In ancient Egypt pharaohs were considered gods. They believed that when a pharaoh died, he would continue to lead them from the beyond, which partially explains why they had such ornate tombs. At roughly the same time, Japanese emperors were similarly thought to be gods, a practice that continued until 1945, when, after the war the emperor was required to explain to his people that he, in fact, was not a god.
In the Roman Empire, while emperors were not considered gods
while living, most were deified upon death.
While living however they were thought to have authority that had been
divinely endowed.
Later, through much of European history, monarchs were often
thought to be divinely inspired. There
existed a concept called the Divine Right of
Kings which suggested that kings were anointed by God and ruled by his
grace. As such, they did not have to
answer to anyone on this earthly plain, whether the Pope, parliament, nobles or
anyone else. Of course ruling via God’s grace didn’t always protect kings from
earthly dangers – in the form of assassinations or wars between two
simultaneously divinely inspired enemies or your run of the mill usurper – but
it was a great gig, if you could keep it.
As regal and majestic as all of this sounds, in reality,
divine rule was nothing more than a tool to help establish legitimacy and
maintain power for the ruling elites. Who could be a more powerful ally in
demonstrating that an individual or a group should have power than God? Using armies and weapons to keep subjects
from questioning authority or revolting could be expensive. It was cheaper to
do so through or with the assistance of religious beliefs. If one could convince a man that his king was
acting in the stead of God, the threshold of abuse he would accept before
revolting would be much higher than if the king were just a man.
While the United States has never had a king – divine or
otherwise as George Washington quashed that when offered the crown and
turned it down – our Declaration of Independence, the document that
established our nation, looks to God for inspiration.
That doesn’t mean we aren’t ruled by gods, however.
The first is bigger government. Many corporations see increasing regulations
as a means to limit competition. By supporting minimum wage hikes or increased
reporting regulations or mandates, large companies – many of whom are
controlled or owned by billionaires – can and do use the government to impose
costs that cripple small competitors while they themselves have the resources
to easily comply.
Coincidentally, concurrently, the elites, particularly those
in tech and on Wall Street, have little connection to the real world most
Americans inhabit. From farms to restaurants to retail stores to truck drivers,
the elites, in their remote offices and relatively low regulatory environments
aren’t much impacted when OSHA or the DOT or EPA issue new regulations that
handicap small business owners. While Wall Street may be heavily regulated as
it relates to advertising and fiduciary responsibilities, the actual buying and
selling is relatively unregulated when compared to the red tape blue collar
industries face.
When it comes to higher taxes, this is usually a red herring
for America’s barons. Many of America’s wealthiest leftists call for higher
income taxes, one most of them don’t actually pay. Most billionaires don’t pay
themselves much of a taxable salary and they earn most of their incomes from
stock sales or dividends, which are typically taxed at a lower rate. Regardless, even if capital gains taxes were
increased, they find opaque
tax avoidance schemes that often
reduce their taxes to zero or less, options that are rarely available to the
average millionaire, nevermind the average Joe.
Free speech is another element of American culture that
elites seem to have little appreciation for.
Leftists of all income ranges favor curtailing conservative speech, with
violence a common tactic on college campuses.
The elites don’t dirty their hands with violence, of course, rather
seeking to act through their control over social and traditional media, or via
DEI coercion tactics of firms like BlackRock and Citadel.
And then of course there is the 2nd Amendment’s
right to bear arms. While many elites push gun control and the defunding of
police, they rarely have to live with the consequences of such actions. With
their armed bodyguards and their homes in safe communities, behind walls with
security systems, their calls for gun restrictions never put them or their
families in danger while doing exactly that to law abiding citizens.
All of this taken together makes one think of the nobles of
old Europe. They often thought of themselves as superior to the kings and only
by accident of birth or treachery were not kings themselves. Frequently,
financially strapped kings were often in their debt and as such allowed them
great latitude in dealing with the world within their realms.
So too with America’s billionaire elites. From Gates to
Hoffman, Zuckerberg, Sandberg, Jobs Powell, Soros, Buffett, Omidyar, Bloomberg
and so many others, these leftists see themselves as kings or queens,
unaccountable to anyone and anything. They use their tremendous wealth to push
for policies that never actually impact them but harm common citizens. They
assume that because they’re brilliant in one area of commerce they’re somehow
qualified to coerce the rest of us to live our lives as directed. Invariably
that “direction” involves governments creating more regulations which add
additional burdens to the lives of everyday people for little or no
benefit. From “green energy” to DEI to
the butchering of confused teenagers, these members of the WEF’s globalist
cabal care far more about virtue signaling than about actually solving actual problems
because, of course, average people’s problems never impact them.
The notion of “rules for thee but not for me” is nowhere
plainer than the annual migration of private jets that descend on Davos as Klaus
Schwab demands we eat bugs and embrace the “sharing economy.” These paragons of green virtue expend more
CO2 in one trip than a family of four does over the course of a year, but it’s
OK because they’re saving the world. The fact that these ideas are all based on
lies and result in the evisceration of individual freedom while accruing more control
for the elites is of no consequence to our modern day nobility.
