power

Friday 29th of March 2024

Authoritarianism Despotisms are top-down pyramids of power that defy political gravity by nurturing the willing subservience and docility of their subjects. John Keane, The New Despotism © 2022 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism Durable despotisms are systems of voluntary servitude. As Thomas Paine long ago spotted, despotisms turn their subjects into carriers of despotic ideas, ways of speech, and other symbolic practices that serve to lubricate the machinery of arbitrary power. John Keane, The New Despotism © 2022 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism The slave licenses the master. More than that: the slave likes or perhaps even loves the master. The dynamic is one in which the prey prevaricates and then yields to the predator. Despotism is a form of power that transforms subjects into willing instruments of rulers. Subjects are the proximate cause of their own subjection. Servitude is chosen. People do not lose their liberty; rather, they win their enslavement. John Keane, The New Despotism © 2022 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism Smart despots are interested in smart power. John Keane, The New Despotism © 2022 Kwiple.com
Authoritarians To understand how elected autocrats subtly undermine institutions, it's helpful to imagine a soccer game. To consolidate power, would-be authoritarians must capture the referees, sideline at least at least some of the other side's star players, and rewrite the rules of the game to lock in their advantage, in effect tilting the playing field against their opponent. … Because these measures are carried out piecemeal and with the appearance of legality, the drift into authoritarianism doesn't always set off fire alarms. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, How Democracies Die  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Democracy Democracy can be defined as a civilised civil war. It recognises the existence of differences of opinion, but resolves these peacefully,  through elections, which are the fundamental institution of representative democracy. Elections determine legitimacy. But to do so they must be recognised as fair. A lie about the outcome of an election, then, is not just any lie. It is not even just any political lie. It directly threatens democracy. It is an attempt to overthrow elections as the arbiter of power. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, May 2, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Democracy In our democracy, power is derived from the people, but structures empower some people over others. The Senate empowers a minority of predomi- nantly white conservative voters to elect enough senators to block the will of the majority. Over the past few decades, changes in the Senate's rules have meant that senators representing as little as 11 percent of the population can deliver the obstructionist agenda these white conservative voters desire, blocking progress across most issues. This dynamic renders these voters abnormally powerful. This group is not just a minority, it is a superminority. Adam Jentleson, Kill Switch © 2021 Kwiple.com
Democracy The soft power of democracy is not what it was. It has produced Mr Trump as leader of the world's most important country. It is not an advertisement. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, May 31, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Fascism The first truth [about the liberty of a democratic people] is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself.  That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, April 29, 1938, Message to Congress on Curbing Monopolies © 2022 Kwiple.com
Fascists You don't have to be a card-carrying fascist to collaborate with fascists and help them seize power; you just have to be morally bankrupt and self-serving. Frank Rich, New York Magazine, January 6-19, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Foreign relations Today, hopes of a co-operative global economic order, which reached their zenith at the G20’s London summit of April 2009, have evaporated. Yet it is hardly a case of “Goodbye G20, hello G7”. The earlier world of G7 domination is even  more remote than that of G20 co-operation. Neither global co-operation nor western domination look feasible. What might follow? Alas, “division” might be one answer and “anarchy” another. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, May 23, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Freedom Never have we been so free. Never have we felt so powerless. Zygmunt Bauman © 2020 Kwiple.com
Gerrymandering In many states, the partisan composition  of the US Congress is effectively determined by state legislative elections that occur once a decade, before redistricting. This arrangement means that state governments have expanded their reach  into national affairs in ways that undermine  the design of the House of Representatives to be responsive to public opinion and unsettle the balance of power between state and federal government that has been settled for many decades. Alex Keena, Michael Latner, Anthony J. McGann, Charles Anthony Smith, Gerrymandering the States   © 2021 Kwiple.com
