This pattern was repeated many times after that, but not right away.  For as long as there was not a great threat that a new Renaissance was on the horizon, the oligarchy fell back onto the old conventional form of direct aggression warfare.

After the Venetians had transplanted themselves to England over a 200 year period beginning at the time of King Henry VIII, establishing the British Empire on their (the Venetians') traditional foundation of slave trading and financiering (the narcotics trade was added later), direct aggression warfare was sufficient to meet the empire's needs.   Although the need was met with a twist.  The early wars of the new Empire were fought exclusively for economic gain, like the opium wars against China which forced that nation to open its borders to the dope trade of the British Empire and its operational arm the British East India Company.  The twist was, that this dope centered assault on the people's mentality had the effect of largely destroying the Chinese nation from within, which had been among the most culturally and technologically advanced nations on Earth, at the time.  China would not recover from this destruction and be an obstacle again to the British Empire, at least not until recent times.

This type of power experience evidently pleased the oligarchy, for it added some spice to its international games.

The above example of the British Empire, was used to illustrate the effects of oligarchism.  It was not presented to suggest that the British Empire was the sole oligarchy in the world.  It was merely the most organized at the time, with the greatest influence, which is still true today.  Oligarchism, itself, is a universal disease, found in every nation of the planet, within its organizations, even within its churches.  The dictionary defines "oligarchy" as the control of a few over many.  Mary Baker Eddy points out that this mentality that must be carefully guarded against.  She warned against it in many ways, specifically in the By-Laws of the church she has founded, where she counsels against influencing others or being influenced erroneously*(Church Manual - A Rule for Motives and Acts.), or where she demands that one church shall not assume general official control over another.*(Church Manual - Organizing Churches)

One needs to recognize that there are various levels of interest involved in human existence, which, from a certain point on open the horizon to oligarchism unless there exists a strong moral and spiritual defense against it within.  On the bottom rung of the economic ladder, one finds the peasantry, the production work force, the family providers.  The major portion of a person's life in that category is spent on earning a living.  The main focus is on the day to day physical survival.  The more fortunate in this category may earn enough to lay aside some of their earning for future retirement.  Thereby a certain interest is created in low level financial games to keep the pension funds alive for the years after employment.

On the next level up, we have the business community, where the main focus is on keeping the enterprises alive and prosperous.  At this level a certain oligarchism begins to assert itself, manifest in manipulative business practices for countering the competition or attracting customers.  In most cases, however, the focus is on physical survival in as much a secure fashion as can be achieved.

But, then, there exists a category of individuals or families whose income stream far exceeds what they can ever consume.  Obviously, a person in this environment has interests that are not associated with earning a living.  At the lower levels of this category, the focus of attention may be on wealth building games, as wealth means power and respect.  Thus, the wealth becomes an object in itself, not a means for survival, but as a means for esteem and enjoyment.  At the higher ranks in this category where the possession of wealth is so enormous that its size itself is meaningless, the excitement in life is derived from manipulating entire corporations, nations, even the status of humanity by the power that enormous wealth and status can provide.  It is at this level, mainly, that the most destructive oligarchic games are played.

Next Page

|| - page index - || - chapter index - || - Exit - ||

Stories about  Sex from novels by Rolf A. F. Witzsche