HISTORY AND TODAY

By Caloy Bueno
12 October 2017


The ancient regime in medieval times imposed an order in human civilization where the first estate was the nobility -- kings endowed with the 'divine right to rule'. Who gave these kings such 'divine right' to rule? The church -- the second estate -- because with a stable rule and strong government, the church could go about its business of spreading and administering Christianity among the populace and harvesting souls for the Kingdom of heaven, by ensuring that people were subservient to the kingdom of man (ruled by the king) which they helped to establish. The people, particularly those who had the means and capability to represent themselves as more or less independent (but still relying on the state to provide security from external threats as well as domestic peace and order), comprised the third estate -- those being ruled. In early times, some of them became nobles themselves, earning titles and positions through the favor of the king. Altogether they were the ruling elite of the medieval world...


In modern society, the nobility who are still around are no longer active rulers -- they are retained for performing ceremonial functions of the state and act as symbols of national identity and pride. The second estate -- which we may lump together as an unruly whole called religions -- operate independently of the state in most instances. The third estate, the people, are now the ones who give political power (mandates) to leaders who rule over them according to law and the constitutional foundations of their country. The people's taxes continue to sustain the state, and the social contract of old is now guided and influenced by the laws and effects or conditions of modern civilization. Essentially, the old social contract ensured that the people gave allegiance to the king and unquestioningly follow commands, in return for the king's protection from external threats and the right to live and pursue their own livelihood. The modern state and governments exist to serve the people; in the olden days, the people served the rulers and the state...


The fourth estate came about when modern society recognized that mass media had become a powerful sectoral influence on the people. Along with the entertainment industry as a subsector of mass media, the fourth estate rivaled the power of religions and the state itself in determining the will of the people over their leaders. The doctrine of the ancient regime had irreversibly been supplanted with its modern substitute -- state politics -- which is not only confined to governance, however. While the real noble rulers have already retired to their comfortable castles and redoubts, new powerful cabals of the rich members of the third estate arose to take their place, even overshadowing the power of the state, leveraging their vast economic hold domestically as well as globally...


These oligarchs or plutocrats have become the de facto first estate. Various religious organizations readily cooperate with these oligarchs -- thus symbolically providing them their own version of the 'divine right to rule'. The fourth estate (mass media), mostly operated by these oligarchs through complex webs of ownership and connections, put up their facades of fierce independence, fairness and impartiality -- regaling the people with their adversarial relationships with the government while indoctrinating and conditioning people's minds to be malleable to the grand plans and schemes of the new masters of the 'first estate'...


These scenarios seem to be very familiar to us, striking a chord that resonates within our socio-cultural, political and even spiritual spheres of experience -- ancient regime, or modern reality?

~ 'pag may time