“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

Famous quote.

Now I give you “Bzilion’s Conspiracy Razor”:

“Never attribute to malicious conspiracies that which is adequately explained by emergent dysfunction.”

Or the dramatized version:

“Never attribute to Them that which is adequately explained by Moloch.” [0]

——

Certainly selfish elites, as individuals and groups of aligned individuals, push for their own respective interests over others. But, despite often getting their way, the net outcome is (often) as perversely bad for them as anyone else. Nor do disasters result in better outcomes the next time.

Precisely because they are not coordinated, they never align enough to produce consistent coherent changes, or learn from previous misalignments.

(Example: oil industry protections extended, and support for new entrants withdrawn, from the same “friendly” elected official who disrupts trade enough to decrease oil demand and profits.)

Note that elite alignment would create the same problem for the elites, that the elites create for others. It would create an even smaller set of super elites, tilting things toward themselves and away from lesser elites.

So the elites will fight back against “unification” of there interests. They want to respectively increase their power, not hand it “up”.

This strong natural resistance against unification at the top, is why dictators don’t just viciously repress the proletariat, but also publically and harshly school the elites.

To bring elites into unity, authoritarian individuals or committees must expend the majority of their power capital to openly legitimize it and crush resistance, I.e. manufacture universal awe and fear, even from the elites. Not something hidden puppet masters can do. Both are inherently crowd control techniques optimized by maximum visibility.

It is a fact of reality, that every policy that helps some elites, harms others. And the only real manufacturable universal “alignment” is a common desire not to be thrown into a gulag or off a balcony.

But Moloch? Moloch is very real. Invisible, yet we feel his reach and impact everywhere.

——

[0] https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/TxcRbCYHaeL59aY7E/meditation...