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Downton Abbey's Dirty Little Secret - Titled Aristocracy Vs Meritocracy
Submitted by Mark Thornton via Mises.org,
Season five of the smash hit British period drama, Downton Abby, begins in six weeks. The series continues the fictional story of the aristocratic Crawley family and the family’s friends, relatives and servants set in and around the Downton Abbey estate. The series recounts the day-to-day lives impacted by all the great events of the early twentieth century from the sinking of the Titanic through the aftermath of World War I and beyond.
An Even-Handed View of the Aristocracy
A key general theme is the vast disparity in wealth between the aristocratic family and the lowly servant class. The irony is that the people in the aristocratic family and their servants seem oddly equal in terms of both abilities and flaws. The series is not an indictment of the aristocracy, which is why the left hates it. For example, Salon recently published a hit piece on the show. “The show depicts a group of actual monsters in a manner that’s explicitly loving,” the article opines. “[W]hen the facts get in the way, they’re disposed of. Downton Abbey is a show about how the world was straightforwardly better when an entrenched class system ruled.”
“Actual monsters”? The idea that there are no decent people in an aristocracy is just nonsense and so is the idea that the show depicts the characters unrealistically. In truth the Crawley family is portrayed as vulnerable, somewhat inept, increasingly irrelevant, and often forced to adapt to change against its collective will.
Other commentators have seized on this realism. For example, Jerry Bowyers of Forbes finds the show reasonable and realistic, and that the aristocrats are flawed but admirable. He even concludes that the show portrays an anti-class-warfare message, which is another reason the left hates it and the masses love it. John Tamny’s exploration of series creator Julian Fellowes’s ideology reveals an insightful and complex thinker and one that points us in the direction of libertarianism rather than conservatism, which also helps explain the show’s great popularity.
The plot is largely driven by secrets. One episode might be based around a servant who has a secret on another servant. Another episode might be based on one member of the aristocratic family having a secret about another family member or friend. The juiciest secrets are often secrets held by a servant about one of the family members. However, the dirtiest secret about Downton Abbey is not fictional and has never been told before. The secret reveals the true nature of the state, whether it be aristocratic, democratic, or dictatorial.
The Origins of the Titled Aristocracy
The actual setting for the show is Highclere Castle, which is used for exterior and interior shots of Downton Abbey. Highclere is the estate of George Herbert, the 8th Earl of Carnarvon (third creation) and his wife Fiona Aitken.
The dirtiest secrets of the real-life Downton Abbeys of the world can be better understood with an examination of the 1st Earl of Carnarvon (second creation) James Brydges, and how such aristocracies came to be in the first place.1
The first true economist, Richard Cantillon, described during Brydges’s era (i.e., the early 1700s), the nature of human society thusly:
[I]f a prince at the head of an army has conquered a country, he will distribute the lands among his officers or favorites according to their merit or his pleasure. He will then establish laws to vest the property in them and their descendants.
This pretty much explains how the original English aristocracy came into being and how James Brydges became the 1st Earl of Carnarvon. Brydges was born into a low-level aristocratic family and became a Member of Parliament, largely through bribery, around age 25. He then used this position to impress and curry favor with the ruling political elite. His political influence continued to grow and he soon was appointed Commissioner of the Admiralty.
His next appointment was the lucrative position of British Paymaster General. He held the military purse strings during most of the War of Spanish Succession (1701–1714). It was this position that allowed Brydges to become fabulously wealthy and to be able to purchase several more high-ranking positions in the English aristocracy. Biographers Collin and Muriel Baker called him the “most successful war profiteer in that age.”
Biographer Joan Johnson draws attention to records that indicate that Brydges “was the most surprising instance of a change in fortune … in any age. When he came first into the office of Paymaster of the army, he had little or no estate of his own … but by means of this office … in little more than ten years, living expensively too in the meanwhile, he had accumulated a fortune of not less than six or seven hundred thousand pounds.” This would be the equivalent today of over $1 billion!
Government “Service” as the Way to Wealth
Using political offices for self enrichment was as common then as it is today. Brydges merely surpassed all others of his time period and of course wartime is the perfect time for feeding at the public trough. The two main tools at his disposal were the budget of his office, which was enormous. He received his full budget at the beginning of the year so he had access to vast sums of money. He also had insider information about the war on the continent because he was one of the first to know the location of armies, the outcomes of battles, and the requirements of the troops. He therefore had a vast amount of capital to invest and the critical insider information with which to invest it. Plus he could legitimately collect fees and take advantage of swings in exchange rates.
