https://blot.blog/aside/tags/politics/Recent content on Politics on blot.blogHugo -- gohugo.ioenelliot@clowes.me (Elliot Clowes)elliot@clowes.me (Elliot Clowes)Fri, 14 Mar 2025 09:13:54 +0000https://blot.blog/aside/2025/03/14/silvio-berlusconi-invented-the-modern-oligarchy-musk-is-expanding-it/Fri, 14 Mar 2025 09:13:54 +0000elliot@clowes.me (Elliot Clowes)https://blot.blog/aside/2025/03/14/silvio-berlusconi-invented-the-modern-oligarchy-musk-is-expanding-it/<p><a href="https://www.persuasion.community/p/elon-musk-and-the-decline-of-western">&ldquo;Silvio Berlusconi invented the modern oligarchy. Musk is expanding it.&rdquo;</a></p> <p>I haven’t thought about Silvio Berlusconi for a while. Francis Fukuyama:</p> <blockquote> <p>When historians 50 or 100 years from now investigate how and why Western civilization collapsed, they would point to Silvio Berlusconi as the chief villain. The former Italian Prime Minister was the inventor of the modern form of oligarchy, in which a rich individual uses his money to buy his way into political office through the purchase of media properties, and then uses his political office to protect his business interests.</p> <p>Well, guess what, we now have our own home-grown American oligarch in the Berlusconi mold: Elon Musk.</p> </blockquote>