The 15 Class Structures

Fifteen relations of power.

Each identity group, whether ethnic, religious, cultural, or political, has its own class structure. Class structure describes the relationships between different classes. There are 15 possible class structures, made up of three classes.

Within these 15 types, there are three major divisions: singular structures, dual structures, and tripartite structures. There are 3 singular structures, 6 dual structures, and 6 tripartite structures.

THE THREE SINGULAR STRUCTURES:
1. Nietzschean
2. Ascetic
3. Libertarian

THE SIX DUAL STRUCTURES:
1. Arthurian
2. Viking
3. Melchizedek
4. Neoliberal
5. Woke Capitalism
6. Weberian

THE SIX TRIPARTITE STRUCTURES:
1. Rig Vedic
2. Imperial Roman
3. Woke Imperialism
4. Chomskyian Imperial
5. Brahminic
6. Lombardic

THE THREE SINGULAR STRUCTURES

1. THE NIETZSCHEAN STRUCTURE
The first class structure is the Nietzschean structure. The Nietzschean structure, as thoroughly as possible, has no priest or economic class. Rather, all elites are elites of war. Although the Mongols could be held up as the closest approximation of this structure, Mongolian shamanism allowed for a priest class. Assuming the theory of primitive theocracy, wherein all class structures are predicated on primitive religion, it is impossible to achieve the Nietzchean structure on a societal basis. Rather, Nietzschean structures can only exist when a warrior class exits the existing social structure through migratory, nomadic, piratical adventure or exploration. However, these Nietzschean structures, by their nature, seek out warfare with vulnerable societies. In the resulting conflict, Nietzschean structures are either destroyed by a successful defense (as in the conclusion of the Barbary Wars) or they are victorious and become integrated through synthesis with the existing society. The Greek legend of Odysseus plays with the concept of a "pure warrior," devoid of any religious or mercantile traits, although Odysseus has numerous experiences with Gods, the underworld, linguistic deception, and ultimately seeks to reintegrate himself with the societal structure of his kingdom. Nietzschean structures are an ideal which cannot be fully realized, but may appear in ephemeral or transitory states.

2. THE ASCETIC STRUCTURE
The ascetic structure represents an identity without an economic class or warrior class, but only a priest class. One example of the ascetic structure is suggested in the ideal of Jesus as a celibate, without a wife or children, openly hostile to economics and money changing, putting the pragmatic needs of life in the hands of God, and rejecting the use of violence. This ideal can be undermined in the violence of Jesus against the money changers (Matthew 21:12-13),  the prescription to sell a cloak and buy a sword (Luke 22:36), and that he will return not in peace, but with a sword (Matthew 10:34). Each of these can be explained as metaphorical or not truly violent, but historically, Christianity was not able to maintain a pacifistic, ascetic structure outside of small cults and religious orders which never dominated society. The Bahai religion emphasizes pacifism beyond Christianity, but does not prohibit economic activity. In ancient Greece, various philosophical movements ranging from the Socratic school, the Stoics, and the Cynics all were, at various times, interpreted as requiring a disengagement from both violence and economic life. However, this is difficult to maintain, since Socrates associated with Alcibiades, Marcus Aurelius wrote his meditations while on military campaigns, and the Cynics practiced the wielding of staves as a demonstration of virile strength.

The most extreme expression of an ascetic structure might be found in the commune movement, the hippie movement, the anarchist, anarcho-communist, or anarcho-primitivist movements, which in some cases eschew economic activity as well as warfare. In the same way that a Nietzschean warrior band will practice piracy and raiding as a form of predation or even parasitism on economically productive societies, pacifistic groups such as hippies, anarchists, or the Mennonites are dependent on the state for defense from criminals. When state sponsorship is removed, as in the case of the Bolshevik abandonment of the Mennonites, pacifistic cults are forced to suspend their theology and take up arms. Outside of left wing political movements which seek the peaceful transformation of society through ideological means, far right wing political movements can also engage with asceticism as an ideal. Martin Heideggar, Savitri Devi, and Miguel Serrano are examples of national socialists or esoteric Hitlerists who rejected economics as corrupting, but also sought to transform the world through spiritual means without directly engaging in violence. The Hare Krishna also embrace poverty and nonviolence, although their holiest text, the Bhagavad Gita, is itself a call to warfare.