Here enters the previously-mentioned economist, Richard Cantillon. He came from a dispossessed Irish Catholic family some members of which were fighting on the side of Spain and France in the War of Spanish Succession. Other members of his family operated banks on the European continent. Cantillon’s uncle was a banker in Spain who no doubt initiated the effort that resulted in Richard being hired by Brydges as his agent in Spain.
Cantillon developed what was a “two sets of books” accounting system whereby Cantillon would use money obtained from Brydges through his uncle’s bank to purchase supplies and materials for Brydges’s personal account. These goods would then be marked up in price and resold to the Paymaster’s account. With war raging and communications greatly diminished it was fairly easy to widen the spread between the two accounts and amass a huge fortune.
It was a safe bet on Brydges part that Cantillon would keep Bridges’s secrets because the British had invaded Cantillon’s country and taken possession of his family’s estates in Ireland. To seal the deal, Brydges helped set up Cantillon in the banking business in Paris after the war.
Brydges finally relinquished his office as Paymaster when the Peace Treaty of Utrecht was signed in 1713, making further work in the office unprofitable. Brydges was accused of wrongdoings and embezzlement in office, but was never brought to trial or convicted for his crimes. Having amassed a vast illicit fortune we can gain a clearer sense of his character by what he did with his wealth.
Not a True Meritocracy
As Cantillon indicates, the aristocracy is established by a conquering King who claims title to the conquered land. The land is then subdivided among his generals and friends who manage their estates and pay taxes to the King. The aristocracy is therefore not a true meritocracy, but quite the opposite. These positions are obtained by being good at killing, corruption, and court intrigue. The pomp and circumstance of the aristocracy is designed to mislead the public about the true nature and origins of the privileged class.
It should not be surprising that Brydges was a man of bad character and limited abilities. Johnson notes that outside of holding aristocratic and political positions, Brydges could not compete in a world that was growing more competitive and that he “had none of the necessary shrewdness, ruthlessness and staying power for this” (i.e., entrepreneurship). “The results of his undertakings only rarely measured up to the effort he put into them or impressed his contemporaries.”
Johnson goes on to note the narrow-mindedness of Brydges by noting that he “did not concern himself with philosophical moralizing or political and economic theories. He was essentially a realist, living in the present and rather like Walpole whom he admired, he had no lofty ideals that might have made him stand out among his contemporaries. His successes were material ones and his influences limited to his own immediate circle, so that his death caused few ripples beyond his circle.” It is exactly this “living in the present” lifestyle that led Brydges to eventually exhaust the vast fortune acquired as a war profiteer.
The dirtiest secret of the real-life Downton Abbey is that it was established with the ill-gotten gains of a corrupt and conniving spendthrift, James Brydges, the 1st Earl of Carnarvon. War may be the health of the State. However, let it also be said that not only does it bring out the worst in us, it also raises up the worst among us. The underlying issue is not so much class warfare, but real warfare. War is destruction and theft on a massive scale. It enriches the State and its minions at the expense of the productive class.
Whether aristocratic or democratic, the administration of the State matters little. Power, theft, war, and plunder is what really matters. That is the dirtiest of all secrets.
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Power, theft, war, and plunder is what really matters. That is the dirtiest of all secrets
It is an open secret that the Military Industrial Complex runs the land of the free. US spending on the military is over $1 trillion a year - nearly half of global military spending. And the consequences have been catastrophic for the world:
Earth: 248 armed conflicts after WW2; US started 201 (81%), killing 30 million so far.http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/05/earth-248-armed-conflicts-ww2-us-...
While everyone knows that the defense budget is large -- even in the numbers that the public sees as the formally admitted figures by the Department of Defense -- the truth is that when one scratches beneath the bureaucratic veneer, national security spending is much larger, nearly double the amount US citizens are told.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/02/the-real-defense-bud...
killing 30 million so far.
The US is far far worse than Hitler!
A professor at the University of Hawaii has studied this subject rather thoroughly. It is called Democide. You cannot have a reality based conversation about this without looking over his data.
Murder By Government
https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/MURDER.HTM
All that type of information on a .edu site? Impressive feat, that man still having his job.
p.s. does he consider his own Empire an Empire, or a "Democracy"?
Aristocracy is just the savage tribal life of the alpha-male and his secondary males writ large on a still savage modern world.
