Right up until America established itself as a supreme world power, most of the world was ruled by deep-rooted semi-despotic aristocratic systems. Systems in which nation states, and right down to small rural impoverished territories, were dominated by a privileged few based on their direct family lineage. These systems conflated with the power bases of a society; generally monarchy, religion, banking, economics, and the institution of law. Once established, it was extremely difficult to wrestle power from their powerful grip. It should be noted that many of these aristocracies became disgenic and inbred over time.... aka "genetically unfit" in the eyes of nature. False evolutionary struggle.
Underneath these established choke points of a nation were the aristocracy of large cities which ruled over the provinces. For example, the Brescian Council of the Middle Ages was clearly a regional aristocratic oligarchy. There were too many aristocratic families involved to be considered a monarchy; however, for example, the fine reputation of your great-grandfather was literally a requirement for membership. That is not an exaggeration. In fact, certain legal and necessary businesses were shunned because they were just too dirty or harsh in their activities. Are we so much better today? Many snobby urban "intellectual" conservatives and liberals totally dismiss "farmers" or people who merely live in rural areas as somehow "beneath them."
Even within an impoverished rural province, such as the Swiss Canton of Ticino in the nineteenth century, who your father was dictated your upward advancement in that society. Not surprisingly, after living generations amid that type of social restriction, Ticinese immigrants became very industrious in capitalist-friendly California, Australia, or Britain. Capitalism can be either a blessing or a curse within this concept; although more often it removed the invisible shackles of aristocracy. If not kept in check however, it can coalesce into an oligarchic defacto-aristocracy with bloodline merely replaced by money.
Digressing to the original concept of "aristocracy" based on the bloodline, those family bloodlines have a terrible track record in terms of how they treat the people of their own culture. In other words, their concept of a bloodline ends outside of their monarchical circle. This has been proven time and time again, over centuries. In my opinion, it was their very worst trait! At times, they acted almost as though they hated their people. Only during times of war did the scoundrels start talking "we and us." I think that can hold equally true in Capitalism, Communism, monarchies, and religion.
Outside of the realms of the usual aristocratic suspects, native folkways provide for a love of one's people and the land. Although one can find some historical elements of brutality, much more often they displayed the qualities of 1) love for one's people, love for the land, love for animals, the divine masculine (law), the divine feminine (justice), and fairness; and 2) respect for nature's laws, including accepting the concept of evolutionary struggle and the necessity of defending their communities.
Law and justice worked together! Everyone within a community was cared and looked after; however if someone was destructive upon their society, there would be consequences. Pulling one's weight to their ability was a requirement. People like the Koch Brothers or George Soros wouldn't last very long. Activities which would harm society would not be tolerated in the tribal-minded society. Had those societies been allowed to ascend in the world, there wouldn't be poisoned water from fracking or sex parades in front of children.
I think mankind is at it's best when we are energetically humble. Not the disempowering type of humble, but the type of humble such as when someone is a gracious guest. I'm enriched when raccoons, foxes, skunks, hawks, and owls come out've the nearby mountains and woods and travel across the hillside where I reside. I like that I can share the earth with them, while still understanding and respecting nature's laws and evolutionary struggle.
I don't think we are served best when society attempts to make us "totally safe." I like to hear coyotes howling in the darkness of a nearby canyon at night. Awhile back I saw all sorts of white feathers outside my window. Several ravens were attacking and killing a sea gull. Nature is both beautiful and harsh. We are part of that.
One common feature amid the sewer of modern politics is a prevailing attitude that "everything is about ME!!" We're a good fifty years into the era of bad people making decisions for us, so I would have some sympathy for that problem; but everything is not about us. We already had it right thousands of years ago. Nobody can explain why technology is rising so fast, but not as fast as IQ scores are plummeting! People are being killed walking into heavy traffic, across train tracks, or off of cliffs because they can't take their eyes off of their devices. Everything is completely out've balance in human society.
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