Oligarchy – A governmental system wherein power is held by a few persons.
That is my definition. It is my recall of the definition I learned in high school over fifty years ago. Oligarch is the term used by politicians and media talking heads to describe the persons close to the head of government in the Russian Federation, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
There are all these shadowy figures, along with President Putin, running Russia. At least this is what is presented to us. We are expected to believe it, just as we are expected to believe in human caused climate change, gender inequities in pay, Critical Race Theory, and that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
You see. The U S of A is different. We aren’t ruled by oligarchs. (When you’re through rolling on the floor, laughing, read on.)
Ever notice that a Congressional Representative or Senator defeated for re-election happens infrequently, or that they are almost all millionaires to a person? It just turns out that way. Oh, and they were elected, or re-elected to office, on the basis of their merits. The same can be said for Presidents and governors of the individual states.
The people in power and their media minions are used to lying to us. We, in turn, are inured to believing them. We wouldn’t think to call our Senator, a billionaire tech mogul, a Wall Street financier, or a four star general/admiral an oligarch. But they surely are. An outsider, who stands in their way, will be destroyed. Joe Rogan is but the latest example. Rogan is relatively harmless. Donald Trump isn’t. Sometime, between now and the 2024 Iowa Caucases, Donald Trump will die under questionable circumstances. He pissed off the wrong people.
The motivation behind those who govern isn’t service or dedication to principles, but attainment of and holding on to power. Consider the shifting position of Barack Obama on same-sex marriage. When he changed his mind from opposition to to support for same-sex marriage, he evolved. On the other hand, when Nixon went to China, he was a cynical opportunist. Nixon didn’t evolve, nor was Obama an opportunist. Both, however, shifted their positions to hold on to power.
The oligarchs aren’t omniscient. Bill Gates may know how to write software, but he doesn’t know any more about human rights or liberty than your server at your favourite breakfast spot. Gates has a media and public relations staff. Your server doesn’t.
Oligarchs are used to having their wishes fulfilled. Their ideas are simply that, wishes. If Bill Gates wants the human race vaccinated against COVID-19, that is little more than a wish, He has minions, paid and unpaid, to promote that idea until the whole world, especially its rulers, believe it, and the people of the world are vaccinated.
Back in the Eighties and Nineties, eliminating tariffs and other trade barriers, was the wish of economists and the billionaires (oligarchs) for whom they worked. People lost their jobs in Flint, Michigan, Gordonsville, Virginia and thousands of other places to have this wish fulfilled. When Americans can’t get a light bulb, a pair of shoes, or penicillin until they are offloaded from a container ship, this is the result of this wish. Good for the oligarch and the academic he hires to justify his whims, bad for us.
Today, forty per cent of the ammonium nitrate needed to fertilize our food crops comes from Russia. The Russians say they won’t be able to ship til April. These are the same Russians that are supposedly poised to attack Ukraine. Think they really care about the threat of sanctions? Your Thanksgiving dinner is riding on the answer. Our oligarchs look like they might not get their wishes fulfilled, this time, at least.
Dispatches From Dystopia 
a word i haven’t heard for a long time, i have a MS in Economics. For what that’s worth. What you have written i have argued for a long time. i live in the state of Illinois where millionaires have been Governors and those that were not ended up in jail. It is an interesting world we live in. i always go back to that song Master Jack. its’ a strange strange world we live in. i am glad to be retired living a reality carefree life spending time at home with my daughter and grandchildren or being a maid to Mistress Kate & Sir A.
i try not to think about these things as it saddens me and makes me feel helpless not being able to change things
Situations change. People are fed up with the plague “precautions”, for starters. Every advisory from Department of Homeland Security directing attention to parents and ordinary citizens as domestic terror threats bears that out.
i know i keep wondering how long how much more. when and how will it end.
The tide does seem to be turning a little. The horrible inflation going on now, stores being out of stock on a lot of items for weeks on end, rising gasoline prices, the mess on our southern border, and more—all can be laid at the door of our present government. I think one of Biden’s stupidest moves was to cut down oil production in the US. Before he did that, we were energy independent. I hope to God the midterm elections sees the republicans win the senate and house. Most of them are as crooked as snakes, just like the democrats, but their policies usually do more good for the working man than does the democrats’. Personally, I don’t like President Trump. He’s thin-skinned, egotistical, and has a horrible bedside manor. But I believe he loves our country and was doing his best to make it better. But because he wasn’t a “real” politician, didn’t play the game, he was hated and vilified by all on the left. Like you, I fear for his life if he chooses to run in 2024.
No doubt, Trump is something of a jerk, but he is a patriot. In an environment of opportunists, he was /is toxic to the schemers’ designs. Do you remember when the Obama Administration, and Hillary Clinton’s State Department authorised the sale of our uranium supply to RosAtom, a company owned by the Russian government? That was one of the goals of the now totally discredited Trump/Russia collusion plot, taking that deal out of the spotlight.
I remember it well. Traitors.