What The Oligarchy Fears Most

What is it that the rich and powerful fear the most?

They fear the loss of the tenuous hold they have on their wealth and power. 

...They fear the loss of thier income stream.  

Many among the super-rich think they're better than us. But the flip side of all that perceived intellectual superiority is the realization that there are people out there with better ideas. They know it. And it keeps them awake at night. 

 

Meet Nick Woodman, CEO and founder of GoPro – a company that sells a camera. Of course, not just any camera. This is a tiny digital video camera that has been ruggedized and designed to mount just about anywhere. Nick Woodman started his company from scratch in 2002 with a few thousand dollars. Nick Woodman is now a billionaire. He's sold that many cameras. 

Now consider Kodak – the most successful film company for decades. Now bankrupt – no longer in the photo business at all... Kodak had to see the digital camera age coming. They did. They sold digital cameras. But these were digital cameras just like everybody else's. With all of Kodak's money, people, and business degrees; they couldn't develop the next best thing. This is common. In fact, there are reasons for it.

With all the money Kodak was raking in selling film, nothing else looked profitable.

With all the employees Kodak had, no one thought of it, because they were all busy doing their assigned jobs.

With all the success Kodak had over the years, their management lost the will to take risks (even though, with all their education, they might have known better).

In other words; Kodak got fat and out of touch – and lost their edge.

Either way, Nick Woodman is a billionaire and Kodak is out of the photography business. And every big company knows they could be next. The truth is; many of them should be.

When any company ceases to provide it's customers with the most desirable goods or services, the market is justified in seeking another provider.

But that's not the capitalism we have.

We don't have a free market economy.

We don't have well regulated open markets.

We have monopoly capitalism.

That means we have the freedom to choose from what the monopolies have to offer – and it usually is just barely good enough – but that's OK, because it's expensive.

We have allowed the oligarchs to play whack-a-mole with better ideas.

They do this:

• by distorting the rule of law.
• by bribing (with campaign contributions) elected officials.
• by distorting the peoples' perception of the truth.
• by buying any company that gives them enough grief.

Competition is fundamentally necessary in capitalism. Without it, the market cannot adapt. Of course, that's exactly what oligarchs want. American capitalism rewards monopoly control. Monopolies maximize their profits by selling us federally subsidized - overpriced (and often dangerous) junk. And when our tools from them don't work, everything goes to pieces. But for a while, the oligarchs keep their income stream.

If nothing else, this is what we have to stop. The fate of all life on the planet is at stake.

I'm not exaggerating.

Think about it. Humanity's genetic advantage is that we are capable of instant change. We can adapt by changing our minds. We can learn. This is extraordinarily important. Humans can adapt without having to change our genetics.

Being human means being able to determine, and change, our own destiny.

But if we can't, for numerous underhanded reasons, change our minds; we can't utilize our genetic advantage. If we can't utilize our genetic advantages, we move to the front of the line for extinction. And it's likely we'll take a lot of other life forms with us. 

Oh... by the way, the Arctic Ice Cap just melted to its smallest size in recorded history this year. Nobody seems to be really shocked any more. We know what needs to be done. We know it can be done. We just haven't been able to get around to it yet.

Some people have. The Occupy Movement has peacefully tried to make a difference. And they got the expected mistreatment – times ten. This is a sign. This is a sign that the oligarchy is much more powerful than most of us ever imagined. And this is also a sign that they are very afraid...

Hey, it's our money they're taking. And if we ever found out... well, we might buy our stuff from some other monopolistic supplier. 

The oligarchy has used every trick in the book to keep us under their control. They have realized that all they have to do is control some of us – cast doubt in the minds of most of us – and ostracize the rest of us.

The oligarchy has realized that the more they squeeze the populous with absurd laws, the more the populous will call for smaller government. And the more pressure there is for freedom from restrictions, the more restrictions the oligarchy can avoid. 

Remember, when it comes right down to it; most of the time, those in power write the laws – for their own selfish benefit.

...But not always.

Their goal is to keep us making payments.

Our goal is to live a happy life.

There is bound to be conflict.

But ultimately, they can only dominate us if we let them.