3. THE LIBERTARIAN STRUCTURE
The libertarian structure rejects both warfare and priestly activity. At first glance, in comparison with other singular structures, the libertarian structure seems the least fanciful and the most realistic to instantiate and maintain. Libertarians and anarcho-capitalists preach the non-aggression principle as well as a rejection of the state as a collectivistic religious structure. Libertarians correctly identify political ideology, states, taxation, and collectivism as religious faiths, backed up by the threat of violence. Libertarians then moralize more consistently than their opponents, claiming that collectivism is evil since it is based on superstition and violence. Despite the logical consistency of libertarians in rejecting the state and its religious structures, anarcho-capitalism is a purely theoretical ideal with little practical application.

The invention of classical liberalism, free markets, and free trade coincided in the British and French Empires with extreme ethnocentrism, colonialism, imperialism, violent conquest, state sponsored piracy, religious extremism, royal aristocracy, myths of hereditary superiority, and so on. The periods where libertarianism or classical liberalism was practiced to the greatest extent were also periods of extreme violence and religious fanaticism. Like the Nietzschean or Ascetic structures, Mercantile structures can exist hypocritically within societies which fulfill other class obligations. CEOs read Ayn Rand, rejecting God and the state. Objectivism is a veritable cult, akin to Scientology in the wealth of its adherents. When taken seriously, libertarianism becomes its own religion, with prophets, preachers, moralization, and a myth of salvation and utopia.

In summary, singular class structures are generally unstable. Like "free radicals" in chemistry, they tend to degenerate, disperse, amalgamate, assimilate, predate, or parasite on larger more stable structures.

THE SIX DUAL STRUCTURES

1. THE ARTHURIAN STRUCTURE
The Arthurian Structure is a warrior-priest dual structure, where the warrior is afforded the dominant role, and the priest is afforded the secondary role. The myth of Arthur is taken as an exemplar of this structure, where the priestly powers of the wizard Merlin are clearly present, but subordinated in the authority structure to the warrior king. The Arthurian structure can also be seen in the Ramayana and Mahabharata, where the Kshatriya ultimately maintain the higher sovereignty, but the presence of the Brahmin remains a close second. What is called Hinduism in the modern period failed to maintain this structure with the introduction of reformist cults, such as the Hare Krishna, which embrace pacifism and a vow of poverty. Hare Krishna can be compared to the emergence of Christian cults dedicated to pacifism, such as the Cathars or Anabaptists.

The Arthurian structure came into conflict with the Catholic priest class throughout the medieval era, during the Investiture Contest and the Anglican schism. In the first case, German priests believed that the secular king had the final dominion over the appointment of Bishops, while the papacy believed that the pope had the highest authority, and the spiritual authority of the secular king was below that of a common priest. This struggle between king and papacy later morphed into the supporters of the pope, the Guelphs, and the supporters of imperial authority, the Ghibellines.

In 1300, the Guelphs of Florence divided themselves into White Guelphs, who turned against the pope, and Black Guelphs, who continued to support the pope. By 1334, Pope Benedict XII issued an order of excommunication for any factional party calling itself either "Guelph" or "Ghibbeline," because of the violence associated with it and the erosion of any genuine Christian motives on the part of the Guelph party, which lost its original ideological commitments and became purely dynastic and tribal in nature. [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1016/j.jmedhist.2007.01.001] Many of the prominent Guelph dynasties were also the founders of the Lombard banking system, including the Cerchi and Pazzi. Pope Paul V ended the Italian conflict by including a Ghibbeline symbol in the Papal coats of arms. Despite the end of the Guelph-Ghibelline conflict, Paul V continued to attack governments seen as secular or Protestant, such as the Republic of Venice and England. In 1606, he excommunicated the entire government of Venice. The local Catholic clergy actually sided with the Venetian government against the pope, with the exception of extreme factions, including the Jesuits, who were then expelled. When the controversy was resolved in 1607, the Jesuits remained banned from the city.

