Monarchs, Oligarchs, and Fiefdoms, OH MY
Feudalism Reemerges While Liberals Fiddle
Monarchs, oligarchs, and fiefdoms are in the country’s DNA
The Republican Party has opened the door widely for “one-man rule,“ a return to feudalism. Which, for some reason, caught many in the U.S. by surprise. To me, a blind person could see this train coming. Though I’d like to believe the infection of feudalistic constructs was accidental, woven without conscious intention into New World conquest, deconstruction, and redevelopment, I cannot.
Today’s values for one-man rule, social and economic caste divisions, military-backed imperialism, land and title granting, and loyalty-based reward systems, characteristics of European feudalism from the 8th to the 17th century, were in the hearts, minds, and spirits of so-called New World colonizers. They brought with them the only way of being they knew. Incapable or unwilling to envision anything else.
Therefore, the seismic shifts in how the U.S. relates to itself, and the world, that are occurring have been centuries in the making. They’re meaning more profound than the “democracy is falling” rhetoric “Chicken Little” Democrats can grasp. It’s an existential shift equivalent to introducing the feudalistic concept of “land ownership” to the Native Nations. For Native peoples and cultures, the impact was cataclysmic.
Feudalism’s seed bearers and the trees that have grown
Approximately 2 million colonizers came to the New World between the arrival of the Mayflower (1620) and 1776. For those whose lineage, social standing, economic caste, and lack of education (most could not read or write) would not make for prosperous lives in Europe the potential for wealth-building had to have been intoxicating. Despite their escape from what history books labeled tyranny, however, they inseminated the lands they founded with the same feudalistic values for barbarity, imperialism, monarchy, and subjugation they left. Their genocidal theft of land, the kidnapping and enslavement of a multi-generational workforce, and wanton waste of natural resources have become acceptable U.S. history.
Over 2,000 Puritans who came to the New World were strict followers of the Protestant Reformation Movement whose leaders, Martin Luther and John Calvin had challenged Catholic Church authority and doctrines a century before. Martin Luther was excommunicated and John Calvin, after fleeing France, was expelled from the Council of Geneva. The “religious freedom” reasoning for their arrival in the New World was only part of the story. The Church and the monarchy were glad to see them go.
Puritans also fled to Holland and then took their Calvinistic beliefs to South Africa. Specifically, their beliefs in predestination (God has foretold who will ascend to heaven) spawned white supremacy and White Christian Nationalism in both the U.S. and South Africa. These shared roots and common beliefs can explain the bond between Elon Musk, born and raised in South Africa, and the Make America Great Again movement. The denial of DEI; crippling USAID; and stance against South Africa for South Africa are all fruits of their collective regard for “others.”
Before 1776, Europe’s monarchy sent 50,000 to 120,000 convicts to the New World. One has to wonder if being free from prison and feudalism coupled with few rigorously enforced laws left many like kids in an unsupervised candy store. Researchers and social scientists believe Intergenerational transmission is a substantial contributor to criminal and deviant behaviors, socioeconomic status, and mental illness research. If true, might lineage help us understand why the U.S. has only seen peace for about 21 years since 1776? Moreover, could lineage explain the country’s obsession with hero criminals, gun ownership, deviant behaviors, high rates of mental illness, and 24/7 consumption of violent programming, decades-old social problems the country still has not confronted?
What does it matter?
The U.S. has gotten accustomed to freedoms, liberties, and high standards of innovation and achievement in this country. Several years ago, however, California became a poster child for “neo-feudalism.”
…”far from embodying an egalitarian ethos, it is pioneering a new kind of almost feudal society. A relative handful of oligarchs and a vast bureaucratic ‘clerisy’ lord it over a massive class of what are essentially serfs.” (Joel Kotkin Spiked Online,11 June 2024 ).
Indeed, under feudalism, the masses toil for the ruling class. Their labors fill the coffers of aristocrats and oligarchs. Loyalty and obedience are rewarded. It’s a “ride or die” culture. The monarch’s successes determine who is given land, titles, and perks, becoming the reason for shouting “Long live the king!”
On the other hand, democracy seems to be more like white bread (no pun intended). Consensus building, like bread making, takes time more often than not inviting inaction until action is the only course of action.
Having traveled and lived in various countries over the past twenty years, I’ve seen no pure democracies, even among those countries that called themselves democratic. Meaning just because the U.S. is on a slippery slope teetering closer to feudalism does not mean that it, factually, will not still be democratic. It does mean that how U.S. citizens live can be changed, fundamentally. For example, freedom of speech in the U.S. is a safeguarded value. Remember the fireman in Pennsylvania who called President Biden an old fart, to his face? If he were in Thailand, a constitutional monarchy and developing democracy, he’d be in jail, potentially for up to fifty years (Article 112 of Thailand’s Criminal Code).
I’ve lived in representative democracies where the standards for the quality of work depend more on loyalty and who controls the fiefdom. This is often true for even the most critical of roles. Fiefdoms, control over territory, resources, or processes, are given to those willing to deliver whatever is needed to keep their bosses in power. And if they make a little for themselves on the side (Like getting my driver’s license) then great.
Few or no safety nets for the elderly and disabled persons or aid for the poor exist in many democracies. You work until you die. Unless you have the resources to take care of your needs. The class in which you’re born is the caste you and your descendants are likely to remain. Under feudalism, it’s unlikely Eniola Shokunb’s 5th-grade STEM project, a low-cost classroom air filtration, would’ve been funded by the Connecticut State Bond Commission ($11.5 million). Rarely do innovation and problem-solving come from poor people. These are traits assigned to the upper class.
A bridge project, in another country, a democracy, had been stalled for years. The money had been stolen, time after time. While I was there, the project was finally going to happen. People were excited, again. No one would have to walk or ride through the watery divide, impassable during the rainy season, to get to their farms or see friends and family. Then, the community found out, that the governor sent the funds to another governor, her brother, in exchange for another project. Low expectations were so insidious there that it was not uncommon for elected officials to pay for votes and people to run for, and serve in, elected office from jail.
Al Fin: Democracy doesn’t feed people, make lives healthy, or build affordable housing
No, the above statement is a lie. However, it also cannot be disproved. And that is the central problem with democracy. When Democrats rolled out “Saving Democracy” as a major platform in the 2024 Election, I wanted to scream, “Does anyone know U.S. history?”
Both Madison and Jefferson said an educated citizenry is needed to make democracy work. They knew it did not exist, sufficiently, then. Yet, their forewarning did not alter the course of U.S. history. Tragically, U.S. citizens remain undereducated.
Instead, they, through a series of compromises, put lipstick on a pig and called their new and improved way of governance, democracy. From the Articles of Confederation to the First Continental Congress Federalists to get the Constitution ratified the country’s leadership embraced feudalism (Ceding the presidency via an Electoral College to the aristocrats and governance to State’s Rights).
When Meghan The Stallion and Beyonce took the stage I knew that making the case for democracy to an audience that could not afford tickets for their shows - nor would many even want to go - was an undertaking that made democracy less meaningful to the lives of too many voters. And conceded, once the ship has set a new course turning it back around will require significant energy, lots of heavy lifting, and perhaps decades to get back up to speed.
