{"id":5939,"date":"2019-08-07T09:00:06","date_gmt":"2019-08-07T13:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=5939"},"modified":"2019-07-29T18:47:50","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T22:47:50","slug":"kleptocracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/kleptocracy\/","title":{"rendered":"KLEPTOCRACY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From the\nMerriam-Webster dictionary:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

kleptocracy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0noun<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

klep\u00b7\u200btoc\u00b7\u200bra\u00b7\u200bcy\u00a0|\u00a0\\\u00a0klep-\u02c8t\u00e4-kr\u0259-s\u0113\u00a0\u00a0\\<\/p>\n\n\n\n

plural <\/em>kleptocracies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Definition\nof <\/strong>kleptocracy<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

: <\/strong>government by those who seek\nchiefly status and personal gain at the expense of the governed also<\/em> : <\/strong>a particular government of this kind<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have belatedly been reading the Pulitzer Prize-winning book from\nthe late 1990s, \u201cGuns, Germs, and Steel: the Fate of Human Societies.\u201d The\nauthor is Jared Diamond, a professor of geography and winner of the National\nMedal of Science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In Chapter 14, \u201cFrom Egalitarianism to Kleptocracy,\u201d he wrote,\n\u201cWhat should an elite do to gain popular support while still maintaining a more\ncomfortable lifestyle than commoners? Kleptocrats throughout the ages have\nresorted to a mixture of four solutions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201c1. Disarm the\npopulace, and arm the elite. That\u2019s much easier in these days of high-tech\nweaponry, produced only in industrial plants and easily monopolized by an\nelite, than in ancient times of spears and clubs easily made at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201c2. Make the\nmasses happy by redistributing much of the tribute received, in popular ways.\nThis principle was as valid for Hawaiian chiefs as it is for American\npoliticians today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201c3. Use the\nmonopoly of force to promote happiness, by maintaining public order and curbing\nviolence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201c4. The remaining\nway for kleptocrats to gain public support is to construct an ideology or\nreligion justifying kleptocracy.  Bands and\ntribes already had supernatural beliefs\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, let\u2019s see.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

#1? \u201cWe must ban private possession of \u2018assault rifles.\u2019\u201d Check.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#2? \u201cMedicare for all, even though we aren\u2019t sure we can sustain\nit for the old folks receiving it now.\u201d \nCheck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#3? Hmmm\u2026given the violence in Chicago and \u201cantifa\u201d violence\nelsewhere, they aren\u2019t making much progress on that end\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#4?  \u201cGreen New Deal\u201d seems\nto fit the definition of a supernatural belief system\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it just me, or do the above symptoms of kleptocracy sound\nrather disturbingly like some people currently running for President of the\nUnited States?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Merriam-Webster dictionary: kleptocracy \u00a0noun klep\u00b7\u200btoc\u00b7\u200bra\u00b7\u200bcy\u00a0|\u00a0\\\u00a0klep-\u02c8t\u00e4-kr\u0259-s\u0113\u00a0\u00a0\\ plural kleptocracies Definition of kleptocracy : government by those who seek chiefly status and personal gain at the expense of the governed also : a particular government of this kind I have belatedly been reading the Pulitzer Prize-winning book from the late 1990s, \u201cGuns, Germs, and Steel: the Fate of Human Societies.\u201d The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5941,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5939\/revisions\/5941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}