Greed  If you took the greed out of Wall Street, all you'd have left is the pavement. The problem is the Street's excessive power. Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
Gun lobbyists say Political power in America comes from owning guns, not from having wealth  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Higher education [W]hile higher education has become more diverse by culture and ethnicity, the income gap has grown to be twice as large as the race gap. … racial preferences have not changed economic power structures in the US. Indeed, they’ve arguably hardened them by creating what might be called a rainbow aristocracy. The system is rigged against the less affluent. Rana Foroohar, Financial Times, July 17, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Hypocrisy There is a lot of hard-to-explain hypocrisy and rush taking place right now,  and my expeience around politics says that when you find hypocrisy in the daylight, look for power in the shadows. Sheldon Whitehouse, at confirmation hearing for Amy Coney Barrett © 2020 Kwiple.com
Kwiple dictionary barr (bär), v., barred, barring To pander to presidential power. © 2019 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Overturn the Citizens United decision allowing employers to discuss political candidates and issues with employees and to provide them with “information packets” about candidates and issues – activities implying that the employees may lose their job if they don't side with their employers © 2017 Kwiple.com
Liberalism The lesson of this decade so far is that liberalism isn’t tenable without hard power. Janan Ganesh, Financial Times, July 25, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Markets Another reason for the concentration of corporate power is political capture. Americans invented modern antitrust policy, and love to rail against “statist” old Europe. But a fascinating study by academics Germán Gutiérrez and Thomas Philippon shows that EU markets are, in fact, more competitive. They have lower levels of concentration, lower excess profits, and lower regulatory barriers to entry. Rana Foroohar, Financial Times, July 23, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Politial inequality In the age of Trump, Democrats have developed a great sense of pride in their role protecting America's frayed democratic norms.  But there may come  a moment when the euphoria of a better-than-expected midterm election is only a memory and the sense of righteous virtue that comes from defending democracy begins to wear thin. When that day arrives, many of the voters who who make up the party's base and a majority of the country … might find that it is no longer tolerable to be ruled by a dwindling and overempowered minority. There is only so much satisfaction to be drawn from being the sole party with an unblemished record of dutifully surrendering power. Alexander Burns, New York Review of Books, January 19, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Political power Whites have feared the political power of people of color more so than voters of color have recognized their power. Gilda R. Daniels, Uncounted  © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics The disappearance of labor's countervailing power can readily be seen in the 2015-16 election cycle, when corporations and Wall Street contributed $34 to candidates from both parties for every $1 donated by unions and all public interest organizations combined. [34:1] Business outspent labor $3.4 billion to $213 million. [16:1] All of the nation's unions together spend about $48 million annually on lobbying in Washington. Corporate America spends $3 billion. [62:1] Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
Morality What's truly immoral is not what adults choose to do with other consenting adults but what those with great power have chosen to do to the rest of us. America's problems have nothing to do with private morality. The breakdown is in public morality — abuses of public trust that undermine the integrity of our economy and democracy and have led millions of Americans to conclude the game is fixed. Robert B. Reich, Beyond Outrage © 2021 Kwiple.com
Nation-states American conservatives take pride in their nation but mistrust their nation's state. American liberals value the state, but feel discomfort with the concept of “nation.” Yet it is the power of the state that makes of the nation something more than a phrase of speech; it is the idea of the nation that legitimates the power of the state. David Frum, Trumpocalypse  © 2020 Kwiple.com
Oligarchy Importantly, oligarchy as a governing strategy accounts for both politics and economics. Oligarchs use economic power for political purposes, and, in turn, use politics to expand their economic power. Ganesh Sitaraman, The Great Democracy © 2020 Kwiple.com