Rhesus macaques living in a castle.
Or you can just abdicate power to banks and corporations and simply go golfing, or bath housing.
gubment contractors are the new aristocracy
Agree. My old bosses (Chinese immigrants) are big DoD contractors and bought a 13,000 sf house on 8 acres on a body of water. Good gig for chicoms working on military bases. Go figure.
Hell is brimming over with former government officials. No shortage of kings, princes, and assorted royalty.
the real earl married a rottenchiles, a bastard...that part bever makes it to the masterpiece/ pbs version. keeping the family safe or the sheeple blithely ignorant?
"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime." - Honore de Balzac
Yes. I believe that the text is quite true and reasonably accurate. So...? This can be hardly news to anyone. It would have been better if someone could present some estimate on when and why any such system becomes unstable. I personally suspect that it´s when the distribution of all the loot becomes to one-sided and the minor chieftains and troops and population don´t get any equity out of all these activities.
I think the U.S. may have reached that point where too little trickle-down. DHS seems to consider returning veterans the most dangerous group. I don´t think it´s only because the have learned a valuable skill-set but also due to the fact that they are beginning to fume about how extremely small their rewards are. There used to be moar...VA...Veterans Bill...etc. Now it seems more like THANK YOU for your service - and off you go.
I don´t expect human psyche to suddenly change all that much. There will always be psychopaths , wars , plunder etc. But if there was some kind of historically grounded break off point for when things like happended in France and Russia and colonial America start happen - someone might be able to reason with the elites. Self-preservation and all that. Or maybe I´m being naive again.
All of Season 5 is already available via torrents. The dog dies.
And Lady Mary gets an itchy vagina.
luckily - feminine hygiene is becoming better understood in the 20th century.
I don't watch TV or Hollywood's shit. I do know people who watch this. They killed off the yellow Labrador because it was named ISIS like the Mi6/See Eye Aye phony islamic army. The insanely politically correct libtard hate white people BBC was concerned about the dog's name.
Some wags over at the Daily Mail said the dog was the only good thing about the show and the shitty BBC actors in the series were wooden and the dogs was the best actor.
Actually, someone I know who watches it said it is pretty obvious in some scenes that the trainer off camera is cueing the dog. The lead actor Hugh F**ktard seems like a smary git. He probably is a big Labour Party supporter like everyone else on the BBC or in entertainment in the UK. You say you vote Tory there - they will ruin you. You say you vote UKIP and you will be hung at Traitor's Gate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traitors%27_Gate
Elites for elites by elites
http://newworldorderg20.wordpress.com/2014/11/08/globalist-john-d-rockefeller-iv-gets-his-own-school-of-policy-and-politics-at-wvu/
http://newworldorderg20.wordpress.com/2014/11/01/worlds-wealthy-elite-attend-blue-chip-u-s-schools/
http://newworldorderg20.wordpress.com/2014/11/22/students-robbed-of-clear-thought-present-u-n-policy-as-new-crop-of-globalists-from-u-n-education/
http://newworldorderg20.wordpress.com/2014/10/30/yale-receives-10-million-for-chinese-financial-aid/
The world has never had leadership based on meritocracy. We have only had glimpses of it only.
With the possible exception of the 300 Spartans and King Leonidas as well as the example of Alexander the Great, few leaders ever put their money where their mouth is by leading from the front on the battlefield.
"The irony is that the people in the aristocratic family and their servants seem oddly equal in terms of both abilities and flaws. "
They did not even know how to cook an egg!!!!!
Made Bush senior's knowledge of shopping seem peasant-like
Here is the best part of the show which is the first three seconds of the dog. Someone asked why the intro showed a dog's arse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXgTrXvLMGw
Well the aristocracy love dogs more than people because the only things in the universe who could love this ruling class vermin are kindly dogs.
Anyway, the evil PC BBC f**ks killed off Isis the dogs because the BBC thought the name might offend Muslims.
They never did anything for 40 years about child molestor Jimmy Saville but that is another story.
Isis is a Goddess
The last Western leader to lead his troops in battle was King George the second of England in 1757 in the seven years war.
But Peter Pan you are incorrect: Ceasar, Labienus, Demetruis, King Charles XII of Sweden, Lord Nelson-many soldiers, officers put their money where there mouth was...
Sorry
"This pretty much explains how the original English aristocracy came into being".
The English aristocracy came into being IN THE 18TH CENTURY? Where in dear heaven has this guy learned history? Did he graduate from a kindergarten or something?
