What creates an ELITE DEATH SPIRAL?
Claiming special privileges by virtue of having been selected among others
French élite "selection, choice," "chosen person"
DEFINE the term PRIVILEGE
“Rights and priorities over and above others” advantage granted, special right or favor granted to a person or group, a right, immunity, benefit, or advantage enjoyed by a person or body of persons beyond the common advantages of other individuals"
QUESTION: How are the privileges of the Elite conferred and by what right are they exercised over others?
Special Knowledge (insight into useful secrets and abilities unknown and unavailable to others).
Oracle: "a message from a god expressed by divine inspiration through a priest or priestess," in answer to a human inquiry, usually respecting some future event.
Prophet: "person who speaks for God; one who foretells, inspired preacher," "the function of a prophet; inspired utterance; the prediction of future events,"
TEST of a claim of Special Knowledge: WHAT IS IT?
Conditions:
1. Completeness: a. both parties must be honest b. Both parties follow the rules
2. Soundness: requires that the claim itself is true (minimizing the chances of a false claim)
3. Zero-knowledge: If proving a statement requires that the prover possesses some secret information, then the verifier will not be able to prove the statement to anyone else without also possessing the secret information.
TEST of “special” knowledge in a particular case
CLAIM: A Stock Market Analyst claiming 100 percent accuracy in predicting the rise or fall of particular stocks offers his services for a fee of one million dollars to all takers.
TEST: The Analyst offers the following proof of his special insight and accuracy. In four consecutive quarters, he will predict the rise or fall of pre-selected stocks.
The actual outcome at the end of the four quarters will attest or falsified to his claim.
RESULT:
One year later, 250 clients sign on for a fee of one million dollars.
Note: By the end of the next four quarters, only five clients remain.
Deep Dive Analysis: What Happened and Why?
The Stock Analyst mailed out prospective brochures to (ten thousand) extremely wealthy investors with an offer of his service and a proposed Test of his claims.
The “Analyst” selected four stocks for appraisal.
What the prospects did not know was his methodology.
For HALF predicted “UP” and for the other half he predicted “DOWN”
The group with resulting wrong predictions was dropped from his offer, leaving the half with correct predictions (i.e. guesses) for the second quarter test.
This procedure continued each quarter. Half dropped (wrong guesses) and half retained (correct guesses).
STRATEGY?
The Analyst only knew one thing worth knowing: people are easily fooled when they don’t know the WHOLE story behind a claim of special knowledge because they have ZERO KNOWLEDGE of the strategy employed in the Game being played.
The one making a claim of special knowledge does not need to be concerned about the failures indicated by tested results. Why? The ones who remain (True Believers) will always offset the losses of the (shattered belief) ones falling away (as measured by profits made measured against losses).
Further, the core of True Believers can be used as references to bolster claims of Special Knowledge for the next group of prospective clients.
(Note: Did he ever outright LIE? No.)
Those who fall away (disabused of the falsified claims) must be treated as crackpots and dangerous enemies or they pose a danger to new converts to the services offered.
True Believers reinforce and double down because they have profited (they think) by association with the Analyst (good guesser but - not -really an oracle).
ORACLES are the oldest category of Con-Men, grifters, Priests, Shaman, Witch Doctors in history by use of magic (mere tricks and not real powers). By a mixture of Fear (warnings of impending doom) and rewards (forgiveness, paradise soon to come) they have remained an important part of historic institutions of Kings, Pharoahs, Czars, Presidents, since time immemorial.
TV MINISTERS
Kenneth Copeland is the highest-paid pastor in the world. With an estimated net worth of $300 million ($300,000,000)
Copeland teaches the Prosperity Gospel. He attracts a mix of very wealthy congregants and poor as well. Using the Strategy of the Analyst (above) he doesn’t concern himself with those who fall away bankrupt because the True Believers (who attribute their prosperity to Copeland) are believable supporters with enthusiastic “proof” for prospective incoming replacements. Those who fall away (apostates) are seen as demonic antagonists and shunned and vilified). No rain on his parade permitted!
PROTECTION RACKET and DIVINE HEALERS
Rome was a mighty empire lasting over a thousand years. Its collective success served as a model for future Crime Syndicates and Organizations.
Here is how it works.
A country, territory, or province can ‘sign on’ with Rome as a client.
Rome will offer their vast army as protection. The client will be allowed to run its daily affairs as before with its own rulers as it pleases BUT a tax will be levied and paid. If any enemy attacks them - Rome will answer on their behalf.
FEAR is instilled followed by an offer of PROTECTION from consequences.
Compare the following instances of this racket throughout history.
Witch Doctor offers protection (for a fee) against unseen diabolical curses and demonic forces. Superstition and ignorance instill the belief (ramped up by the Witch Doctor’s claims of curses and demons). A side business providing amulets, good luck charms, potions, and elixirs ( meaningless rituals) are prescribed in turn. A false sense of protection (Placebo) provides a sense of security and peace of mind in return.
