Key Mental Models of Power Flows

Specific Cases

Narrative Control

• Discussion is frequently wrong. For example, when we say $44k median household income, it means an absolute average of $27k per person when everyone is counted in 2026.

Empires

• imperial power - common power-concentration tendencies in so-called humans - 48 Laws of Power
• influencing behavior -

Civilization Power Flows Canon (Expanded: Finance + Technofeudalism)

Book	Author	Year	Domain	Key Operational Value	Link
The 48 Laws of Power	Robert Greene	1998	Power strategy	Codifies historical patterns of power acquisition, manipulation, and survival.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_48_Laws_of_Power
The Prince	Niccolò Machiavelli	1532	Political power	Practical guide to maintaining state power through strategy, perception, and force.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince
The Art of War	Sun Tzu	~5th century BCE	Strategy	Strategic doctrine for conflict, deception, and indirect control.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_War
On War	Carl von Clausewitz	1832	Military theory	War as continuation of politics; introduces friction and strategic realism.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_War
Propaganda	Edward Bernays	1928	Narrative control	Explains how public opinion is engineered through media and messaging.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_(book)
Manufacturing Consent	Edward S. Herman & Noam Chomsky	1988	Media systems	Structural model of how media filters shape political perception.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent
The Power Broker	Robert A. Caro	1974	Institutional power	Demonstrates how infrastructure control translates into long-term political dominance.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_Broker
The Dictator’s Handbook	Bruce Bueno de Mesquita & Alastair Smith	2011	Political incentives	Power maintained via coalition management and resource allocation.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dictator%27s_Handbook
The Managerial Revolution	James Burnham	1941	Institutional control	Rise of managers controlling large organizations instead of owners.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Managerial_Revolution
The Sovereign Individual	James Dale Davidson & William Rees-Mogg	1997	Macro power shifts	Predicts decentralization of power via technology and capital mobility.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sovereign_Individual
Capital in the Twenty-First Century	Thomas Piketty	2013	Financial power	Empirical analysis of wealth concentration and capital accumulation dynamics.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_in_the_Twenty-First_Century
Debt: The First 5000 Years	David Graeber	2011	Monetary systems	Historical analysis of debt as a social and political power structure.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt:_The_First_5000_Years
The Ascent of Money	Niall Ferguson	2008	Financial systems	Evolution of finance: credit, banking, and global capital markets.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ascent_of_Money
The Bitcoin Standard	Saifedean Ammous	2018	Monetary alternative	Hard money framework; critique of fiat systems and central banking.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bitcoin_Standard
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism	Shoshana Zuboff	2019	Technofeudalism precursor	Explains extraction of behavioral data as a new economic and power system.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Surveillance_Capitalism
Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism	Yanis Varoufakis	2023	Platform power	Argues shift from markets to platform-controlled rent extraction systems.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanis_Varoufakis

Bottom Line

This table now includes authorship and historical context, allowing comparison across:

• Pre-modern power (Machiavelli, Sun Tzu)
• Industrial/modern state power (Clausewitz, Burnham)
• Media and narrative control (Bernays, Chomsky)
• Financial dominance (Piketty, Graeber, Ferguson)
• Emerging platform control (Zuboff, Varoufakis)

Together, this shows the evolution of power from physical force → institutions → capital → platforms.

Links

• See also Top Civilization Engineering Books on social power