"As Cantillon indicates, the aristocracy is established by a conquering King who claims title to the conquered land. The land is then subdivided among his generals and friends who manage their estates and pay taxes to the King."
No, that's certainly not the way aristocracy was established, but only the way it had evolved in its last manifestations.
My, what an ignorant cretin! One's always aghast at what passes for knowledge in America, the country where no-one seems able to f... read a history book. Or do they think that having an idea what they're talking about would kill them or something?
Antique English soap opera as the only way to understand economic theory?
Yuck.
I don't have a clue what this Downton Abbey is all about - probably some period costume drama we're so good at making bastardised and politically corrected for the American audience for which it is intended. I'd bet there's an American in one of the leading roles and some black people living the life of Riley. The whole english aristocracy was chock-a-block with them doncha know?
I read the first few paragraphs and thought, good grief. Idiocracy at its best.
"As Cantillon indicates, the aristocracy is established by a conquering King who claims title to the conquered land. The land is then subdivided among his generals and friends who manage their estates and pay taxes to the King."
Isn't that how William the Conqueror distributed the titles of English nobility after the Battle of Hastings?
Typical snob!
Ever hear of 1066?
Pardon me, Lea, but this is exactly how aristocracy is born. everywhere in the history of the various aristocracies, a war or revolution or invasion gives victors the possibility of capturing rights for them (aka privileges) for their posterity, too
Downton Abbey then?
Does this program scratch the surface of these here sceptic isles then? Does it touch upon the corruption and deviance of the 'Upper Class'? Does it touch upon the child molestation through the ages from this filth? The in-bredness that inflicts much of the 'Ruling Class', especially the royals and clingers on? Does it outline the way the plebs are beaten down to worse than serfs to those who were born into filth can continue to live the lives the think they are suited to and believe they are?
Does this program depict in all seriousness that the majority of the English either agree, or find these in-bred child abusers are above them because they talk posh? Do you honestly believe this bloke typing this in Newcastle has anything to do with the fucking filth that runs, degrades, and beshmirches not just his name, but those of an entire country on the whims of a fucking tele program that doesnt include just what these fucking imbicles that rape kids get up to?
Downton Abbey eh? A real reflection of old time real life then eh?
The bastards are struggling as we speak to cover up endemic child abuse across the entire country going back fuck knows how long and doing all they can to stop the public finding out. And this is in the here and now. imagine just what the filthy cunts could get away with in the times of this 'Period Drama'.
Mother fucking cunts
;-(
ITM96
How's that exposure moving along?
I'm just one man Willy.
Doing all I can. As much as the folk round these parts are awake, the cuntry isnt.
The masses are awakening though, look at the UKIP vote. Its not the answer, but its a fucking start.
Take care mate, these is interesting times.
;-)
Been seeing a bit re: UKIP that seems to have the status quo a bit edgy.
I have the hopes that the pedo exposure will rile the masses. Perhaps it has to happen to them before they take notice. Look how long it took the Vatican to be exposed & the sheer number of victims. Morons still think his assholyness is all upright, moral & such.
I boggles the mind to think "folks" cannot understand these pukes can photo, tap, monitor every movement, but the kid on the milk carton? Perhaps forensics on the sceptic tank could provide more insight.
I'll quote Icke... "It's all upside down & backwards".
Anybody who thinks Pope Francis is a good guy should reflect on the fact that he turned over two of his priests to be tortured and killed by the junta when we was a bishop in Argentina.
I am not a supporter of the church but the German Pope was better. I am not sure why he stepped down as it only happened once before. The famous prophecy has said that this Pope will be the last one before some sort of end times. I have a really bad feeling about this Jesuit.
Well you have friends on the other side of the ocean. Odd how the BBC always seems to help cover up child molestation for a long as possible. Either Jimmy Savile or the Islamic rapists who were protected by political correctness totalitarianism. Take care.
These period pieces never mention those "german" banking families who married into the upper class back around early 1900s so they could take over just like they took over the USA due to their "Civil War" genocide in America.
Willy:
Make a self-examination of prostate and run!
hehe.
( O )
Queer that,
Down votes for telling you fuckers just what the upper class and royals do to kids then?
Explain yourself then. You find that acceptable do you? You think they deserve to fuck your kids do you?
Mental, fucking mental. You obviously agree with that then dont you, you fucking cunts?
Filthy fucking parasitical child molesting bastard cunts.