The deification of Caesar, proclaiming himself the head of the Roman religion, has been later described as Caesaropapism, where the head of a warrior hierarchy also has dominion over the church. This became the case in the Anglican church under Henry VIII, as well as under the Russian Orthodox Church, where Ivan the Terrible assumed control. The doctrine of Sergianism refers to the submission of Patriarch Sergius of Moscow to the secular authority of the Soviet Union, as issued in the Declaration of 1927.

The Arthurian structure does not refer necessarily to hybrid orders which mix warrior and priestly virtues, but rather describes specifically a state of affairs in which a social order contains both a ruling warrior and priest class where the warrior class is clearly in the superior position. However, examples of mixed virtues include the Knights Templar, the Shaolin monks, and the Shia Order of Hashashins.

2. THE VIKING STRUCTURE

The Viking structure describes a culture in which the warrior function dominates, followed by an economic function. Within the Vikings themselves, their practice was to raid an era, kidnap slaves, and sell them in slave markets. This practice of kidnapping and enslaving was seen as abhorrent and immoral in Christian culture. Spengler used the archetype of the Vikings to distinguish English Capitalism from Prussian Socialism, stating that the English approach to finance was fundamentally exploitative and mercantile, while the German approach was knightly and honorable. Vikings also loaned themselves out as mercenaries, forming the Varangian guard.

The first banking system in medieval Europe, the Lombard banking system, was developed by aristocratic families, descended from warrior nobility. Republics such as Vienna, Genoa, and Florence attempted to decrease the power of the priest class while simultaneously engaging in perpetual warfare and commerce.

Bismarck, in his administration of Prussia, forged close ties and alliances with bankers, consulting and negotiating with Mayer Carl von Rothschild and Gerson von Bleichröder. [The most explicit approach to this topic is to be found in "Gold and Iron: Bismarck, Bleichröder, and the Building of the German Empire (Stern, 1977).] Freemasonry and Enlightened despotism both sought to undermine the power of the church and advance commerce through warfare. Napoleon's concordat with the papacy represented his rejection of leftist fanaticism and ambiguity toward the Catholic church, and his Emancipation of the Jews further solidified his antagonism or apathy toward religion. Henry VIII converted from Catholicism to Anglicanism not out of religious fanaticism, but out of a desire to remove from power the overreach of the church. His confiscation of the monasteries represents the first significant step toward the establishment of a free market over a feudal market.

3. THE MELCHIZEDEK STRUCTURE
The Melchizedek structure describes the inverse of the Arthurian structure, where the priest class has clear and definite authority over a warrior class. Modern examples would include the Islamic Republic of Iran, where the Ayatollah has supreme authority over the secular military authorities. In the religion of the Gauls, the Druids held the supreme authority over chieftains and warrior kings. In Norse Paganism, the rule of Odin over the Gods represents the rule of a literate priest class over the older God of warrior kings, Tyr. The victories of Moses and Chryses over Pharaoh and Agamemnon also represent the domination of priests over kings. The choice of Arjuna to take Krishna, and the choice of Duryodhana to take Krishna's army, could also represent the Melchizedek structure. The lamentations and curses of the prophets against the kings and rulers of Israel, and the contest between David and Goliath, as well as Saul and David, also show the supremacy of priestly power over warrior power. Many of these examples are inconclusive or contradictory, with David himself being a warrior king in some ways. More explicit examples include King Solomon, who is seen as fitting the archetype of a sorcerer or mystic. The superiority of Joseph over his brothers could be seen as the rule of the priestly over the warrior, although Joseph's main skill is not necessarily religious, but economic.

The Egyptian caste system, which likely shares many similarities with the most ancient civilizations of the middle east, explicitly places priests above warriors. The Vedic caste system in modern times is interpreted as placing priests above warriors, although the principle heroes, Rama and Arjuna, contradict this teaching and imply a degree of syncretism. In the syncretic hypothesis, Indo-European invaders brought Arthurian or even Nietzschean myths and legends into an older Upanishadic or Dravidian civilization. As a result, the caste system as explicitly outlined in the Laws of Manu, which places Brahmin at the top, is consistently contradicted in mythologies, which place Kshatriya at the top. The death of Duryodhana is perhaps the most striking example of this, since he is the principal "moral villain" of the Mahabharata, yet because of his bravery in battle and warrior virtues, he is elevated to heaven. Less striking although equally important is the funeral of Ravana, where Rama insists that the demon lord and principal villain be given honor in death. This attitude toward opponents, of honoring one's enemies out of recognition of their warrior virtues, stands in opposition to the curse against Amalek. (Deuteronomy 25:19)

