unfortunately not only were the rulers, who were considered supernatural beings, benefited by having the peoples in subjection, but ...larger circles of people grouped and established themselves around them, and under an appearance of governing, took advantage of the people.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Tolstoy observes that ruling classes and their entourages benefit from keeping people subservient.
- In plain terms
- Leaders and their supporters profit by keeping people under control.
- What can you take from it?
- Systems of control benefit the elite at the cost of the many.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Who benefits from current hierarchies?
- Is governance serving the people?
Another view
It assumes all leaders act primarily for personal gain.
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In former times the chief method of justifying the use of violence and thereby infringing the law of love was by claiming a divine right for the rulers: the Ts…
Permalink to quote #86 ...obsolete religious justification of violence which consisted in the recognition of the supernatural personality of the God-ordained ruler ('there is no powe…
Permalink to quote #88 ...people continued ...to try to unite the incompatibles: the virtue of love, and what is opposed to love, namely, the restraining of evil by violence. And suc…
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