The Age of Neo-Feudalism is Near
According to online statistics, there are approximately 24,000 private jets operating in the world today. Which of course means there are twenty-four thousand private jet owners. Of course, that is a small fraction of the billions of people who inhabit our planet. It is however, arguably, just about the right number for a new noble class. People with the connections to make the rules, and the wealth and freedom to ignore the rules themselves.
Sure, we can quibble about the numbers. But even if the new nobility is one hundred thousand or one million, the results will be similar. There will be two classes; one extraordinarily small group and the rest of us. This is not an outrageous claim; most of human history worked on this very model. China does to this day.
These people will be our new lords and princes. It is important to note, this is not simply a question of the haves and the have nots. That's a twentieth century analog perspective. Today we have digital tracking in the broadest sense and the vast implications of that new reality. No, I think this is more about freedom. Those who have real freedom versus those for whom freedom is ever shrinking. Our new overlords will do as they please. The rest of us will do what we are allowed.
This is what the climate emergency, central bank digital currencies, automation, open borders, drug legalization, media capture and global healthcare administration capture, ubiquitous cameras and facial recognition, defund the police, etc. are really about. Covid lockdowns and mandates offered a timely test of the new order. Think anything you please about Covid and the way authorities dealt with it, but this was a very successful trial run of neo-feudalism.
In Asia, I have noticed a rush to digitalization, even before the technology has been perfected. You see this often: No you must use the app; no the app only works on the newest smartphones; if you don't have one, you can't do whatever it is you are trying to do. Moreover, most of these apps require an active internet connection, which can be problematic if you are in a new area. Say when you are traveling.
The authorities will tell you that this is about efficiency and convenience. But I do not believe this for one minute. It is about tracking and control.
My guess is it will be the so-called climate emergency, completely factitious, that drives the next escalation. We will continue to drift in the direction of neo-feudalism, until our new lords get impatient, and use climate to accelerate the process. They have been laying the groundwork for this for the last decade.
Our lords want us car-less and confined to fifteen-minute cities. They want to limit our air travel. Meanwhile, the princes will continue to drive their own fleet of automobiles and they will fly their own private jets as much as they like. But we serfs will do what we're told and go where we are allowed. Freedom of movement will be sharply curtailed in the name of saving the planet.
Sure, you can go anywhere you like. So long as you don't have to fly or drive to get there. You can take public transportation – But only to where they deem fit for it to go.
Government policy will interfere with how you are allowed to spend your own money. Digital currency will include limitations on purchases. No, no serf, you've already purchased your monthly allowance of beef. Or you've already traveled your annual allowance of domestic air miles. And obviously: Your bank's credit and debit cards will decline any wayward potential purchases, like say firearms or ammunition. Multiple attempts and you will risk debanking. Maybe cheeseburgers will be next.
They want to buy up the farms and drive former farmers into the dystopian urban landscape that they themselves have created. They will own the farms, or control them with regulations. And you will eat only what they deem appropriate.
We recently traveled between two countries in Asia. Fingerprints and photographs to exit, fingerprints and photographs to enter. They want to know where you are and where you have been. And of course, they're just getting started. It was common to hear: No sorry, we do not accept cash here. So add, they want to know what you buy, and where and when you bought it.
And our travel required apps that, thankfully, worked on my smartphone, but not my wife's. If you don't have the right gadget with the right apps, you don't travel. So my advice here, to leave your smartphone at home, will not work. It is worth noting that our founders did not envision a need to include the right to travel or freedom of movement in our Bill of Rights. And you will certainly not find any such idea in other countries.
Now, do I expect some leviathan to be collecting and collating information? Not initially. But clearly, we are moving in that direction. And god knows that would please Herr Schwab, high priest to the new nobility, to no end. You know, it's important to keep up with what the serfs are doing.
Will social credit scores follow? Without a doubt. They will combine our internet usage (including social media and search history) with our purchases, and god knows what else (the correct educational indoctrination, which charities we support, what subscriptions we maintain, what books we read, etc.), to give us all a rating. Which will then be leveraged to improve or reduce the above listed freedoms. Want more travel miles? Make sure to behave yourself. Can there be any doubt that one will get extra credit for affiliating with the correct political party?
Another question: Can we get extra points for finking on our neighbors? Again, we've seen this before. But this is not East Germany; this time there will be a nifty website for you to report what your neighbors are up to.
Which brings us to this: Our overlords will not be able or even interested in the administration of our new feudalism. So they will need to employ a class of administrators, regulators, and enforcers. Luckily for them, government will gleefully step into this role. And here I mean all governments at all levels. This has already started. Here's a question: Is there any national government on this planet today which actually serves its citizens? Or have we reached the point in all nations, where it is the citizenry who serve the government?
To ask the question is to answer it.
Governments today, regardless of how they are installed, serve themselves. But the new feudal overlords are rich enough to buy off governments and powerful enough to use government to enforce the new feudal order. If you do not believe this is true, I again refer you to the Covid trial run, where government played its new role to perfection. Just imagine how government will act in the coming climate emergency.
Finally, I know some readers will ask, to what end? That is, what is the incentive for the princes to act in this manner? Well it's classic rent seeking. Our lords need a continuous source of wealth. And they are more than happy to use government policy and enforcement to insure the continual transfer of wealth from serf to lord. It worked in the middle ages, and it will work today.