12 December

All of history and all human life is a rivalry between social elites. What looks like ‘the people’ running the show is really those same people being co-opted by different elite groups, to partake in their battles against other elite groups. This isn’t just politics, it’s art, fashion, language, architecture…the lot. As social animals status is our oxygen. All civilisations fit inside this phase diagram, and can shift from phase to phase. If elites are unified and the population is mostly happy, you get Attractor I. Stable order. If rival elites are in battle but the population is mostly happy, you get Attractor II - elites fight but little changes. If the population is unhappy, but elites are unified, you get Attractor IV, with ‘authoritarian’ suppression of popular unrest. If the popualtion is unhappy and elites are fragmented and in battle, you get Attractor III, violent bifurcation i.e. revolution. That breaks everything, there is no going back to the other attractors from there. Right now the US is probably resting in Attractor IV, bordering on III. It’s not an ‘authoritarian’ takeover of ‘democracy’. ‘The people’ never run anything, they’re just used by various elites (they emulate those elites, for status) in their campaigns against other elite groups. Remembering this goes well beyond politics, the phases describe everything about human life. You could use the four phases to describe shifting in fashions and tastes too, for example. Mike and Kyle and others, for your consideration ;)