The Shepherds of Mankind
Who are the Elites Who Want to Rule the World?
“Without stable traditions, no civilization; without the slow elimination of these traditions, no progress…”
According to French historian Fustel de Coulanges, “The Roman Empire didn’t maintain itself by force, but by the religious admiration it inspired.”1 By definition, a people’s traditional faith competes with a belief in the State. It’s why progressive liberals so often look down on the religious right. God is the only thing left standing between personal freedom and collective slavery.
After Rome, everyone followed in its footsteps. When the British came to India, they had the locals build Roman-style temples. They organized annual mass gatherings to inspire awe. Hitler and the Nazis copied much of what the British perfected. The Nuremberg rallies served to hook the German people on a new religion. Today, the culture of spectacle moved to the virtual worlds of the internet.
Mortal citizens may find it incomprehensible, but our political leaders are just a managerial layer between a people and its owners. Nation states are farms for free-range humans; cities are sties. Ever since power-hungry families discovered they could herd other human beings into walled enclosures called cities, namely the so-called advent of civilization around five to ten thousand years ago, ruling elites began the competition for global dominance.
By nature, cities are collectivist; the countryside is individualist.
Once upon a time in the West, ordinary people felt delight at meeting people of great achievement. We looked up to those who were better than us. We praised better swimmers, better mathematicians, and those more beautiful than us. Confronted with others’ achievements, we became magnanimous. We were a great people once. But today, we are jealous. We see genius and Olympian talent, and respond as victims of discrimination, racism and sexism. When did the wronged take over the West?
Gustave Le Bon, Psychologie Des Foules, 1895.