Politics America's political inclination is to distribute power rather than wealth. Edward Luce, Financial Times, March 7, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Populism The global race to vaccinate is having a use beyond the narrowly medical. It is delineating two populisms that my trade likes to group into a Nationalist International. The first kind is serious about the business of government. “Authoritarian” in the roundest sense, it turns the brawn of the state on social ills, real or perceived, not just political rivals. President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil embodies [the other populism], as do the US Republicans, some of whom took until last week to commend the vaccine to their voters. This is populism as cussed and near anarchic defiance of received opinion. It is ruthless in the pursuit of power but lax to the point of dereliction in its exercise. Distinguish these … as Old World and New World … or as “heavy” and “light”, but distinguish them. Janan Ganesh, Financial Times, July 27, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Post-truth Post-truth is pre-fascism, and Trump has been our post-truth president. When we give up on truth, we concede power to those with the wealth and charisma to create spectacle in its place. Post-truth wears away the rule of law and invites a regime of myth. Timothy Snyder, New York Times, January 9, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Poverty Everyone is happy talking about eliminating poverty, because this looks like an admirable and ethical response to the problems of inequality, while leaving the structures of power untouched. David Kynaston © 2019 Kwiple.com
Power Although they have amassed immense power and wealth, Putin and his immediate circle remain intensely resentful of the way in which the Soviet Union, Russia and their own service [the KGB] collapsed in the 1990s — and  great power mixed with great resentment is one of the most dangerous mixtures in both domestic and international politics. Anatol Lieven, Financial Times, March 11, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Power  Any discussion of power is now, ultimately, a conversation about attention and how we extract it, wield it, waste it, abuse it, sell it, lose it and profit from it. Charlie Warzel, New York Times, February 4, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Power The benefit of controlling a modern state is less the power to persecute the innocent, more the power to protect the guilty. Unnamed speaker quoted by David Frum in “How to Build an Autocracy” © 2017 Kwiple.com
Power By astronomical margins, would-be migrants would rather move to the US than to China. That hasn't stopped the one losing relative influence to the other over recent decades. Ultimately, if a country grows from 5 per cent of world output to 18 per cent, as China has since 1980, there is a limit to what the soft power of others can do to counteract it. That kind of economic weight buys too much military hardware. It spawns too many bilateral dependants in trade and investment. It demands an answer in material power. Janan Ganesh, Financial Times, April 26, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Power Darkness is good. … Dick Cheney, Darth Vader, Satan. That's power. Steve Bannon © 2022 Kwiple.com
Power  The difficulty is not that corporate power is beyond the control of the American government. It is that corporate power controls the American government. Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
Power Give all power to the many, and they will oppress the few. Give all power to the few, they will oppress the many. Alexander Hamilton © 2018 Kwiple.com
Power If majority rule is mostly a myth, then majority tyranny is mostly a myth too. For if the majority cannot rule, surely it cannot be tyrannical. Robert A. Dahl, On Political Equality © 2018 Kwiple.com
Power If the majority rarely rules on matters of specific policy, nevertheless the specific policies selected by a process of “minorities rule” probably lie most of the time within the bounds of consensus set by the important values of the politically active members of the society, of whom the voters are a key group. Robert A. Dahl, On Political Equality © 2018 Kwiple.com
Power If you're not at the table, you're on the menu.  Adage © 2021 Kwiple.com
Power [I]n the usual sense intended, majorities rarely, if ever, rule in any country or social organization at any time. Thus the fear of majority rule, as well as advocacy of it, is founded upon a misconception of the probabilities permitted by political reality. … To the extent that the electorate is numerous, extended, and diverse in interests, a majority faction is less likely to exist, and if it does exist, it is less likely to act as a unity. Robert A. Dahl, A Preface to Democratic Theory  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Power In today's unequal digital society, power accrues to those who already have too much of it,  fuelling popular discontent with the elites and giving rise to conspiracy theories about the omnipotence of Silicon Valley. Evgeny Morozov, Financial Times, September 1, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Power The intelligence agencies in particular would likely find themselves exposed to retribution from a president enraged at them for reporting on Russia's aid to his election campaign. “As you know from his other career, Donald likes to fire people.” So New Jersey Governor Chris Christie joked to a roomful of Republican donors at the party's national convention in July. It would be a mighty power – and highly useful. David Frum, “How to Build an Autocracy,” The Atlantic, March 2017 issue © 2017 Kwiple.com
