4 ms·

> Power can sometimes be won or maintained without violence, but never without fraud, because it is necessary to make use of the masses, and the masses would no

> Power can sometimes be won or maintained without violence, but never without fraud, because it is necessary to make use of the masses, and the masses would not co-operate if they knew that they were simply serving the purposes of a minority.

kornhole 3y ago
The managerial class described by Burnham reaps some of the rewards in exchange for the services they provide in facilitating it. But they are trapped in the system as well.
theage 3y ago
Power is not a means, it is an end. The only way to discover the limits of your freedom is to go too far.
spacebanana7 3y ago
This style of writing is highly misleading. With careful reading, one can see that author restricts the necessity of fraud to situations where the masses create value for a minority with no external benefit to themselves or anything else. However this isn’t at all clear at first glance. Read casually, the text appears to state that fraud is necessary for all exercise of power. The pivotal word of “simply” makes the text difficult to read because the author uses the word to express exclusivity despite the common use of the word to express something like “essentially” or “easily”. This word choice allows the reader to be mislead into thinking that all use of power requires fraud rather than some specific use of power requires fraud.
- pessimizer 3y ago
  Because Burnham's neoconservatism is a sort of fusion of Marxist vanguardism and Walter Lippmann's panels of experts making decisions for the Phantom Public and selling them with lies. Burnham thought that the only possible way to maintain a civilization was through a small group of executive elites with access to the truth, but who kept the mass of the ignorant public docile through patriotic myths and slogans, and policing. There's no possible stable order for Burnham within a society that is not run by a minority in its own interest.

kornhole 3y ago

The managerial class described by Burnham reaps some of the rewards in exchange for the services they provide in facilitating it. But they are trapped in the system as well.

theage 3y ago

Power is not a means, it is an end. The only way to discover the limits of your freedom is to go too far.

spacebanana7 3y ago

This style of writing is highly misleading. With careful reading, one can see that author restricts the necessity of fraud to situations where the masses create value for a minority with no external benefit to themselves or anything else. However this isn’t at all clear at first glance. Read casually, the text appears to state that fraud is necessary for all exercise of power. The pivotal word of “simply” makes the text difficult to read because the author uses the word to express exclusivity despite the common use of the word to express something like “essentially” or “easily”. This word choice allows the reader to be mislead into thinking that all use of power requires fraud rather than some specific use of power requires fraud.

pessimizer 3y ago
Because Burnham's neoconservatism is a sort of fusion of Marxist vanguardism and Walter Lippmann's panels of experts making decisions for the Phantom Public and selling them with lies. Burnham thought that the only possible way to maintain a civilization was through a small group of executive elites with access to the truth, but who kept the mass of the ignorant public docile through patriotic myths and slogans, and policing. There's no possible stable order for Burnham within a society that is not run by a minority in its own interest.