Part 1. Forward to scientific conspiracy theories.
Last time we mentioned the founder of political science, Nicolo Machiavelli. His main contribution to future science was the public discovery of the natural difference between the political logic of decisions and actions from the ordinary or even elite, but not political. For example, the logic of a commander in an army is far from the logic of a commander, let alone a commander-in-chief. At the same time, the logic of decisions and actions of a political leader simply needs to be hidden from subordinates from society, so as not to violate the very possibility of management and the integrity of the system.
An empirical description of the logic of a politician, a "sovereign" forced to resort to cunning and sometimes insidious methods of fighting "partners", on the one hand, helped many sovereigns of the New Age, and on the other, more than once led them into the temptation of excesses. Because "Machiavellianism" is a medal on two sides, and its application is a double-edged sword. A politician is not only obliged to fight for power with insidious methods, but also not to destroy the political unity of the country, based on the people's trust and adherence to unifying values.
These two conditions determine symbolic capital (charisma) - the success of a politician in the fight against competitors, which is perceived by society as a fight between good and evil. The well-known praise of the politician is about this, that the "laces" of intrigues woven by him do not have visible knots on the wrong side. Again, the ancient sages called the ideal of a ruler a politician who apparently does not interfere in the course of affairs at all, but at the same time retains his high status and charisma, even if inherited. For example, one of the most peaceful and successful was the short period of the reign of the pilgrim Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, when all the purl knots formed the image of Godunov's son-in-law.
Alexander I, who was officially engaged in negotiations at the highest European level, used a similar strategy to preserve the image by shifting all internal problems onto the “temporary worker” Arakcheev. To be frank, Tsar Alexander, with his image of a well-meaning and gentle romantic reformer, for a long time succeeded in this strategic feint much better than his modern counterpart, Vladimir Putin, with his original image of an insidious Chekist.
And in general, in our cynically enlightened time, it is difficult for society to imagine a brilliant hero-idealist at the head of a state, except perhaps very small, and that is hardly. On the contrary, society easily believes in the cunning, cunning and self-interest of politicians. Moreover, an attempt by politicians to lead or portray goodies will immediately cause a wave of rumors, gossip, insinuations, stuffing and conjectures from all competitors, as well as exposing opposition reports, hanging on a beautiful lace intrigue not only a bunch of dirty knots, but all dogs.
Therefore, modern politicians, rather, compete in cynicism, treachery and treachery, but at the same time a cynically enlightened society expects only one thing from the ruler, that all this cynicism is directed against enemies and at least partially in the interests of the country and the people. However, even in our time, when social requirements for the purity of charisma are very minimal, political leaders manage to be found who are off scale. For example, Hillary with her negative charisma: Servergate, Bengazigate, Whitewatergate, Sandersgate, now also Mullergate, based on an order from Hillary to make fictional compromising evidence on Trump.
The political logic of Machiavelli is turned strictly inside out, and it seems that discipline in the ranks of the establishment and the American media is supported precisely by the general fear of the collapse of the system in the face of violation of all written and unwritten laws and morals. The threat of complete moral and, therefore, political collapse makes the entire elite stubbornly broadcast a version of the intervention of the insidious Putin, who, sorry, "shit in his pants" intoxicated with impunity, the American elite. Maybe people will grab this version, and after us even a flood …
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Having sunk to the brink of political cynicism and moral decline, society was still horrified, and another part of it is trying not to portray that everything is fine, but to return to conservatism, traditional values. Fortunately, pushing away from Hillary's pole without moral brakes pushes towards such cynics as Trump and Putin, who seem to be acting in favor of society, riding this conservative wave. However, the split and fear in the elites, the general unwillingness of the elites to return to traditional morality, forms a chaotic picture of these two waves - the liberal-immoral and counter-reflected waves. In general, the attempt of the old bourgeois elites to return to the era of innocent youth of humanism can give an external cosmetic effect of rejuvenation, but it will not cure metastasis.
In general, we can state that the political and ideological methods of the Western elites, based on the theory of the beginning of the 16th century, reached the brink and were exhausted in the same way as political and economic methods were exhausted together with the completion of the global expansion that began at the same time, 500 years ago. … This means that it is time to move at least a little further - from Machiavelli and the complementary empirical generalizations at the heart of elite political analytics - to a deeper understanding of the subject and mechanisms of political power. Without this new understanding and at least partial awareness of the elites, it is impossible to get out of the deep crisis caused by the exhaustion of previous methods and knowledge. You can only freeze it, preserve the systemic crisis, but it will again and again manifest itself in cyclical attacks.
Continuation: Part 3. From Clausewitz to Stirlitz.