I found the infographic above in a video called “How the World REALLY WORKS: in 6mins,” and thought it worth sharing.
I like the graphic because it helps to make sense of the experience of living in the world today. Of the five levels of civic life the graphic illustrates, the top two depict the reality that ideas rule the world.
That governments merely enforce policies (ideas) that others develop strikes me as a significant insight. The history of America’s founding describes the paradigm: First, we had the Declaration of Independence, which established the principles (or policy) of our political establishment. Then we had the Constitution, which defined the enforcement of our political design as a nation.
As members of the public, we are all acutely aware of the Policy Propagandists. The puzzle for us, however, is to overcome the manipulations to which we are exposed in order to confront the ideas the Policy Makers use to rule the world.
Tidewater News and Opinion Forum 
Funny, I do not see democratic elections as determinants of policy on this chart anywhere?
It is obvious that “conservatives” think the “public” is being manipulated because, generally speaking, the “public” rejects most of what “conservatives” would like policy to be. “How can that be?” they ask themselves, “since we are so right and so smart?” There MUST be malevolent conspiratorial forces at work!
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Your comment shows that paranoia is a bipartisan malady.
The question is: Does the graphic illustrate a conspiracy theory, or does it illustrate a real feature of the actual world?
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Paranoia?
From a conspiracy crackpot who thinks the Bank for International Settlements is some sort of emininence gris at the center of a vast conspiracy to control the world and which has governments, the media and all of science at its beck and call.
You need to work on your ability to identify laughable nonsense. It is clearly sorely underdeveloped.
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You are seeing things, again.
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You posted this nonsense chart. If you cannot understand what it say, that is your problem.
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I don’t see this as a conspiracy, but rather a power ecosystem. The participants receive, or believe that they receive, some benefit from participating, even without coordinating their role. They find a niche and move in, because it is the easiest means to get what they want, whatever that is. As in any ecosystem, energy (power, here) moves from the vast number of helpless producers (plants, in natural ecosystems) up through the various layers to the top predators. Each layer consumes an increasing amount of the energy produced at the bottom. The problem is that the “bottom” being fed on consists of thinking, feeling human beings who are not tied to their role by biology, but but the ecology itself.
As to democratic elections, do your politicians not lie to get elected? I seem to hear that complaint from all quarters. As far as I can tell, elections only determine who gets to sit in the seat, not the policy itself.
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RE: “power ecosystem”
Excellent turn of phrase.
It is not hard to imagine how a system of public/private partnerships might evolve organically into the one depicted. It is striking that the emergent pattern loosely depicts a predator/prey model.
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Wealth is power. Extreme wealth is extreme power. The only institution s that can contain power is a democratically elected representative form of governance…at least up until now. “Now” being the global efforts to supersede democratic principles in favor of autocracies.
It may very well be that people cannot govern themselves. Democracies require a delicate balance of wealth with reasonable distribution and a very informed electorate. We are losing both. And losing both through efforts to destroy informed citizens through endless hammering of conspiracies as well as controlling election outcomes.
Toss in wealth accumulation by a relative handful of ultra rich players and government “by, for, and of the people” becomes a distant longing.
And if anyone thinks we have problems now, wait until climate refugees start moving by the billion. All of our economies are based primarily on a stable ecosystem. Million live where water and temperature have remained more of less stable for millennia. That is at risk now as mega droughts shift breadbaskets around.
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