scare quotes because I think what we really have today is "people who act like upper-class whites privilege": the daughter of Chinese immigrants who goes to Yale and then Wharton is a lot more privileged than the white, single mother of three living in a trailer park in Appalachia: the Chinese woman has learned to behave like the "white" upper class, which once was indeed all white, but today will admit anyone who adopts their values and customs.) The result would not be an abolition of ...