4. THE NEOLIBERAL STRUCTURE
A structure where the economizing function dominates over the warrior function, in the absence of a strong priest class, could be called Neoliberal. The term Neoliberal is overused and polemic, but it describes a situation in which the warrior class serves the interests of the economic class, rather than the other way around. This could manifest brutally, as wars for resources or wars for oil, but could also be more subtle, as in the allegations that Gaddafi or Saddam were killed because of their desire to trade in a different currency from the United States dollar. Conspiracy theories surrounding central banking and the federal reserve imply that the American war machine is an attack dog on behalf of an international financial class.

Although Spengler likened the British empire to a Viking structure, where the virtue of war was primary and the economic function was secondary, it could also be said that the British, as the ancestors of neoliberalism, used their military to support their economic priorities. Left wing critics of American involvement in South America view corporate interests as the driving machine behind war. The involvement of the Coca Cola company, the concept of a "Banana Republic," the concept of "blood diamonds," and other narratives describe a dominant economic class which furthers its power through a subordinate warrior class. The Marxist theory that "fascism is capitalism in decline" explains the warrior virtues of fascism as a superficial veneer, cloaking underlying economic interests. This has given rise to the conspiracy that Hitler was a British agent, which mirrors the fact that Franco had close political and economic ties to British intelligence. Mussolini also attempted an alliance with the British, which was later negated by Germany, and Hitler, prior to his ascension to power, expressed admiration for the British colonial empire.

Antisemitic conspiracy theories regarding the Rothschild banking family blame all wars on international finance, as drunkenly expressed by Mel Gibson in 2006. [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jul/31/arts.usa] Alternatively, and sometimes in conjunction with these theories, communism and Bolshevism are accused of being in league with international finance. [Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution (Antony Sutton, 1974).] Whether on the far left or far right, the power of finance, banking, corporations, and economic interests are speculated as being the driving cause behind warfare. This is in contradiction with Jordan Peterson's thesis that wars are caused by ideological extremism (blaming political religion), or the liberal-feminist thesis that wars are typically caused by ethnic bigotry, nationalism, chauvinism, or patriarchy. Whether any of these theories have truth or are entirely false, they are presented to help visualize theories of a neoliberal class structure, whether real or imaginary.

5. WOKE CAPITALISM
Woke capitalism is distinct from neoliberalism in that it does not have a military element as part of its ruling, governing structure. This does not mean the absolute absence of any military -- simply the exclusion of the military from the decision making process. Instead, a ruling cultural elite directs and determines the flow of capital according to social and religious goals.

Woke capitalism can be described as a secular religion, which places the moral goods of diversity, inclusion, affirmative action, and human rights above profit. Its parallel in the Catholic church is liberation theology, which seeks to impose Catholic teachings on society, maintaining a pacifistic attitude toward war, but attempting to redistribute wealth on a moral basis. John Ball, a 14th century English preacher, could be seen as a forerunner of the Levellers, who promoted a religious proto-communism. In this vein, communism itself could be seen as the domination of the economy by a moralistic fanaticism for equality.

Although communism can be seen as an economic order dominated by moral concerns, the historical structure of communist countries typically included a dominant military element, most prominent in Stalin, Mao, and Che. Communists were militant, as opposed to their "hippie" counterparts in the west, who preached free love, pacifism, non-violent protest, and marijuana use. Critics of the hippie movement, as well as the feminist movement, sometimes theorize that these traits were developed and encouraged by the CIA to neutralize an otherwise violent and militant communist movement. Given historical realities, communism's association with militarism is too strong for it to be considered an example of a priestly-economic order, although in many theoretical writings, communists and anarchists consider this to be the ideal state.

