[The topics of this article are also been explored in VIDEO and PODCAST]

As soon as you ask this question you open the door for a bunch of conspiracy theories with varying degrees of attachment to reality. I am not going to delve into any of them in this article.

I only want to invite people to come on a thought experiment with me. As I continue to read and explore our political economic landscape I came across this very interesting set of facts. Over history you can always divide the ruling class in any society into 1 of 3 categories.

1- The Owner: 

Usually an owner would be someone who inherited his power like a King or a Lord. This person will most likely than not rule in such a way as to maximize the money collected from his citizens. While at the same time reducing the operating costs and minimizing the value given back to the community. Then, all the alpha between costs and collection would be profit going directly into his pocket. 

This person will always try to collect the most, give back the least and keep as much as he can for himself.

2-Customers:

If the people in control of their government are their customers, (like it happened in Vienna when the merchants were the most powerful), they would attempt as much as possible to lower costs. At the same time their aim would be to provide the most benefits from the state’s power. Their main focus would be to keep the state small and efficient. As high taxes would reduce their own ability to conduct personal business. Of the three, this one seems to provide the greatest level of prosperity for its inhabitants.

3- The employees:

Here things get interesting, as I believe it’s the type of government we have today. If the state was controlled by it’s employees you would expect to see high collection rates. At the same time the focus would not be to deliver the best possible product, but rather to enlarge itself. To create meaningless jobs and bureaucracy, and to attempt to have as many possible people working for it (this would make it even harder to disband). You can even think of all the people receiving state benefits, from one way or another, as a sort of employee of the government. Once your financial well being is linked to the perseverance of the current system, very few will be willing to stand up against it. The relationship between the governors and the governed, would resemble that of a farmer and his cattle. Extracting as much value from them as possible while keeping things from falling apart (just barely), and miss use all the resources accrued.

I believe most governments today fall in the 3rd category, it is run by employees, and thus it is not serving the people but only itself. It uses its own population as a revenue stream and it is not incentivized to give any of it back. Keeping their contributions at a minimum most of the money can be used to expand its bureaucracy and grow in a really crazy way.

If we think about it, governments have never been bigger, they have never collected more money from us, and at the same time we are getting very little to show for.
 

For a large number of reasons I do believe we are reaching the end of the stage where politics seems to rule. I will write articles explaining each of these reasons in the future, for now I’ll just briefly mention a few.

In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church (who were in control) saw their power and influence greatly reduced by the invention of the printing press. Suddenly the access to dissenting information, different point of views and interpretation from the bible, were readily available. This helped to contest the monopoly of information the ruling class previously enjoyed, every time this happens things change (not immediately, but over time they always do). Today the internet creates the same threat to our current ruling class, making all their lies, manipulation and tactics more and more obvious. The traditional media has also been heavily affected by this, as they have operated as an amplifier of the state’s voice and not a true source of real information. YouTube and podcasting are adding a new layer to the information revolution. Visual and voice have a whole new market for ideas to expand, grow and reproduce at a never-seen-before speed. There is simply no way things can continue working as they were when such a disruptive technology is deployed at a global scale.

Even the proliferation of technologies like Bitcoin is forcing millions of people to (for the first time) think “what is money?” And who benefits from our current economic structure?

This information is travelling faster and further than anytime in our entire history as a species. We have only begun to feel it’s ramifications.

Another thing to take into account is the logic of violence is shifting. Before, we fought with man power, and commanding larger armies was the major factor in determining the outcome of war. In today’s age most conflict is economical, and digital. The cost of participating in this kind of endeavor is vastly reduced, and therefore can be done by smaller groups as effective (or perhaps even more effective) than larger numbers.

This alone is bound to change the way we organize our entire society. Being altogether in one spot, before offered an advantage (this is when the rise of cities began), now however, it is not. At the same time centralized systems offer points of failure. Where decentralized ecosystems are harder to attack. Cryptography emerges as the best and cheapest defense in the digital landscape, one that every individual can adopt. Every time the dynamics of violence change so does the way in which humans organize themselves to face it.

Nations and states emerged because we needed to defend ourselves, but as we move into the Information Age they become more and more redundant. As we continue on moving forward it will be more evident that the state acts as a parasite leaching off and misusing our resources to sustain itself. Because of all these factors mentioned above (and many more I’ll write about) it is almost impossible that our current structure can endure.

We are in a transition period and no one can tell what the society of the future will look like. All we can do is keep our eyes open, pay attention and help others see it too. In my opinion everyone who’s income depends in any way shape or form the nation state, will be at the highest risk during the transition. Most likely, as well, they will be the ones resisting the changes and falling for the misinformation and propaganda, as they attempt to hold on to a world that it’s no more. Hopefully we can make the transition smoother and with not too much pain by providing the right sources and having the difficult conversation in an honest and transparent way.

I hope this is helpful, have a great day!