The Lifeboat News
[ Message Archive | The Lifeboat News ]

    T, a rule of thumb: In any state machine, but particularly with empires, assume that there are rival Archived Message

    Posted by Rhisiart Gwilym on May 24, 2019, 7:27 am, in reply to "Ta Rich and Rhis ... since I've never heard of the guy before ... I need to catch up : ) nm"

    WPS-mafias vying for power at all times. [WPS = WealthPowerStatus; a trinity: any one converts naturally to the other two, like Ice-Water-Steam].

    My perpetual metaphor/template for how this works is Coppola's 'Godfather' films. I assume that state-power grabbers are essentially mafia gangsters like these, but writ large; extra-large in the case of empires, which I assume to be always abominably-criminal enterprises. Never heard of one which wasn't.

    In the US, you can discern several rival WPS-mafia famiglie. A major one is the CIA (with, presumably, factions even within itself, also engaged in internal power struggles). Another, obviously, is the Pentagoons; also the FBI; also various internecine mutually-rivalrous sub-groups of the overall oligarchy of corporations. All of them WPS-mafias. Which is to say: groups of power-wielders with large amounts of money under their control, with the power and 'high' status that goes with that. Not necessarily their own personal wealth in every case, but wealth which, de facto, the mafiosi capi control in practical terms.

    I always assume, as a starting point, that the prospect of being able to lay hands on substantial amounts of WPS is what draws in the high concentration of socio/psychopaths who seem to infest the commanding heights of any state, and all of its state/bigbiz machinery. These bastards are hopeless WPS addicts. Always assume that they will act with the usual amoral commitment that drives any deeply addicted mind. Just as you hear stories of addicts who will betray their own nearest and dearest, repeatedly, for the sake of a fix, so - on a much larger scale - do the WPS-mafias operate.

    Their standard tools of operation are bribery; blackmail; PR, propaganda and narrative control (bought/blackmailed/multiple-filtered-goodthinker mediaw hores); menaces and actual use of skilled professional violence, and outright murder; mass-murder being also a standard option for the mafias, whenever it suits their purposes.

    I prefer, though, not to fall into the error of thinking: 'All the world's ills are down to that group of bastards (insert scapegoat figures of choice), and if we just annihilate them, all will be well!' Nah, the rot is deep within the whole human psyche; we'll always grow a whole brand new wave of mafias out of ourselves, to replace any that are destroyed. It's a problem within the human soul.

    I rate Dougie Valentine because he has always seemed to see these vile realities with exceptional clarity, and to tell them with the same clarity. Also, due to his modest working-class upbringing, he escaped the usual mind-engulfing indoctrination that buries (almost) everyone who goes right through the education system, especially when that includes 'elite' universities.

    Message Thread: