Thread by @nickreeves9876

Rees-Mogg's father co-authored a book outlining the idea of a world ruled by 'Sovereign Individuals', the super-rich wholly freed from state control and taxes; an outcome I believe to be the ultimate objective of Trump-Brexit politics theguardian.com/news/2018/feb/…
#StopBrexit #Brexit

Obscured by Trump and #Brexit the super-rich continue to rapidly increase their wealth relative to the rest of us, and are funnelling vast sums into tax-havens. This offers them the prospect of great power, but also threatens them with a clampdown by nation-states.

Some of the super-rich will have looked at what happened to their predecessors in revolutionary France & Russia, and will feel threatened by the power of blocs like the EU to clamp down on their tax avoidance. This kleptocratic faction is now working to prevent such outcomes.

Others among the super-rich will have adopted the view of influential libertarian economist James Buchannan who portrayed makers (entrepreneurs) as the “prey” of “parasites” and “predators” (democratic welfare states) out to fleece them.
ineteconomics.org/perspectives/b…

Among libertarian economist Buchanan's patrons is Charles Koch, one of the Koch brothers who have used their enormous wealth to to sway US election results and gain immense influence on the Republican Right. sourcewatch.org/index.php/Koch…

Organisations funded by the Kochs such as ALEC and the Heritage Foundation have strong ties with members of #Brexit supporting right-wing think-tanks in the UK in addition to strong influence in the Trump administration.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

So right-wing #Brexit is just one arm of a project by a ruthless segment of the super-rich with aim of increasingly freeing themselves from the shackles of democratic states, and increasingly taking control of those states. A project outlined by Rees-Mogg's father.

Now that the visceral fear of nationalism created by WW2 has faded this kleptocratic faction has realised that fear of social change and immigration can be manipulated into a nationalist hysteria capable of toppling the liberal democracies which they see as holding them down.

In this the Western kleptocrats have found a willing ally in the form of Putin who fearing that democracy will one day come to topple him, has joined them and nationalists in the project to destroy liberal democracy.

Western democracy now faces its gravest threat since 1940. The USSR for all its nuclear missiles & KGB activity was an economically weak external threat, but the new threat is to a large degree on the inside of democratic societies, with Putin offering powerful state support.

The threat is all the more dangerous because the super-rich are rapidly growing richer relative to everyone else. Economic change is pushing towards a flow of power from nation states to the super-rich, towards a world dominated by kleptocratic robber barons.

We should recall that democracy is a historical aberration, that in its modern form with universal suffrage is scarcely a century old. For most of recorded history humans have been ruled by despots.

My belief is that within perhaps two or three decades democracy could be largely wiped off the face of the globe. We are now not merely engaged in a struggle to stop #Brexit or Trump, we are engaged in a life and death struggle to save democracy. This is WW3.