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Politics : CONSPIRACY THEORIES -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sea_urchin who wrote (296)	9/26/2005 3:30:23 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Respond to of 418

Re: ...what happens, and I'm no historian, is that one bad system is exchanged for another and dreams of Utopia vanish. A new clique of masters is established, patronage and cronyism supervene, scapegoats are punished for what happened previously and eventually the new system becomes as bad as the old -- but, of course, with... ...a new ruling caste. Indeed, social dynamics as an endless musical chairs... That's the name of the game, as George Orwell wittily put it: THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF CORPORATE COLLECTIVISM by Eric Blair Chapter I Ignorance is Strength Throughout recorded time, and probably since the end of the Neolithic Age, there have been three kinds of people in the world, the High, the Middle, and the Low. They have been subdivided in many ways, they have borne countless different names, and their relative numbers, as well as their attitude towards one another, have varied from age to age: but the essential structure of society has never altered. Even after enormous upheavals and seemingly irrevocable changes, the same pattern has always reasserted itself, just as a gyroscope will always return to equilibrium, however far it is pushed one way or the other. The aims of these three groups are entirely irreconcilable. The aim of the High is to remain where they are. The aim of the Middle is to change places with the High. The aim of the Low, when they have an aim --for it is an abiding characteristic of the Low that they are too much crushed by drudgery to be more than intermittently conscious of anything outside their daily lives --is to abolish all distinctions and create a society in which all men shall be equal. Thus throughout history a struggle which is the same in its main outlines recurs over and over again. For long periods the High seem to be securely in power, but sooner or later there always comes a moment when they lose either their belief in themselves or their capacity to govern efficiently, or both. They are then overthrown by the Middle, who enlist the Low on their side by pretending to them that they are fighting for liberty and justice. As soon as they have reached their objective, the Middle thrust the Low back into their old position of servitude, and themselves become the High. Presently a new Middle group splits off from one of the other groups, or from both of them, and the struggle begins over again. Of the three groups, only the Low are never even temporarily successful in achieving their aims. It would be an exaggeration to say that throughout history there has been no progress of a material kind. Even today, in a period of decline, the average human being is physically better off than he was a few centuries ago. But no advance in wealth, no softening of manners, no reform or revolution has ever brought human equality a millimetre nearer. From the point of view of the Low, no historic change has ever meant much more than a change in the name of their masters. [...] Subject 33609

To: sea_urchin who wrote (296)	9/26/2005 3:35:32 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Respond to of 418

Re: The catalyst for the decay in each simple form, Polybius says (6.7.7), is hereditary succession--the automatic handing down of the privileges of a particular form of government to future generations without their ever having to internalize for themselves the discipline necessary to maintain those privileges. Or, as a French witticism puts it, the only way to get rich is to have a grandfather who worked hard building up the family fortune, and a father who didn't squander it all....