Power It is the essence of power that it accrues to those with the ability to determine the nature of the real. They authorize the language, the grammar, the vocabulary within which others must live their lives. Christopher Bigsby, Introduction to Penguin Classics edition of Arthur Miller's The Crucible © 2016 Kwiple.com
Power It was only after the major effort of the Second World War, when we found ourselves not presiding over a pacified and docile world, but engaged in a costly and indecisive struggle in Korea, that the American people first experienced the full reality of what all other great nations have known — the situation of limited power. Richard Hofstadter, “Goldwater and Pseudo-Conservative Politics” © 2020 Kwiple.com
Power [T]he making of governmental decisions is not a majestic march of great majorities united upon certain matters of basic policy. It is the steady appeasement of relatively small groups. Robert A. Dahl, A Preface to Democratic Theory  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Power Many Americans tend to equate hegemony with imperialism, but the two are different. Imperialism is an active effort by one state to force others into its sphere, whereas  hegemony is more a condition than a purpose. A militarily, economically, and culturally powerful country exerts influence on other states by its mere presence, the way a larger body in space affects the behavior of smaller bodies through its gravitational force. Even if the United State was not aggressively  expanding its influence in Europe, and certainly  not through its military, the collapse of Soviet power enhanced the attractive pull of the United States and it democratic allies. Robert Kagan, Foreign Affairs, May/June 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Power The more power you have, the fewer consequences you face. Mary Trump, The Reckoning  © 2021 Kwiple.com
Power Mussolini observed that in seeking to accumulate power, it is wise to do so in the manner of one plucking a chicken — feather by feather — so each squak is heard apart from every other and the whole process is kept as muted as possible. Madeleine Albright, Fascism: A Warming   © 2021 Kwiple.com
Power Nobody gives you power. You have to take it from them. Nancy Pelosi © 2019 Kwiple.com
Power  Perhaps a great power’s cultural influence, like an ageing gigolo’s charm, is the last thing to go.  Long after Britain lost its might, there were people in Hong Kong and Zimbabwe moaning about their servants and describing things as “just not cricket” in a way no one in England had done since 1913. Janan Ganesh, Financial Times, June 30, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Power Power begets power. Bill Maher, Real Time with Bill Maher, October 5, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Power Power is decaying. To put it simply, power no longer buys as much as it did in the past. In the twenty-first century, power is easier to get, harder to use—and easier to lose. From boardrooms and combat zones to cyberspace, battles for power are as intense as ever, but they are yielding diminishing returns.  Moisés Naím, The End of Power   © 2018 Kwiple.com
Power Real power is – I don't even want to use the word – fear. Donald Trump © 2018 Kwiple.com
Power The recruiting of the functionaries from among the aristocracy was the fundamental vice of the Frankish Empire and the essential cause of its dissolution, which became so rapid after the death of Charlemagne. Surely, nothing is more fragile than that State the sovereign of which, all powerful in theory, is dependent in fact upon the fidelity of his independent agents. Henri Pirenne, Medieval Cities © 2023 Kwiple.com
Power That theme – that power begets power – should be on everyone's mind right now: the idea that when you lose power, you've not only lost that fight,  you've made it harder to win the next one. That's how power works. Bill Maher, Real Time with Bill Maher, Sept. 25, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Power There are men who could neither be distressed nor won into a sacrifice of their duty; but this stern virtue is the growth of few soils; and in the main it will be found that a power over a man's support is a power over his will. Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 73 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Power Unlike income or wealth, power is a zero-sum game. The more of it there is at the top, the less there is anywhere else. Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
Power The US is going through the most awkward phase in the life cycle of an empire. Its relative power in the world is somewhat down from its all-time peak, but its burdens aren’t. It must prioritise, and at the same time daren't. Janan Ganesh, Financial Times, October 17, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Power The way to have power is to take it. William M. “Boss” Tweed © 2021 Kwiple.com
