Adrian Breze, a Shadowspawn, tells Giselle Demarcio, a mere human being:
"'...some people cannot be controlled by the police, by the authorities. By any conventional means. They are too rich, too...powerful for that.'" (p. 327)
Demarcio accepts this because she is a paranoid left-winger. (p. 328)
Breze reflects that someone with that mind-set can be given:
"...an edited version of the truth.
"Since the world really is ruled by an all-powerful evil conspiracy. Just one of werewolves and vampires and sorcerers, rather than capitalists and generals." (p. 328)
Where does truth end and editing begin?
An all-powerful evil conspiracy? No.
Werewolves etc? No.
Capitalists and generals? Yes.
The few richest people are not necessarily evil and do not need to conspire because the global economy is already organized to maximize their profits and, although they are not omnipotent, they do have considerable ability to avoid control by the police or authorities.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Careful, or you will get paranoid types insisting to you that the world really is ruled by an all powerful secret conspiracy!
I think human beings are too chaotic, quarrelsome, contentious, prone to panic, etc., for any such world ruling conspiracy to ever exist. SOMEBODY would blunder, spill the beans, or scheme against a rival, etc., and cause any such plot to collapse.
Yes, given wealth and influence, any of the very wealthiest who chose to become a criminal could long dodge punishment for their acts. But I think there's a limit to HOW much they could do and escape exposure and punishment. Any society not hopelessly corrupt will turn a blind eye to such malefactors only if they don't go too far for too long. The cases of Gilles de Rais and Elizabeth Bathory comes to mind.
I did not mention drug traffickers and sex slavers because they sought wealth by criminal means from the beginning.
Sean
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