#oligarchy

The essence of oligarchical rule is not father-to-son inheritance, but the persistence of a certain world-view and a certain way of life ... A ruling group is a ruling group so long as it can nominate its successors ... Who wields power is not important, provided that the hierarchical structure remains always the same. ↗

— George Orwell

#oligarchy #ruling-class #life

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around. ↗

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

#ancestors #around #arrogant #classes #dead

Representative government is artifice, a political myth, designed to conceal from the masses the dominance of a self-selected, self-perpetuating, and self-serving traditional ruling class. ↗

— Giuseppe Prezzolini

#government #oligarchy #plutocracy #voting #design

A ruling intelligentsia, whether in Europe, Asia or Africa, treats the masses as raw material to be experimented on, processed, and wasted at will. ↗

— Eric Hoffer

#oligarchy #tyranny #experience

There has always been, and there is now, a profound conflict of interest between the people and the government of the United States. ↗

— Howard Zinn

#government #oligarchy #plutocracy #democracy

We must not tolerate oppressive government or industrial oligarchy in the form of monopolies and cartels. ↗

— Henry A. Wallace

#government #industrial #monopolies #must #oligarchy

Our authorities leave us no doubt that the trust lodged with the oligarchy was sometimes abused, but it certainly ought not to be regarded as a mere usurpation or engine of tyranny. ↗

— Henry James Sumner Maine

#certainly #doubt #engine #leave #lodged

All systems are oligarchy. There is no other. ↗

— Tom Metzger

#other #systems

The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy. ↗

— Charles de Montesquieu

#citizen #dangerous #democracy #oligarchy #prince

But if there's an erosion at home, you know, Thomas Jefferson warned about a tyranny of an oligarchy and if we surrender our democracy to the tyranny of an oligarchy, we've made a terrible mistake. ↗

— Pat Robertson

#democracy #erosion #home #jefferson #know