Where is the Power?

Wealth. Power. There you go, history in two words.

From the earliest stages of human civilisation the driving force for the creation of a society has been power and wealth. Power exercised in the form of control of the tribe and wealth originally in food and lodgings then with precious metals and jewels.

These attractions soon became the human equivalent of an animal or bird mating ritual. Men discovered that the more they accrued the more attractive they became to the opposite sex. This was disguised as the need to procreate to keep the family going, but I am pretty sure that it was just ego satisfaction that was the goal.

Both power and wealth have another attribute that accompanies their accrual, insatiable greed. Those without power or wealth want a little, those with a lot want as much as they can get, and then some.

From the Kings and Queens of Europe, who’s ancestors had mainly been the hardest of the hard men in the days of yore, to the dissipation of power through allocation of titles and land, signifying power and wealth, the class system was put in place.

The power added to the wealth. In medieval times you and I would probably have been serfs, working the Lord’s land in return for a cabbage and a carrot. There were no potatoes yet. Objections were met with a damn good thrashing and your daughter being borrowed for a week or two. Power was the dominant force.

But then something happened. The Industrial Revolution suddenly divorced wealth from landowning. Innovators and scientists developed tools and energy sources to power factories to produce goods to sell to the very people that they employed. The mass market was developing. Ordinary people were buying products like those produced by Joseph Wedgewood, china cups and saucers. Steam engines then powered the railways that sparked business ideas in W H Smith and Thomas Cook. And with ideas came wealth. For a while this wealth had little or no power. The House of Lords held the wealth, but soon that was tottering as money was spent by the new middle classes, wealthy but untitled. They used their money to demand democracy, initially for themselves. As they purchased properties in towns, they wanted to control how their rates and local taxes were spent. Then they wanted seats in the House of Commons. Slowly the balance of power and wealth changed, with wealthy having the upper hand. You didn’t need physical strength to take control, you needed to be able to buy it. The English Middle Class were the wealthiest community in the world, and funded the expansion of the British Empire to open more markets to buy and sell. That expansion was created with a little violence as possible, and it created the richest country in history.

That has remained the case. In the 20th Century, the power of the economy shifted to the United States. The late 19th Century early 20th had seen levels of innovation unsurpassed since the Industrial Revolution. Aeroplanes, cars, movies, radio, cinema, records, electric light, oil and much more were developed in the USA.

The Russian Revolution tried to rebalance power and wealth, unsuccessfully. Large agrarian societies tried Communism, but without the wealth of trade were always going to struggle.

Nazi Germany tried to create wealth by pretending it was real, but without foreign trade was creating a illusion.

In both cases it was the wealth of the USA fighting for the retention of capitalist wealth that won the day. Wars helped them grow, the Cold War arms race helped them grow, the size of their home market was the equivalent of foreign trade to most other continents.

US companies created an Empire, without the need for troops. Leading the line were products like Coke, Kellogg’s, Esso, Ford, Marlboro and more all advertised using techniques developed on Madison Avenue. The world market was established. The power was in the brands that created the money.

But another shift was on its way, an outcome of the realisation that power was a product that could be bought. The victory of democracy gave the impression that power was shared among the people. That people have choices, can make decisions, are involved in their own lives.

Then those votes became a commodity in a market, with the highest bidder winning the prize, power. Advertising methodologies had proven that people do not make their own choices, they only think they do. Brands were able to become market leaders based on their advertising budget. Those with most to spend got most customers. All the brands mentioned above have competitors, but they were the ones that focused on advertising as much as product development. To this day American companies take their marketing way more seriously than those elsewhere in the world.

Advertising is control of the media. That’s what the biggest budget gives you. Not necessarily control over all the media, but certainly more than your competitors. Non public media channels will refrain from being critical of large advertisers. Good news stories will appear for the brands that support the right channels. In the US there is now chapter and verse evidence that elections are decided on the back of the largest candidate spend.

Numerous groups are being funded by the wealthiest Americans to ensure that their political ambitions are the only ones fulfilled. Hundreds of millions of dollars are used to place advertising campaigns targeting specific areas with attack messages. There is no truth requirement, the US First Amendment guarantees free speech, so you are allowed to shout fire in a crowded theatre. (For details Dark Money by Jane Mayer is an eye opener.) The Obama presidency was crippled by the 2010 mid terms, with over $100 million dollars spent to remove liberal REPUBLICANS, let alone Democrats.

In the UK advertising is strictly controlled. Political Parties are not allowed to place ads on the media channels. Television, radio, press and outdoor don’t carry party campaigns. But that does not mean that money is not spent to change and influences.

Brexit was not on the agenda for the people of the UK in 2010, yet by 2016 there was a referendum. How did that come about? Think tanks with academic sounding titles such as the European Economic, Institute of, Academy of etc were suddenly being quoted and members interviewed on the mainstream media. I set up a Facebook Group called the Oxford International Academy of Political Science, just to see what happened. Nothing. Sounds like it should have some meaning, but it doesn’t.

The BBC gave almost unfettered access to Nigel Farage between 2010 and 2018. No one can or will tell us why. His single agenda message was delivered on 25% of all the editions of Question Time programmes in that time period. His party had no MPs. Once he became famous through his BBC presence he started to appear and be listened to across the media. Why? Was there money changing hands?

In a recent BBC Question Time Emily Carver, head of media at the Institute of Economic Affairs was a a member of the panel. She refused to tell the audience or the other panel members who funded her right wing organisation. She said it was “boring” to be asked. Their website uses the word “Free” and talks about deregulation. Just like all the others supported by the Koch Brothers in the US.

In 2022 power lies in the media. You and I are influenced by the stories we hear, the comments made, the people who are promoted. We cannot help but respond to the constant messaging.

Power exercised through social media. Bots and real people putting out unfettered lies to tarnish those that are honest. People are persuaded that their freedom will be inhibited by tax rises for the wealthiest in society. Words such as socialist and left wing have become pejorative, longer simple political positions. (See how Labour runs away from the tarnish of “left wing.”)

Money and power are now totally merged. The politicians who in the past were powerful enough to be independent now cower in the face of the media owned by the super wealthy. Our democratic power is limited to placing one x in a box every five years. The wealthy influence decisions in their favour every day. They pick up their phones to tell the elected representatives what to do, or else.

The need to be “in power” is no longer necessary, you can hold power by holding billions in the bank. Academia has been corrupted, with research grants setting out the results before the work is undertaken, so when you hear that there are reports showing that climate change is not man made, you can be sure that they are deliberately skewed to influence the votes.

But there is a potential fightback. Digital media is open to us, to ordinary people, to you and me to challenge the power of the billionaire Libertarians driven by greed. Pressure groups of people with ordinary money. talking about the reality of life.