Tick fucking tock.
Most of the Europeans are property of the royal families, the fact that places them a bit above farm cattle and significantly below house pets.
Royal families are inbreds and the biggest mass murderers in the history of mankind. Just counting the most obvious victims of wars, colonialism, containment of other countries.
Bloody hell! Raise merry hell!
The best education I have ever received, I received on ZH.
"Season five of the smash hit British period drama, Downton Abby, begins in six weeks." Stopped reading right there - spelling mistake in the first sentence; author doesn't give a fuck.
mispelled Brydges a few tymes, he did.
Leave it to Mises.org to waste time on the most trivial thing in the world. At least it isn't another wasted minimum wage article....
I swear, if that firm would focus on the important things of their thoughts, the world would be changed by now...
Do a friggin article on WS Banksters and the welfare they recieve you stupid eggheads!!!!
Much can be learned about the nature of an organization by taking note of those topics that are never discussed.
A UC Davis economics professor has determined there is no American Dream.
“America has no higher rate of social mobility than medieval England"
http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2014/11/26/uc-davis-economics-professor-t...
I went to that skool and I know that most of the professors there are full of PC dissemination.
Embellishments to the plain text show the uselessness of this fool's work, and the uselessness of this article that presents a non-PC viewpoint and ends completely PC:
1) This fool's "work" is useless because his students dismiss him. He can't even convince his own students that their own opportunities are limited. Why? Cuz if he stresses that point hard enough, or presents truthful information (like GDP, BLS, <insert metric> data being bunk), he will be unemployed like the new-grads-to-be.
2) How did the rest of the world suddenly get included in the limitation of the American Dream?
3) No, there are no true exceptions to the rule, because small business is dying, corps won't absorb American new grads, and startups are a scam and a half on all fronts. The few younguns who get rich by selling out can afford to pay cash for houses and cars and stuff. The rest of us are either priced out of real estate, or if able to throw down that down payment, in a much worse state of debt servitude that those who came before us.
4) CFR...
It's a TV soap opera. Anyone that thinks it should be something different, should create their own show.
PROPOGANDA. The sheeple will soak it up.
This is why corporations were deemed individuals by the Supine Court, so they could lord over us.
One of the most important - and worst - decisions ever handed down by the SCOTUS.
The SCOTUS has always been the enigmatic usurper. It is claimed that none of the founding fathers could really envision its role in the government but thats a load of shite. It was the biggest trojan horse in the Constitution.
I laugh when people tell me the way to fix government is to get rid of the money in politics. For 200 years the Justices of this Nation's highest court have died poor or with modest income. Yet they have always, ALWAYS, ruled in favor of the dominant oligarchs and economic influences of their time...
A good judge studies and knows precedent...
And what is precedent but the continuation of the status quo?
For 4000 years of documented world history things have not change and they won't change for the next 4000.
Forget bankers. Only violence wins.
Whoever has the guns and the will to plunder ends up winning.
The most violent always win.
P E R I O D
At least inherited aristocrats know in their hearts (if they are honest with themselves) they don't really deserve what they have. The global Harvard-Yale "meritocratic" elite actually believe they deserve to rule by virtue of their mighty intelligence and know what's best for everyone else, whether the people like it or not. I might take a dumb Prince over a Jonathan Gruber holding the levers of power.....
Are you suggesting that Larry Summers and his Harvard associates didn't deserve what they,(cough), earned in Russia?
You are misinformed. Given the situation they were born into, aristocrats are required, just like us, to be able to do some things just to survive. But for them, just like us, sometimes its very hard to do what they are ordered by their parents. This is why everybody alive, and half the dead, hate Kissinger. They had to do what he said. Sometimes they went into combat themselves, and paid the price. Those noble men are dead. Just like my father. Kissinger was wrong. He should be dead, I have no idea why they keep him. Since he lives, he eats the shit I feed him and misleads the oligarchs who listen to him so badly that I able to tell you this fact now.
Its over. Die, King.
In light of the suicided ENEL executive, i strongly suggest folks keep a very close eye on this guy:
Got this from UPC Renewables africa site…
Nicholas Wrigley
Nick joined the international law firm Clifford Chance in 1985, became a partner in 1994 and managed the European business of Clifford Chance between 2003 and 2006. He worked as a corporate lawyer specializing in large international privatizations, merger and acquisitions and capital markets projects and transactions. He was the lead partner on a number of energy sector privatizations in Italy and elsewhere, including ENEL, ENI and SNAM. Nick co-established the Italian offices of Clifford Chance, which he managed from 2001 until he left in 2006 to become a partner of UPC Renewables. He is qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales and an Avvocato in Italy and is a member of the Milan Bar. He has a Bachelors Degree (Honors) and a Masters Degree (Honors) in law from Sussex University and the Université Libre de Bruxelles.
