Key Mental Models of Power Flows

• Discussion is frequently wrong. For example, when we say $44k median household income, it means an absolute average of x per person when everyone is counted.
• imperial power - common power-concentration tendencies in so-called humans - 48 Laws of Power
• influencing behavior -

Civilization Power Flows Canon (Expanded: Finance + Technofeudalism)

Book	Domain	Key Operational Value	Link
The 48 Laws of Power	Power strategy	Codifies historical patterns of power acquisition, manipulation, and survival.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_48_Laws_of_Power
The Prince	Political power	Practical guide to maintaining state power through strategy, perception, and force.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince
The Art of War	Strategy	Strategic doctrine for conflict, deception, and indirect control.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_War
On War	Military theory	War as continuation of politics; introduces friction and strategic realism.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_War
Propaganda	Narrative control	Explains how public opinion is engineered through media and messaging.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_(book)
Manufacturing Consent	Media systems	Structural model of how media filters shape political perception.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent
The Power Broker	Institutional power	Demonstrates how infrastructure control translates into long-term political dominance.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_Broker
The Dictator’s Handbook	Political incentives	Power maintained via coalition management and resource allocation.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dictator%27s_Handbook
The Managerial Revolution	Institutional control	Rise of managers controlling large organizations instead of owners.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Managerial_Revolution
The Sovereign Individual	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	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	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	Financial systems	Evolution of finance: credit, banking, bonds, and global capital markets.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ascent_of_Money
The Bitcoin Standard	Monetary alternative	Hard money framework; critique of fiat and central banking systems.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bitcoin_Standard
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism	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	Platform power	Argues transition from market capitalism to platform-controlled rent extraction systems.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanis_Varoufakis

Structure of Power Flows

• Strategy:
  • The Art of War
  • On War

• Political Power:
  • The Prince
  • The Dictator’s Handbook

• Institutional Power:
  • The Power Broker
  • The Managerial Revolution

• Narrative Control:
  • Propaganda
  • Manufacturing Consent

• Financial Power:
  • Capital in the Twenty-First Century
  • Debt: The First 5000 Years
  • The Ascent of Money
  • The Bitcoin Standard

• Technofeudal / Platform Power:
  • The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
  • Technofeudalism

• Macro Shifts:
  • The Sovereign Individual

Key Insight

Power in modern civilization operates across three tightly coupled layers:

1. Control of people (behavior, narrative, legitimacy)
2. Control of institutions (state, infrastructure, organizations)
3. Control of capital (money, credit, platforms)

Technofeudalism emerges when:

• capital becomes platform-based
• users become dependent tenants
• ownership shifts from assets to access control

Bottom Line

This expanded stack explains how power is actually exercised today:

• Classical power (strategy, politics)
• Institutional control (infrastructure, bureaucracy)
• Financial dominance (capital, debt, money systems)
• Platform control (data, networks, digital infrastructure)

Together, these define the real control architecture of modern civilization.