The Covid quarantine was also a good way to do things that you wouldn't have done without it. I, for example, watched the first season of Game of Thrones (that was enough, the rest is just repeating itself). Many people see a lot of things in this film, which is at once a fantasy, thriller, socio-history and cinematic art. Regardless of whether a story is set in prehistoric times, or even whether the characters and locations are placed in the realm of the imagination, the point itself remains, this is a sharp social critique that pushes the truth about the own nature of power and human into one's face with staggering visual power, which is still valid today, as I will show in my writing by analogy.  
 

1. The formation of human communities in the unfolding of a society brings with it the inevitable emergence of the exercise of power. An atomized society, in which no one is subordinate to anyone, cannot survive because it will not be able to unite either with others or against the forces of nature, and its chances of survival will be reduced to zero. Clearly, the means of community survival will be the ability of community members, voluntarily or by force, to give up their individual goals in order to survive. 

2. In principle, power can be exercised in an autocratic or democratic way. Democratic leadership was unlikely at the dawn of human civilization, and is still marginalized in emergencies or when a community is larger than a critical mass. I will return to this analysis later. 

3. Power in non-democratic systems is therefore exercised by one person, and in the most primitive communities the means of acquiring and maintaining power is personal power (physical, mental). This means the declaration of that who can physically overpower others, or who can make others believe that they must be followed? Can such a system survive? No. No, because physical and mental strength diminishes with age, and power must necessarily be handed over, or else the leader is deprived of it. 

4. For this reason the social development started very early on such a way that the leader who somehow gained the power sought to found a dynasty and pass it on to his successors. The successor, however, was not necessarily strong enough to gain or hold the power, so he had to be strengthened by believers, army, wealth, perhaps magic. It was fortunate that successor to whom all these things were given, but this was rare. Let's see the details. Let the following be given: 

a) Large crowds of believers who love the leader (successor). This is a rare thing persistently, because it requires more than physical and mental strength, it requires wisdom. In the absence of the latter, they resort to other means to retain power. 

b) An army loyal to the leader. If it is not loyal, it must be paid dearly. Therefore, a "loyal army" has always been a very expensive thing. If the army maintains power, violence (club law) prevails. 

c) Wealth. The leader can only gain wealth or increase it by exploiting his subjects. He can do this by direct or indirect methods. Whether he collects taxes or sweeps even the attic is a matter of detail. Whether he mines for gold or diamonds, no one goes there voluntarily to work, so he must either distribute some wealth among the workers or force them to work. Winning slaves by subjugating other peoples may seem better, but it is not efficient in the long run because the slave is not interested in expanded production, not even necessarily in survival. Can such a system survive in the long term? No. No, because power is inherently divisive. If we divide people into believers and non-believers, we have already halved the number of supporters. To prevent the happening of this, the method of intrigue has been introduced. The informers and assassins were coming. Of course, they all had to be paid or killed by other assassins. After a while, the system becomes opaque, because the informers and assassins work in several places (to save their own skin), a crisis of confidence develops, because no one can be trusted. Furthermore, if the leading candidate kills (assassinates) the incumbent leader who has five children, then with one kill he has already made five enemies, if they also have five-five children, then the number of enemies has already risen to 25 (+ family members). It is easy to see that if potential leaders are constantly at war with each other, after a while none of them will have the support to win permanently. 

d) There is one more method that I have not mentioned, and that is the use of magic, the use of supernatural powers to make people believe that the potential leader is the chosen one of the higher powers. Magic has undergone a great transformation throughout history. Where are we now from the tribal shaman dancing around the fire to summon the spirit of the ancestors. The wizards have been replaced by priests, churches and, with the decline of religion, the media. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. 

5. The correlations explored above on the mechanisms of power are still valid today. Physical power is no longer necessarily important, but mental power is essential. This is now called charisma. The question is: do the people who are led believe that the leader should be followed? If the leader is not charismatic enough, then other means must be used to support him. One of the means is money, position, to get paid supporters for the leader. The chosen few will be bribed with economic and political positions, and in this case, loyalty will be the deciding factor, not expertise, as we have seen in prehistoric times. As another tool, the role of informers has been taken over by the secret services. In different political systems, they exist in more overt or more covert forms, and only the most insignificant individuals can really hope to have no secret files on them. In this sense, a mentality of remaining inconspicuous is emerging in society, because on this way it might be possible to survive the system, or one has to stand in the direction of wind and serving the current ruling power.  

6. The representatives of power have gradually refined their tools and introduced a method that is also known from historical times. This is the puppet. In this case, the power selects a person as a leader and directs him from the background. This is the case when people use the 'background power' expression. This was a case when the two-year-old king was the ruler formally, but in reality, his mother or the regent exercised the control. Today, in the age of more sophisticated methods, it is not known who has the control in reality. At most, we can only guess that the power apparatus was set up in the interests of economic lobbies. This seems to work because the people in power cannot turn against it. If the guided are dissatisfied, it is enough to replace the puppet with another one and the game can continue. Can such a system work permanently? No, because the member of background power are also divided, they are fighting each other in the background.   

7. Another trick to gain and keep power that seems to work is democracy. Then the people choose, so they can be blamed if things don't go well. If we look at our own history without illusions, we can see that democracy has never worked. The reason is that democracy requires a lot of time, patience, listening to all opinions, considering them, and mature personalities capable of self-discipline, a broad vision, the ability to prioritize, etc. These qualities certainly did not exist in the early historical times in the development of humanity, nor do they exist today. To prove this, we need only look at the meeting of a homeowner association. What is happening there, the same thing occurs on a larger scale. In democracies, therefore, there will be some vocal personalities, and we will be witnessing a battle of these vocal personalities; so, we are back to Game of Thrones, but now in the guise of democracy.

8. In democracies, the role of magic is enhanced, since the electorate must somehow be persuaded to vote for a particular candidate. The current technique of magic is mental manipulation (brainwashing), in which the media have earned unparalleled merit. What the magician achieved by dancing around the fire has now been developed by the media representatives into professionalism in the way information is presented, distorted, (mis)interpreted, and smeared directly misleading. Basically, I do not want to offend them. That is how the media works. It is also seen by many of the more intelligent people. The reason that it can't work any other way is because there is no independent media, it is funded by someone and whoever pays dictates the content according to their own interests.

9. So this is the Real World, operating in a closed system (Earth). What people should consider is, in a given job (be it journalist, teacher, doctor or worker), when and where does the moment come for someone to say that thisis not what they signed up for, and to dare to stand up for themselves, and whether there is any other way out than death (according to everyone's beliefs)?

10. There is no other way out than death, this game must be played according to everyone's current consciousness, and the game has no other purpose than to achieve self-identity. One of the characters in Game of Thrones has always been able to remain self-identified, he is Tyrion (the dwarf). The little man, who could never be the leader, was always in the background, but always found himself at the center of events. He knew that mere principle was not worth dying a heroic death for, always finding a way to save his own skin and helping others when he could.  To what do he owe this? He feared nothing and had nothing to lose. 

If YOU are not who YOU want to be, then educate yourself and become that person! You can only lose your fears!

Margaret Rhasoda Varga
UCCM head-master
2021. Budapest, Hungary