Interesting these Mexican soap operas acclimated in England!
Lacked a "Zorro".
That bunch of blondes and no butt guys gay mannerisms are brochantes.
Oh, do not know how they passed the guillotine.
hehe.
I tried watching this show once, and could not finish it. I was not impressed.
The British outlawed slavery, but kept it alive and well with their homgrown slaves known as indentured servants.
It's the same Upstairs/Downstairs schlock that the State Media continues pumping out for decades.
I have long loathed those that want me to refer to them as "lord"
OPM. That's what it comes down to. When people have control of "other people's money", any efficiency or rational feedback that once existed... vanishes. The only efficient world is a world in which people make all their own decisions, take their own actions, and enjoy/bare/suffer the consequences of their own decisions and actions.
EVERY other approach ever devised has horrific consequences.
Sadly, almost the entirety of mankind is now convinced that a few people must make decisions for everyone. Morons!
I think you'll find that due to the war 'emergency', the Bank of England 'temporarily' suspended redemption in gold.
The Mises Institute misses the point again.
"The aristocracy is therefore not a true meritocracy, but quite the opposite."
Isn't this a... republican view? In both "pro-state" and "equalitarian in opportunity" sense?
Peace is what results from war. The "To the victors, the spoils" logic. And the arrogated "right" to defend what is your own. Nothing that can be changed without... new application of force, i.e. a new conflict over the spoils and how justly they have to be allocated, be them to individuals or groups
The article is interesting, but it talks about "dirty secrets" where there is just... History
Warlords progress often to aristocrats. The "You and who's army?" logic
Every one of us is a product of personal and collective history. Only an insane individualistic and consumeristic propaganda can hide this fact, for fresh re-discovery, and probably for fresh dismissal, too
mises.org proposes a libertarian view, does't it?
Seriously, isn't a warlord and aristocrat in reality a libertarian, too, minus the pacifism? And isn't becoming a Baron in the oldest sense the farthest dream of an extreme libertarian? Land you own, unencumbered by any rights from anybody - be them sovereigns and/or states - except the holder. Own military defense, be them own arms or hired ones? Total, utter freedom? The price, though, is that you have to hold to it, ore lose it
so isn't a typical libertarian fascinated by aristocrats and oligarchs... because he too, aspires to those levels of freedom? while often forgetting that both reaching those levels and keeping those levels are utterly incompatible - in the historic experience - with the individualistic non-sharing pacifism he often hides behind?
If you want to study American aristocracy, read a book or two regarding George W. Bush and his family. Idiots walking out of the Ivy League and into positions of power will likely get significant mention when some future polymath writes "The Decline and Fall of the United States."
But even the Bushes, a cancer upon this Earth, unlike certain old world banking families and their proxies, don't have the power to create money out of thin air.
Don't want to split hairs, but the term is incorrect. It's oligarchy, not aristocracy
The difference is profound, in degrees of meritocracy. The original merit of aristocracy is meant to be held through eredity, while with oligarchy it's more transient. It's a question of "the fount of honours", which is the basis of all sovereignty. From pure force to pure merit/rights... and back
A republic dispenses dignities too. Can't function without this process of leadership. And honours are the recompenses. Money is only part of the honours dispensation process, like land rights, property rights in general, etc. etc. In short, Order
ALL comes down to land 'ownership' ....... THE fundamental lie.
All stuff can be owned..... land, lawfully, can't..... legally it can.... and the legal guys have guns.
"....fount of honours..." had to look that one up.
I guess they're the guys with guns.... declaring land ownership.
Those who look closely understand that it is not the 1% at the top stealing the icing off the cake, but the much smaller .1% or .01% that are skewing the numbers and overreaching.
I contend the biggest problem with America is the massive growth in crony capitalism and corruption in Washington. Europe suffers from the same sickness. Much of this can be attributed to the ability of those in control "changing the rules" and positioning themselves to benefit at every corner. In our busy and complex world we have found it impossible to watch all the moving parts. More on how this incestuous mess leads to collapse in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/05/how-empires-collapse.html