Priests act as a go-between; first terrifying a population with threats by a tribal deity and then offering a solution (sacrifices) administered by the Priests. (Note: Priests themselves kept the sacrifices as payment and/or collected a token fee for their services.) In other instances,
Pronouncements of curses, detection of Sins required Priests to “officiate” rituals for payment. The more sins listed, the more rituals and payments are required. In Catholic Churches, hellfire threats could be thwarted by rituals and contributions. Confessions by politicians and kings could be sold or passed along to merit favors as inside information (and a contribution offering). An imaginary place BETWEEN Heaven and Hell, called Limbo, offered an opportunity for profit for Priests. A wealthy client with a loved one who died could be told a money offering would budge them out of Limbo into Paradise. Indulgences were granted for sins for cash as well.
HEALERS claiming DIVINE power manipulates public perception through selective demonstrations of fraudulent efficacy. Benny Hinn Ministry offers divine healing + Prosperity Gospel doctrine.
His ministry takes in $100 million a year. The IRS raided his offices and his financial records were confiscated..
In an interview Hinn stated:
“You cannot fool all the people all the time, right? ... "I will tell you this. I think that if I was fooling the people over 35 years of it now, I would be caught already fooling them."
Hinn is aware True Believers have made a bargain in their consciences already: no failure on the part of God is possible. What ‘appears” to be a failure is the fault of the individual in lacking Faith.”
In other words, the Protection Racket relies on an untestable foundation
THE LAW
A great opportunity for extorted wealth can be found inside The Law by elite practitioners who serve as mediators between guilty or accused persons who don’t understand how to navigate a deliberately complexified priesthood called The Law.
Look inside any institution or religion and locate its LAWS of do’s and don’s and a need for a Mediator immediately appears.
For a fee or servitude, the Mediator extracts payment and the fear of prosecution or damnation can be negotiated.
Appointments of Judges is particularly relevant. Fortunes hang in the balance when going before a magistrate who holds your fate in his hands.
Most people are unaware that judges do NOT need any acquaintance with Law in the following instance:
POLITICS
Legislatures create laws and legislators can be influenced by money. In America, contributions have been officially terms “free speech.” Billionaires speak very loud and often in this regard.
Legislation, in effect, can make or break Billionaires.
Is it any wonder that as many as 8 out of 10 politicians are attorneys?
DOOMSDAY RELIGIONS
All major world religions parlay doomsday warnings because nothing motivates a flock to remain inside the fence better than the FEAR of divine wrath.
Predicting exact dates - it would logically appear - would weed out the false prophets. However, logic and rational thinking is far removed. First we must take a look at the mind of a True Believer and a psychological phenomenon called COGNITIVE DISSONANCE.
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE defined:
A good way to understand what happens to a True Believer when he’s proved wrong is to think of the ants in a Death Spiral. Simply described, a Death Spiral is when a colony of ants unwittingly crosses its own path and ends up going in a circle - and cannot escape! They continue until dead from exhaustion.
First off, Ants excrete a hormone from their feet that other ants can detect and follow. Yes! That’s what they do.
A scout goes out and wanders and searches for a food source and returns to the colony using his stinky footprints.
“Hey everybody! I found chocolate cake - come on - let’s go get it!”
But sometimes an ant will cross his own footsteps (when he wandered about searching) and ends up circling into an endless loop (taking the whole colony) on a futile and confidant march toward chocolate cake that ends up destroying the colony through sheer determination and the inability to admit no progress is being made.
Such confidence, determination, and energy will work against them.
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE is like that.
What you think you know and truly believe is thwarted by disproof you simply cannot accept.
1. I believe there is X.
2. I believe I should follow this path to X.
3. It is taking longer than I thought - but - God is faithful.
Rinse and Repeat.
Naturally, in the hands of a CULT, such faithful madness is exploited for gain. If True-Believers give up and fall out of the Death Spiral they are labeled as Weak of Faith and even Opposers of God.
If a Cult Religion loses members to Reality it is not counted as a Loss but as proof that prophecy is right: in the last days many will fall away.
Warnings are ignored. The circular march continues.
ELITE who play the game of the PROTECtiON RACKET
1. All prophecy and hypotheses can be tested: does the predicted event come to pass or does it fail?
2. Do the Elite who made the prediction own up to failure and apologize or do they deny and deflect and denounce nay saying?
3. Is FEAR peddled to quiet dissent?
4. Special Claims of special knowledge and abilities denied to others is only as good as its predictions.
5. Intellectual honesty begins and ends by the willingness to accept evidence - even when it disproves your most cherished belief.
6. Cognitive Dissonance means holding 2 contradictory thoughts in your mind at the same time and not allowing the correct conclusion to be acted upon.
7. Look at all those other ants - we can’t ALL BE WRONG!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ2HMoznzEo