Steve Moore recently pointed out that. “…while power
is not going away, it is decaying. And the power elite in every sphere must
face up to increasingly greater limits on their power.”[1] That’s a powerful observation (pun
intended), all the more so because of its apparent truth. After all, haven’t we just seen the President of the USA (arguably the most powerful
man on the planet) FAIL to get basic gun ownership rules in place (and that
even though his nation recently experienced the horrific tragedy of the school
shootings at Sandy Hook)? Over the last few years we've watched as the dictators of Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen got uprooted, in spite of their iron grip on power.
Further, the authority of those in power and ability to control the
population in Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Saudi Arabia,
Djibouti has been eroded by the public demonstrations of the Arab Spring.
This is not a principle that only works at the national level. Just in the last month we've just seen public apologies from the heads of RBC, Apple,
Volkswagen, JC Penny and Lululemon and the forced reconsideration of executive
salaries at Barrick. Just google “company mea culpa” and you’ll see what I
mean. Indeed, even the Pope knows that
the he can no longer wield authority the
way his predecessor could. Moore calls
this “power inflation” – the inescapable reality that the same position brings
with it less and less power each day. He
quotes Moises Naim, “In the twenty-first century, power is easier to get,
harder to use—and easier to lose.”
We shouldn’t be surprised at that. Long ago the prophet Daniel prophesized that
the kingdoms of man would degenerate, and that is exactly what we’ve seen
happen. From the ‘golden’ kingdom of the
Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar to the ‘silver’ kingdoms of the Media-Persian
Empire, to the ‘bronze’ kingdom of Greece and the ‘iron’ of the Romans and Byzantines
to the feet of iron mixed with clay (the additional kingdoms that have ruled
the world in varying degrees since then[2]). The closer we get to the clay (mud) the more
‘the people’ rule, and the less a king rules (for “we the people” are the clay –
the dust of the earth).
Do not mistake this as a trend toward democracy. It is not.
Rather, it is a principle driven by the inherent want of every human
being to ‘rule’ his or herself. More
properly, it is closer to the principle of entropy than the principle of
democracy. It is this principle that Steve
Moore is observing. It is the implication of this principle that
has wide and far-reaching consequences for all of us.
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