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By the way, in case you missed it, here's yesterday's newsletter, in which I explain the 14 steps you need to take if you're a New Ceaser who wished to transform his liberal democracy into something more to his taste. claireberlinski.substack.com/p/the-new-caes…
The game: to amass as much power as much as possible within the formal parameters of a liberal democracy.
The rules:
1. Rewrite history.
2. Exploit and heighten ethnic, racial, religious, and class divisions.
The rules:
1. Rewrite history.
2. Exploit and heighten ethnic, racial, religious, and class divisions.
3. Magnify fear of foreigners and outsiders.
4. Enter Caesar—the voice of the “real people” in their struggle against a nebulous class of “elites.” You must have just the right kind of person for this.
5. Conflate entertainment and politics.
4. Enter Caesar—the voice of the “real people” in their struggle against a nebulous class of “elites.” You must have just the right kind of person for this.
5. Conflate entertainment and politics.
6.Create chaos, confusion, and a sense of permanent emergency.
7. Destroy confidence in the idea of objective truth.
8. Humiliate or destroy people who are better fit to be leaders.
9. Gain complete control of the media and turn it into a non-stop propaganda machine.
7. Destroy confidence in the idea of objective truth.
8. Humiliate or destroy people who are better fit to be leaders.
9. Gain complete control of the media and turn it into a non-stop propaganda machine.
10. Spread it around! Reward loyalists with juicy government contracts, tax loopholes, and tenders. Investors will always prefer profits to political fights.
11. Punish the unsubmissive with punitive taxes and spurious lawsuits.
11. Punish the unsubmissive with punitive taxes and spurious lawsuits.
12. Stack the courts.
13. Take control of the central bank and make foreign banks absorb the losses for your bad policy decisions. (Everyone will appreciate this: Everyone hates the bankers.)
13. Take control of the central bank and make foreign banks absorb the losses for your bad policy decisions. (Everyone will appreciate this: Everyone hates the bankers.)
14. Jigger the constitution so that opponents have no hope of coming to power through democratic means. (Call it “much-needed constitutional reform.”)
Snap referenda are superb for this. "It’s the will of the people."
Snap referenda are superb for this. "It’s the will of the people."
And voilà: You’re done. Elections still happen, but they are denuded of everything that makes elections meaningful.
Hail Caesar!
Hail Caesar!
