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I recently read 'The Power Broker', Robert Caro, which describes how Robert Moses came to acquire power over park, road, bridge, and tunnel construction in New

I recently read 'The Power Broker', Robert Caro, which describes how Robert Moses came to acquire power over park, road, bridge, and tunnel construction in New York City and State for over 40 years. There are strong parallels with the story here.

jonstewart 2y ago
The Power Broker is supposed to be a story of moral failure and how power corrupts, and it is, but it’s also the absolute best how-to guide.
- pjmorris 2y ago
  In an interview, Michael Lewis has said that he wrote 'Liar's Poker' as a cautionary tale, but it was taken as a 'How To' manual. Robert Caro has said (e.g. in 'Working') that he writes to expose how power is acquired and used in the US... which, as you say, also cuts both ways.
throw4847285 2y ago
Oh man, glad I'm not the only person who won't shut up about the Power Broker. I think the best takeaway is that a bubble forms around the powerful where they cease to have to engage with the world as it is.
- pjmorris 2y ago
  Hear, hear. It's interesting to me how Moses, per Caro, moved from being idealistic to being pragmatic in ways that look like corruption to those outside the 'bubble' but look like appropriate means and measures for accomplishing one's goals if you're inside the bubble. He came to be in possession of a great many opportunities to build, and so, to spend money, and he, using these opportunities and the money flow, over time, built a political machine for doing so in a way that benefited those who helped him, and punished those who didn't.
  - throw4847285 2y ago
    One could even argue (and Caro implies this) that it's a worse form of corruption because all the beneficiaries are already powerful wealthy people being further enriched. At least Tammany corruption was democratic: they needed votes, so new Irish immigrants to the Lower East Side would get a turkey, and if they were loyal, they could get a cushy job. It was a subversion of democracy, but one that required spreading the wealth around. Because Moses never had to run for office (and the one time he did, he failed spectacularly), he pioneered a purely bureaucratic form of corruption that conspired to extract as much money from the federal and state governments as possible and pour all of it into this ever turning hamster wheel of massive public works that weren't really for the public and didn't work, but did enrich the powerful people who took part in it. But of course you know all this already, because you read the book. Which means you also know, damn, what a good book. It's very hard not to just talk about it all the time, and drive other people crazy.
    - pjmorris 2y ago
      My 'trick' is to recommend his relatively short 'Working', which was the gateway drug to get me reading his longer works.

jonstewart 2y ago

The Power Broker is supposed to be a story of moral failure and how power corrupts, and it is, but it’s also the absolute best how-to guide.

pjmorris 2y ago
In an interview, Michael Lewis has said that he wrote 'Liar's Poker' as a cautionary tale, but it was taken as a 'How To' manual. Robert Caro has said (e.g. in 'Working') that he writes to expose how power is acquired and used in the US... which, as you say, also cuts both ways.

throw4847285 2y ago

Oh man, glad I'm not the only person who won't shut up about the Power Broker. I think the best takeaway is that a bubble forms around the powerful where they cease to have to engage with the world as it is.

pjmorris 2y ago
Hear, hear. It's interesting to me how Moses, per Caro, moved from being idealistic to being pragmatic in ways that look like corruption to those outside the 'bubble' but look like appropriate means and measures for accomplishing one's goals if you're inside the bubble. He came to be in possession of a great many opportunities to build, and so, to spend money, and he, using these opportunities and the money flow, over time, built a political machine for doing so in a way that benefited those who helped him, and punished those who didn't.
- throw4847285 2y ago
  One could even argue (and Caro implies this) that it's a worse form of corruption because all the beneficiaries are already powerful wealthy people being further enriched. At least Tammany corruption was democratic: they needed votes, so new Irish immigrants to the Lower East Side would get a turkey, and if they were loyal, they could get a cushy job. It was a subversion of democracy, but one that required spreading the wealth around. Because Moses never had to run for office (and the one time he did, he failed spectacularly), he pioneered a purely bureaucratic form of corruption that conspired to extract as much money from the federal and state governments as possible and pour all of it into this ever turning hamster wheel of massive public works that weren't really for the public and didn't work, but did enrich the powerful people who took part in it. But of course you know all this already, because you read the book. Which means you also know, damn, what a good book. It's very hard not to just talk about it all the time, and drive other people crazy.
  - pjmorris 2y ago
    My 'trick' is to recommend his relatively short 'Working', which was the gateway drug to get me reading his longer works.