It is an old conflict.
Human history is a series of conflicts to define what constitutes and conveys power.
On one side, there is the despot whose power derives from a source other than those under control. Superior force, technology, wealth, etc., embodied in the Rule of Will - that is, the will of the despot. Fundamentally, this is inequity, concentrating the means of power.
On the other side, there is the long, slow struggle to define sources of power shared among members of human groups and delegated upward, embodied in a Rule of Law - defined for all and enforced for all. This is the struggle for equity.
They are not always mutually exclusive. Despots often rely on cabals of other would-be/wanna-be despots and those whose self-interest is served by the despotic power model - this is how monarchies and theocracies evolved. But always, the means of power - wealth, military resources, access to knowledge, etc., are strictly controlled and concentrated in the narrowest possible tranche of beneficiaries.
And groups can derive forms of despotism when they become too exclusive and a fear-based dynamic separates members from a world of threatening outsiders - they may willingly embrace a populist despotism and turn their backs on equity if it seems to threaten inclusion of those designated as outsiders.
Broadly-sprawling upheavals, especially wars and their aftermaths, often create a dynamic favorable to the development of a Rule of Law. The chaos of war, the damage, and resulting temporary structural, economic and social fluidity offer opportunities to codify equity in new ways. The European "Revolutionary Wave" of the mid-19th Century followed the conflagration of the Napoleonic Wars.
These periods of progress are generally followed by a countervailing backlash from the holders of wealth, resources, technology, etc., especially those held over from, or influenced by, ancien regimes, and supported by the still-extant institutions of those regimes. (Institutional religion is usually involved in such backlash.) They focus on degrading the codes that limit individual acquisition of power, and reversing the progress toward equity.
Thus the Gilded Age that closed the 19th Century in an orgy of escalating wealth inequity, the restoration and propping-up of senescent monarchies, and unchecked excesses of capitalism.
It took two World Wars with a major worldwide economic disruption in between them, to re-open the doors to forms of government aligned with equity and wealth distribution. Even then we were left with a substantial block of the world's peoples still under the yoke of despotic systems focused on concentrating power and rejecting equity. And a substantial block of designated "outsiders" still denied the benefits of equity under the aspirational Rule of Law.
And all that time, the backlash has been building in the Rule of Law nations, working as always to undo the codification of equity. Working to cripple the enforcement of laws and regulations created to enable broader distribution of wealth and power. Working to concentrate the means of power - in our society, wealth.
Now we stand again at the beginning of a time of intense, world-wide social upheaval - multiple tidal waves of climate disruption, pandemic, and war are crashing around and against us on all sides.
Let us be prepared, this time, to find the Golden Thread again. To twist it tighter, to weave it closer, to tie it securely to a better and stronger Rule of Law, more compassionate political structures focused on equity, and a more broadly shared security founded on equitable distribution of wealth and other means of power.
The stakes have never been higher. The survival of our own species and millions of others on this life raft in space depend upon it.
somberly,
Bright
