Two pronounced — and inverse — trends in Western societies have long been observable, and yet they are rarely noticed or discussed.
There is a reason for that. These trends tell us something deeply revealing about how our societies are shaped by structural forces — forces that individual office holders can do little to shape through their own values or personalities.
These forces operate rather like laws of nature — though there is nothing natural about them. They are the very opposite of how most Westerners imagine power works — that is, that it derives from the will of the people and is democratically accountable.
The first trend is this: the nearer to power a politician or official gets, the more their behaviour has to align with the structural interests of the billionaire class. Or put another way, the only route to power for any individual in our societies is by subordinating their personal beliefs and values to the interests of a rapacious, predatory class of capitalists.
The second trend illuminates the first. The further a former office holder moves away from the centre of power, the more room there is for their humanity to resurface — assuming they were not a hollow vessel for power to begin with, or turned permanently sociopathic through years of service to elite interests. (Yes, Tony Blair — I’m looking at you.)
Hellbound and Down 