For those in our number who may be reading from an Alternative or Fake Sacred Text, the hard truth is that God while welcoming the saintly, well behaved and obedient to the host did not allow Moses to lead his people into the promised land. They had to wait until Moses died at 120 years of age before Joshua, Sweeter than Lemon Squash-you-are, said "OK Chaps, let's stop all this aimless and mostly pointless wandering around carrying the old man's commandments and find somewhere to park the Arc of the Covenant."
To find out more let's talk The Iron Law of Oligarchy, with particular reference to this quote from Michels : "whoever says organization says oligarchy."
Briefly stated, Robert Michels book Political Parties (published 1911), says this: "All complex organizations, even those founded by democratic beliefs, will eventually become oligarchies dominated by a small group of elites."
Michels who was 60 in 1936 when he died in Rome, he was a German Italian, he cultivated less facial hair than Max Weber. Weber died when he was 56. Michels thinking, is classified as belonging to the Italian School of Elitism, he was a sociologist who specialized in criticizing, poking at and upsetting Intellectual Elites, kind of like Bishop Berkeley's contributions to the Enlightenment.
For your interest an Intellectual Elite is a collection of individuals who read the right books, went through the same training, acquired and continue to develop a group knowledge and more often they connect through specific academic circles, drinking clubs, second home ownership, journals, Aspen etc, and urban hubs.
Michels insisted that just like schools of knowledge - such as the Dullards of Harvard, the fraternities of Cornell, the keys of Yale, the rowing club of Oxford and the spires of Cambridge - all organizations as well as Political Parties become Oligarchies. As in dominated by a small group of elites.
Max Weber challenged Michels use of the words iron and law. Weber argued that many organizations did indeed have a responsive relationship with leadership. You couldn't just say that all organizations become oligarchies, some were better than others.
Weber was about understanding society in terms of rational behaviors. Everyone had a similar rational response to work, to home, to play, to holidays and in Weberian circles there was a hope that if you could determine the patterns of these rationals then Bob was your Uncle.
Michels saw organizations as Power structures. His thinking was very much in line with Disraeli who said "I have climbed to the top of the greasy pole" when, in February of 1868, the Queen confirmed him Prime Minster of Greater Britain. In the UK an unelected, disgustingly wealthy and scandal prone Monarch is the Head of State
Disraeli, a One Nation Conservative was 75 when his party, the Tory Party, was defeated by the Liberal Party allowing William Ewart Gladstone to get his second chance to visit the Queen, where once again he'd get an opportunity to piss off her majesty by treating her as though she were a "public meeting." The Her Majesty in question was the German Queen Victoria who died when she was 81 of cerebral hemorrhage.)
In short, here in the USA, if you're over seventy and are still clinging to power there's 98% chance you have outstayed your welcome - Schumer (D) is 75. Grassley (R) is 93. Rogers (R) 88. There are 24 members of Congress who are over 80 and there are 120 members of Congress who are over 70.
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