The Oligarchs' Lost Letters: The Inheritance Of Power & Influence
A Letter on What Money Cannot Buy
To my esteemed family,
“It is truly quite an extraordinary system that governs our country. Our Founding Fathers, so many years ago, established a “democracy” for the people to have a voice. In our founding documents the system appears fair and equal to the uneducated or common man.
We perpetuate our system not because it is morally good or superior to every other system, but because the diffusion of responsibility allows us to take actions that are seemingly nobody’s fault except the system. The different branches of government allow the truly powerful to control agendas before the people ever have a chance to form an opinion. It is a fantastically convoluted system that perpetuates our ability to control and influence this country without incurring any blame whatsoever.
Now you may be wondering why you are being told something you already know. It is because you will one day have to navigate the systems of power to exert your own will, or you will be consumed by our rivals and sacrificed to the people as a scapegoat for all the problems of the time. I am attempting to protect you from a folly I have witnessed befall far too many powerful men.
You must understand money is not power. Money can grant you many things: a comfortable life, access to the elite strata of society, access to powerful men, and countless other opportunities. Access to powerful men is far more consequential than every other use of money.
You see, our system relies on a supposed democracy, but in reality it is no democracy at all. It is far more accurate to call it what it is, a contest of power. Every system purports to be the finest, every system purports to be morally superior, but in reality every system is simply a contest of power. Who can hold it, acquire the most of it, and wield it most effectively.
Wealth, in this system bequeathed to us by our fathers before us, grants us one of the largest advantages in society, but it also places a mark upon our backs. Once you have deployed our money correctly to forge new political connections through gifts, bribes, and other means, you will command the loyalty of many powerful and influential men for a time.
Most men appear to be above bribery and morally superior to their baser instincts, but in reality, if you support them in an election with tremendous financial backing, they will feel indebted to you. And if you continue to give or compensate them, they will continue to serve you loyally. This is easily accomplished among most politicians, because these are men who seek influence and will acquire it by any means necessary.
The difficulty arises when a rival attempts to purchase their loyalty as well. It is not the control that is the difficult part. It is retaining your owned politicians, because today they will be your ally, and tomorrow they will conduct themselves as though they have always despised you. They are far more loyal to those willing to pay them more, not to those who gave them their foundation and supported their rise. It is a conditional arrangement. You either remain the highest bidder or you become an adversary.
The other class of men you must cultivate, if you wish to remain powerful and influential, are those in the press. The men who operate the newspapers decide what the people see. There are multiple ways to control or influence those in the press, but today I will give you the most effective strategy.
The first and simplest way to control a publication is to build one from nothing. You cannot operate the publication, that would be far too conspicuous, nor should you even publicly own it. You must identify a man who is an aspiring writer and possessed of genuine talent. Once you have found him, support the publication from its inception. Become a partner in the venture, and the man will regard you as his greatest benefactor.
Grow this publication into an institution through our backing and influence. Once you have elevated it into one of the premier media enterprises in the country, you have prevailed, because you essentially govern the company. But the difficulty becomes apparent when people observe that you hold fifty percent of the company. They will conclude that the entire publication exists solely to protect our business interests. That may be true, but we cannot permit that degree of exposure.
Simply divest your entire stake in the company. That may seem counterproductive, but once you have sold your entire stake to the markets or to specific banks, reacquire it through our various banks and financial entities. In this way you have diffused the ownership and yet retained control of the company. If one were to trace who truly owns the publication, they would find many companies and banks holding it, not one person or family. It may seem as though they will eventually trace ownership back to our banks, but they will not.
Controlling politicians purchases influence in the halls of government. Owning the press purchases the entire government through perception and selective reporting. Both methods are indispensable for maintaining and expanding our power.
Do not fail your family.”
Your Father,
The American Industrialist
The Oligarchs’ Lost Letters is a free PT series examining power, wealth, and control through the private words of those who have always held it.
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