Wednesday 2nd April 2008
Hundreds of years ago our world was ruled by Kings and Queens, people whose only qualification for their stewardship was being born to the right family. Then came the new mercantile and then industrial formations, and royalty were gradually displaced. In many places this (revolutionary) process of change lead (eventually) to a form of democracy where the new social power groups were elected to parliaments, and where some degree of control over the state was allowed the general populous (usually only men of property, at least to begin with).
Fast foward to the 21st century, and the inheritors of the early industrialists, the capitalist class whose rise represented progress over the old feudal regimes, are now quite as rich and powerful as their regal predecessors ever were. Unfortunately they are now every bit as much of a barrier to progress.