Power What we do is behind the scenes. Nobody knows we're there. Bruce Flatt, CEO of Brookfield Asset Management, with a total of $835 billion worth of assets under management in 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Power While a nation-state boasts e pluribus unum  (from plurality to unity), a veritable host of groups —feminists, multiculturalists, defenders of ethnicity, environmentalists—proclaim e uno plures  (from unity to plurality). Postmodern power is simultaneously concentrated and disaggregated. Sheldon Wolin, Power and Vision © 2017 Kwiple.com
Power  With great power comes great publicity. Indeed, in many cases great publicity is a prerequisite for gaining great power. Yuval Noah Harari, New York Times, November 20, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Presidency A self-coup is well underway in America aleady. The rise of executive power is the rare case of a truly bipartisan trend. The use of executive legislation, by  bypassing Congress, began in earnest with Ronald Reagan, continued under Clinton, expanded under Bush, and became standard under Obama and Trump.  What was once an exception made for cases of national emergency now goes unremarked. Stephen Marche, The Next Civil War  © 2022 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Abdicating global leadership in a fit of petulance is change we believe in © 2017 Kwiple.com
Republicans say  Elevating hard power over soft power is change we believe in © 2017 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Soft power? We don't need no soft power. We don't have to show you any stinking soft power. © 2017 Kwiple.com
Resisters say In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do. Timothy Snyder, Lesson 1, about anticipatory obedience, in On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century © 2017 Kwiple.com
Resisters say Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them. Timothy Synder, on corporeal politics, in On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century © 2017 Kwiple.com
Russia Russia's problem was ultimately not just about its military weakness. Its problem was, and remains, its weakness in all relevant forms of power, including the power of attraction. At least during the Cold War a communist Soviet Union could claim to offer the path to paradise on earth. Yet afterward, Moscow could provide  neither ideology, nor security, nor prosperity, nor independence to it neighbors. It could offer only Russian nationalism and ambition, and eastern Europeans understandably had no interest in sacrificing themselves on that altar. Robert Kagan, Foreign Affairs, May/June 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
The Senate Because of the way the modern Senate has has evolved, combined with the trends of of polarization and negative partisanship that have shaped America, this faction [of  wealthy white anti-choice conservatives] is able to wield power far out of proportion to its numbers. The modern Senate gives it the power to exercise a veto over policies backed by a majority of the population and makes likely that it will have the power do so in perpetuity. This is not just a minority. This is a superminority. Adam Jentleson, Kill Switch © 2021 Kwiple.com
Separation of powers Given America's separation of powers, the Tea Party needs to be only a majority of the majority of one half of one branch of government to have a pretty good shot at ensuring nothing significant can move in Washington, D.C. The only threshold that matters is to be a majority of the minority party in the Senate (where forty votes can block almost all legislation), and to remain the largest and most powerful faction in the House. Even if Republicans lost control of the House, the Tea Party could still get by on the minority veto in the Senate. Edward Luce, Time to Start Thinking © 2017 Kwiple.com
Sexual harassment Giuliani said that he did not have a Human Resoures department and bragged that no one would ever sue him because he was connected to President Trump, and he had private investigators  who would punish anyone who complained. From the verified complaint against Rudy Giuliani filed by Noelle Dunphy, his former Business Development director,  who asked for the name of the Human Resources director after he pressured her into performing oral sex on him © 2023 Kwiple.com
Sexual harassment If you want to make the money, you'll learn to laugh. A West Virginia waitress dependent on tips to make a living, quoted in New York Times, March 12, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Sleepers at the wheel say Power's not what the Constitution was about. Roy Moore © 2017 Kwiple.com
Sleepers at the wheel say Talking back means your voice will be heard © 2018 Kwiple.com
Snapshot It's not that they like him, or care if he goes to jail. They are getting so much power out of this and they don't want it to stop. William Barr, Mike Pompeo and Mitch McConnell portrayed by Mary Trump, Financial Times, August 7, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Snapshot He'll sit there, and he'll say, “Do this! Do that!” And nothing will happen.  Dwight Eisenhower portrayed by Harry Truman, his predecessor as president  © 2019 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Harrington has shewn that Power always follows Property. James Harrington portrayed by John Adams © 2019 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Trump was the moral test, and the Republican Party failed. It's an utter disaster for the long-term fate of the Party. The Party has become an obsession with power without purpose. Republican Party portrayed by Stuart Stevens © 2020 Kwiple.com
