Neo-Feudalism

In sum, Western society has long been defined and shaped by a group of “great inheriting families” and their affiliates, to borrow from the 20^th century American sociologist C. Wright Mills. The textbook definition of a system defined and shaped by a small group of “great inheriting families” and their affiliates is feudalism. A number of scholars and thinkers have contended that the West started as a feudal society which then turned to democracy in the modern period, only to turn back to feudalism in recent times. Some have dubbed the West’s return to feudalism after centuries of democracy in the West as “neo-feudalism.”

In turn, feudalism – or neo-feudalism – means that a small group of “great inheriting families” and their affiliates are “above the law” and are above the constraints of law and space. While ordinary people have to go through hectic crowds and thus validate the “crowded world theory” first-hand, in addition to going through censorship and ‘cancel culture’, rigorous checks and surveillance, exhausting procedures at airports, and severe punishments for trivial mistakes and petty transgressions such as smoking weed, the feudal elites enjoy perks such as VIP and passport-free travel and are able to avoid crowds and checks and exhausting procedures, as noted by Brooke Harrington in her book titled “Capital Without Borders.” Feudal elites also get to massacre, torture, and intimidate loads of Muslims and loot taxpayer money as a result of toxic mortgage schemes without any real accountability, while ordinary people in many societies are subject to a destiny and fate that is dished out to them by anthropomorphic forces which are hidden from them and are then made to believe that God has planned it for them.

Essentially, law is the forceful promotion of ethics and morality, and ethics and morality come from philosophy and religion. And as Napoleon Bonaparte once said, the only apparent purpose of religion – and thus the only apparent purpose of law – is to keep the poor from killing the rich. Furthermore, while 99 percent of people have to endure financial and social ups and downs brought about by the whims of the feudal elite, the feudal elite are largely immune from these financial and social ups and downs. For instance, turmoil in the stock market or populist upheavals do not really affect the feudal elites. There is almost always a “safe haven” available for the feudal elites which is not available for 99 percent of people when financial turmoil or populist upheavals hit their societies.

The real challenge for the feudal elites of the West at the moment is the challenge posed to the “global order” which they have set up on the part of Donald Trump, Russia, and China. While Congress and the ‘Department of Justice’ (DOJ) have assumed a full-throttle assault against Trump, the U.S. Supreme Court may end up being Trump’s safety net. China and Russia openly declare that the “global order” set up by the feudal elites of the West must either be altered or completely overhauled. As mentioned before, the feudal elites of the West do not see themselves as bound by the rules and norms of the global order which they themselves have set up. Thus, the double-standards compel China and Russia to defy the rules and norms of the global order at a time when the global ‘Balance of Power’ is in favor of China and Russia after futile Western adventures and wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Whether Trump, Russia, and China succeed in their strategic goals and objectives is something to watch for over the course of the next few years.