THE NATURE OF POWER ELITES

Power Elites, that is, those who control power in the nations and societies of the world, can be and often are viewed and misconstrued as the engines rather than the drivers. They are thought to be identical to those forces in societies that provide them with wealth and power – such as the forces of religions, political entities, entrenched educational and indoctrination systems, armies, and other forces that enable Power Elites to retain, control, and grow their power. Elected or dictatorial entities are the front offices and office-holders of Power Elites.

As an example, an armed force has tremendous power and is controlled by a political entity that has tremendous power that in turn is controlled by Power Elites. Building and maintaining an armed force requires the expenditure of huge sums of money. Those expenditures, as determined by political entities, especially in times of war, are the troughs at which Power Elites feed and grow ever more powerful.

It is not unusual that the party in power in any society is often believed to be the Power Elite. The expression, “The power behind the throne,” grew out of awareness that the throne was the apparent but not the real power in the kingdom. Power Elites quietly control the powers that operate the machinery ostensibly held and wielded by all of the individuals and establishments in a society. Power of the magnitude described here is not the engine of societies. The engine with all its bells and whistles and moving parts is the visible motor element of any society. Power is the unseen force directing and controlling the engineers who in turn control the engine that moves the train. No president, no dictator, no king or queen, controls power. They sit on their thrones at the pleasure of the Power Elites. They are all exposed and vulnerable to disenfranchisement, removal, and assassination.

Power Elites are, by definition, impervious to assassination. Power Elites are never crowned or elected. Power Elites are combinations of agreeing forces. They are embedded in interlocking directorates. In modern times at the upper levels of power, they appear as CEOs , CFOs, trustees of huge trusts, holders of shares in monopolies and multi-national corporations or other international conglomerates and organizations that are set up to manipulate each and every political, financial, military, and other entity that could maximize their power. Today, we see the transmogrification of the power structure through globalization. Power Elites have the wealth to play the shifting geography game. China, India, Iran, Brazil, and Russia, among other nations, are where the game is being played in the early second millennium. And the game goes on no matter who wins or loses or who gets jailed or killed.

Power seeks aggrandizement as part of its nature while it attempts to retain the apparent status quo of the society in which it is functioning. Power Elites do not wish to appear disruptive nor call attention to themselves. Power is at one and the same time revolutionary and extremely conservative. No ethics or morality is involved. Ethics and morality are humanistic concepts and humanism is the antithesis of power. Power must expand itself in whatever shape or form and by whatever means are available to it to accomplish its destiny to grow or be beaten back by other powers. In this ongoing struggle between Power Elites and their front offices, humanity is used and abused. After their idealistic establishment, power structures within communist and socialist states, by allowing power to determine human existence, elevated the mechanics of power to prevail over more humane, beneficial social systems.

The methods used to accomplish this magic elucidate one of the more fascinating examples of charlatanism. George Orwell’s, “1984,” explains the magic. Communist societies established on the ideological foundation of classless sharing and equality of the masses quickly degenerated and metamorphosed into stratified dictatorial nation-states with unassailable totalitarian Power Elites in control of all aspects of life and ready to do battle with other nation-states’ Power Elites. Capitalist powers rose up and worked assiduously to destroy the “Communist Menace” and “Godless Communism.” They succeeded in large measure because the idealism of socialism was undercut by the reality of a poverty-stricken non-socialistic life under dictatorships in closed two-class societies. Also, nothing replaced the dynamism and power of religion as a major tool for controlling the masses by the Power Elites and their front offices. The people were told by the dictatorships that there would be no pie in the sky when they died and no replacement was offered for that spiritual sustenance.

Human Power Elites operate outside of moral and humanitarian imperatives. Power Elites have only the one goal of maximizing their power by any means and at whatever cost to mankind and nature. If the outcome is beneficent to masses, so be it. If the outcome is disastrous to masses, so be it. Elites attempt to operate with, and control the forces that, move men and mountains without regard to good or evil, however good and evil are defined by those who claim to know what is good and what is evil. Oligarchic and fascistic states are the ideal settings for Power Elites to function optimally. I use “fascism” to mean rigid autocratic governmental economic regimentation and suppression of political opposition. But Power Elites can and do function well at the opposite extreme of human political constructs, in near anarchic national or cultural configurations of any size. They are often the only regimented controlling force in such chaotic political and economic situations. The racist element of fascism is unimportant to Power Elites except as a tool to fulfill their destinies. The people and their surrogates who function in Power Elite frameworks are the strongest, the brightest, the most opportunistic, the most ruthless and the least humane of their contemporaries in every milieu. That is not to say they do not necessarily love their countries, their families and their dogs.

The perfect analogy for Power Elites, their position in the world and their modus operandi, is the game of chess. The pieces on the board are either black or white. They know who they are for and who they are against. And they never change color. They also do not set the rules nor can they change the rules of the game. They neither gain power nor lose power. And the pieces are always available for the next game.

The pawns are the masses, the peons, the foot-soldiers. There are hosts of them and they are expendable and have the least value. They go into battle and are sacrificed most readily.

The rooks or castles as they are also known are the builders and managers of the world, They are straightforward, can-do, engineering and science types. They are strong and their point valuation in the game is higher than the other functionaries on the back line.

The knights are the military. They are capable of moving short and long as well as long and short and to the sides. They are ponderous but when called into action, yield often unexpected results. Not only must they be fed but their horses must also be fed, a most expensive proposition.

Then we have religion’s bishops. How appropriate that they move at an angle to the truth of a straight up and down board. While you are concentrating on getting to where you are going in a straightforward manner, they attack you obliquely, unsupported by the reality of life.

The queen, in all her regal majesty, is able to move in sweeping manner up and down the board and able to go with the rooks and with or against the bishops. The queen is the most powerful player on the board because of her mobility, intuition and strong will.

Finally, the figurehead is the king, about whom the whole game rises and falls. When he falls, the game itself falls. He himself is weak but his power is immense because he is the apparent Power Elite. He is like the president of the United States or the Queen or King of England.

But how about the Power Elites? Where are they? They are not on the board. They are not either black or white – and they can change color at will and even become colorless. They are not displayed for all to see. They are hidden from the pawns, the rooks, the knights and bishops, from the queen and from the king himself. They are manipulators but are not themselves manipulated except by competing Power Elites.

“Manipulated” according to Webster is, “to manage or utilize skillfully – to control or play upon by artful, unfair, or insidious means, especially to one’s own advantage.” Power Elites move the pieces on the board of the world, unseen, planning and plotting, strategizing and devising traps into which may fall opposing manipulators. And when they move their pieces about the battlefields, the how, when, where and why of life and death are in their hands. In this game please note, as in chess, the manipulators only take; they never give. And win or lose, another game is set up and the manipulators continue according to their rules of the game. And those rules are hidden from the men on the chess board.