State of the union Great power joined with great stupidity © 2015 Kwiple.com
State of the union In the system we now have, power and wealth are inseparable. Great wealth flows from great power; great power depends on great wealth. Wealth and power have become one and the same. Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
State of the union c Labor can't strike, but capital goes on investment strikes by threatening to move if its demands for wage cuts, tax cuts, subsidies, negligent regulatory regimes, union-free workplaces and judicial toadies aren't met © 2017 Kwiple.com
State of the union The Trump movement was always authoritarian and illiberal. It indulged periodically in the rhetoric of violence. Trump himself chafed against the restraints of law. But what the United States did not have  before 2020 was a large national movement willing to justify mob violence to claim political power. Now it does. David Frum, The Atlantic, July 13, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Superpowers As an ideal type, Superpower might be defined as an expansive system of power that accepts no limits other than those it chooses to impose on itself. Its system blends the political authority of the “democratic” state, de jure  power, with the powers represented by the complex of modern science-technology and corporate capital. Sheldon Wolin, Power and Vision © 2017 Kwiple.com
Tech bros say Keep the voting stock for ourselves © 2016 Kwiple.com
Trumpism Trumpocracy as a system of power rests not on deregulation but on nonregulation, not on deconstructing the state but on breaking the state in order to plunder the state. David Frum, Trumpocracy © 2019 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say Will Republicans use power? This is my question. Will they wield power, because if you have a single takeaway as the result stands right now, it is that what the Republican electorate wants is a strong executive who utilizes and wields power over his enemies and then destroys his enemies and makes them grovel — makes molten, salty tears flow from their faces, as Ron DeSantis did with Disney. Benny Johnson, the "Godfather of Conservative internet," Nov. 8, 2022, when Republicans won a slim majority in the House in the midterm elections © 2023 Kwiple.com
Truth If you want to speak truth to power  – I'm going to go out on a limb here and say – you have to include the truth part. Bill Maher, Real Time with Bill Maher, Oct. 5, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Tweeting  Why does Donald Trump tweet so much? Why do his supporters love it when he does? It is because a tweet gives the illusion of a direct relationship between leader and follower. For the follower, the tweet is addressed just to him- or herself with no intermediary. The follower imagines a personal relationship with the president. The pretense of presence and the person- alization of power go hand in hand.  Albert Weale, The Will of the People  © 2019 Kwiple.com
War  Though the object of being a Great Power is to be able to fight a Great War,  the only way of remaining a Great Power is not to fight one. A. J. P. Taylor © 2022 Kwiple.com
War A world of great powers that are optimistiic about the future will have arenas of confrontation, but little war. These confident great powers will invest in resources designed to attract as well as coerce, suggesting a contested but relatively pacific world. A world of pessimistic great powers, however, will lead to an emphasis on military capabilities and a temptation to engage in preventive action. Militarized disputes are far more likely in a pessimistic world, where the role of force matters the most. Daniel W. Drezner, Foreign Affairs, July/August 2022 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Wealth inequality  Where there is inequality of estates, there must be inequality of power. James Harrington, The Commonwealth of Oceana © 2019 Kwiple.com
the West  [I]n Europe and America, the prevailing view is that bipolarity is coming back.  A significant number of people expect a world dominated by two blocs led by the US and China. … Meanwhile, outside the West, citizens believe that fragmentation rather than polarisation will mark the next international order. Most people in major non-Western countries such as China, India, Turkiye, and Russia predict the West will soon be just one global  pole among several. The West may still be the strongest party but it will not be hegemonic.  Timothy Garton Ash, Ivan Krastev, Mark Leonard, "United West, divided from the rest," European Council on Foreign Relations © 2023 Kwiple.com
Working class Twentieth-century socialism assumed that the working class was crucial to the economy, and socialist thinkers tried to teach the proletariat how to translate its immense economic power into political clout. In the twenty-first century, if the masses lose their economic value they might have to struggle against irrelevance rather than exploitation. Yuval Noah Harari, Nature, October 19, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com