The entropic nature of democracy is often underestimated. Within the political arena, the spectacle of party politics—Democrat versus Republican, Labour versus Conservative—is little more than an elaborate puppet show designed to distract the masses from the true nature of power dynamics. This superficial conflict masks the real division: the people versus the elites.
The elites, a category not limited to elected officials such as congressmen or the hereditary peers of the House of Lords, encompass a broad spectrum of influential actors. These include the titans of finance, like BlackRock and Vanguard, whose tentacles reach into every corner of the global economy, and various non-governmental organizations, such as the Tony Blair Institute, which exert considerable influence over public policy and opinion.
2024 has been heralded as a pivotal year, with many Western nations either having held or preparing to hold elections. We are told by an insistent media class that these elections represent a critical juncture, a chance for profound change – or reasons to be scared. However, this narrative is fundamentally flawed. The ruling regime, the true power behind the scenes, remains largely unscathed by the electoral process. The pageantry of democracy does little to alter the entrenched power structures.
For a genuine upheaval of the ruling regime to occur, a rival elite class must emerge, one that commands at least superficially the allegiance and support of the lower classes. This scenario is not entirely unprecedented. History is replete with instances where new elites have supplanted old ones, often riding the wave of popular discontent. The key, however, boils down to one matter: organisation. The tightly organised minority always defeats the disorganised masses.
Yet, in contemporary Western societies, particularly in a country like the United Kingdom, this appears increasingly unlikely. The societal fabric of Britain has deteriorated to such an extent that social cohesion is virtually non-existent. The atomisation of society, the erosion of community bonds and the pervasive sense of apathy among the populace – not to mention the perpetual retardation of the citizenry – create a fertile ground for maintaining the status quo.
Some commentators do persist in announcing that “something” is in the air, that change is afoot. This is veering into insanity. How can we expect a population so bereaved and so bereft of any semblance of traditional virtue and masculinity to rise up and seize power?
With a brief look at history, it becomes evident that the cyclical nature of history often involves the rise and fall of elites. Carlyle’s notion of the "Great Man" theory posits that history is shaped by the actions of extraordinary individuals, yet in the current climate, the potential for such figures to rise is severely constrained by the existing power structures. Burnham’s analysis of the managerial revolution highlights the bureaucratisation of society and the consolidation of power within a technocratic elite, further entrenching the status quo.
Moreover, the warnings of Arnold Toynbee and John Bagot Glubb about the decline of civilisations resonate with the present condition of the UK. Toynbee’s analysis of the disintegration of societies under the weight of internal decay and external pressures, coupled with Glubb’s observations on the life cycles of empires, underscore the inevitability of decline when a society loses its vitality and cohesion. We can speculate as to the causes of these losses, but suffice for now to say that chief among them is the mass importation of several foreign cultural populations – and at an ever-accelerating rate.
In this context, the future is most bleak. The prospect of a new elite emerging to challenge the current regime is dim, particularly in a society as fractured and disenchanted as modern Britain.
While democracy may present the illusion of change, the underlying reality remains stubbornly resistant to transformation. The real division is not between political parties, but between the people and the elites. The entropic nature of democracy, entrenching the power of the elites, suggests that, without a significant and unified challenge from below, the future is poised to be one of continued stagnation and decline. We would do well to remind ourselves that, in the absence of vigilance and collective action, the descent into hell is all but assured. Where we go from there is beyond even the most pessimistic of imaginations.