On the Murdoch Empire and the slandered Democracy: Reflection on the Newsweek article "Ruppert’s red menace"

Did democracy get compromised in its cradle in ancient Greece and Rome? Surely, it did. One clear sign of it was the process of gerrymandering in Rome; a process that, within some limits, placed the political power in the hands of the wealthy. But still, democracy of gone-by days had a certain naïveté in it, a flavor of honesty and a chance to keep social realities untangled.

With the unveiling of the News of the World scandal recently we have gotten a glimpse at how the Murdoch Empire has been operating in today’s civilized democracy. It reveals surprising admissions of world leaders of their fears to get on the wrong side of a media mogul and his henchmen. We learn that Gordon Brown and Tony Blair felt powerless against Rebekah Brooks. There is reasonable suspicion that the Empire influenced Dow Jones CEO-s, London majors, and the British Police, who knows up to what level.

What the h&@l is going on? Our democratically elected leaders are trying to please not their electorate but the almighty Media and its affiliate? Our democratic institutions are being subservient to this same privileged group?

The question begs: is this still Democracy, or have we slipped back into a New-Age Oligarchy instead that flaunts in the masquerade of “True Democracy”?

I am afraid that today’s oligarchs cleverly recognized the most powerful way to manipulate people. Instead of using brute force, or the threat thereof, to keep the citizens in submission, these oligarchs discovered a new tool. A tool that was unknown to the old time rulers; a tool that is more sophisticated and successful than any monstrous weapons of the past: the Media. Using this rapidly evolving and developing tool, these groups, their underwriters, investors and various other supporters, took over the world not by physical horror but by words, sound and image clips. As a result, these groups now hold the minds of the citizens more effectively, and hang on to power more aggressively than any Emperor, King or Queen of the past could ever have imagined.

Through the loudspeakers of the Media we are constantly being reminded, and finally made believe, that panacea is here, that the control of society finally moved from the hands of monarchs to the hands of the people, and with that, we reached what the ancient free spirits could only dream of, “True Democracy” with freedom, liberty and justice for all, etc.

In reality what happened is that the control stick got simply transferred from a single individual, the monarch, to a selected few, today’s oligarchs.

Troubling thought, but I get an intellectual kick out of this: what does the future hold for us? The oligarchs staying on the top of the world? Or, the birth of a new kind of Triumvirate as more and more power concentrates in the hands of the biggest media moguls? Or, perhaps even progressing into a brand new monarchy (Murdoch certainly could have fit the bill for this one) not unlike those two famous Triumvirates of Rome that ended with the unchallenged ruling of Octavian? Or, perhaps the small cartel of today’s oligarchy somehow will grow into a bigger and bigger group until one day eventually it will embrace the people as a whole, fulfilling the original promise and dream of true democracy?

LH