The European monastic and holy orders are thought of as taking vows of poverty, but in reality, most of them had some sort of economic function. Many monasteries ran orchards, processed sheep's skin into parchment, produced wine, and engaged in other trades. Jesus's attack on the money changers reveals the fact that Jewish temples were considered both spiritual centers but also trade centers. This was also the case in the Greek Agora or Roman Forum, which doubled as commercial spaces and holy spaces for administering law and order.

6. THE WEBERIAN STRUCTURE
The role of Protestant groups to the emergence of capitalism led Max Weber to invent the phrase "Protestant work ethic." For these groups, economic activity is not distinct from religious activity. Hard work in economic pursuits is itself a religious virtue. This is distinct from Hasidic Jews, who view the highest activity as religious study, and see economic activity as secondary.

The Amish, who are not often thought of as a mercantile group, but rather as a religious group, do not in fact have any distinct or significant priest class. Like the Puritans, Calvinists, Quakers, and other Protestant groups, they have a lay ministry. The influence of religion on these groups is undeniable, but the religious function in these groups is generally secondary or supportive of their economic activities.

The economic activity of the Amish is not insignificant or secondary. The average Amish family owns 40 acres, and with an average family size of 10 people, that is roughly 4 acres per person. In the state of Pennsylvania, there are 87,000 Amish, which comes out to 348,000 acres of land. This is about twice the size of New York city, and given the average price of land, [https://acretrader.com/resources/pennsylvania-farmland-prices] comes out to $1.7 billion dollars. However, the majority of Amish land is in Lancaster county, where land is much more expensive, valued between $18,000 to $22,000 per acre on average, although some estimates are much higher. [https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/land-in-demand-county-s-farmland-sells-for-thousands-more-per-acre-than-rest-of/article_585f2676-e29e-11ec-87d5-5f1d14ca0b90.html] With these estimates, Amish holdings in Pennsylvania alone could exceed $7 billion, which equals the controversial Chinese holdings of American farmland. [https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywashburn/2023/03/01/how-much-us-farmland-does-china-really-own-more-than-bill-gates-and-less-than-17-other-countries/?sh=1ebc5521421f]

Outside of Pennsylvania, Amish, in total, own around 1.5 million acres of land, which is approximately four to six times as much as Bill Gates or China. The Amish hold less American farmland than five countries, including Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Germany. However, if they were counted as a separate "nation," the Amish would be the sixth largest holder of Amish farmland.

By religion, Unitarian Universalists and Episcopaleans are the highest earning Americans. This heritage dates back to the financial success of Quakers and Puritans, who constituted America's "economic-religious" elite. The founders of the American revolution were disproportionately Freemasons, who were intensely concerned with freedom of religion but were also financially prominent. What distinguishes the Masonic structure is that it has distinct spiritual, religious, or ideological commitments, but that it has no separation between priestly and economic activity, and where economic activity is the ultimate mark of religiousness. The actual American revolution required military force, and thus did not adhere strictly to the ideal Masonic structure.

TRIPARTITE STRUCTURES

Tripartite structures are the most complicated, but also the most common structures. Most societies do not exclude military, economy, or religion from their ruling class. However, each society typically has a dominant class, a secondary class, and a tertiary class.

1. THE RIG VEDIC STRUCTURE
The Rig Vedic structure describes the ancient structure of Indo-European societies, with the warrior class as the primary decision making class, the priest class as the secondary supportive class, and the economic class as the tertiary class which would "tithe" or pay taxes to support both the military and priest class. Religious innovations in India resulted in the raising up of a bureaucratic "Brahmin" class which came to challenge the Kshatriya for ultimate spiritual authority. However, the Vaishya, or economic class, was never considered in ancient Indo-European societies to be a dominant or primary class. This is partially due to the fact that the Indo-Europeans established their rule over societies first by military means, and secondarily by mythological and religious means, but they generally viewed agricultural work as lesser than the art of war or religion.

2. THE IMPERIAL ROMAN STRUCTURE
The nature of Roman religion changed significantly over centuries. While originally, Roman religion was fanatical and devout, the Roman encounter with foreign religions degraded this quality. These religions included the Phoenecian black cube of Emperor Heliogabalus, the influence of Judaism, Mithraism, Neo-Platonism, Christianity, as well as Egyptian cults, snake cults, Babylonian astrology. The toleration and Romano Interpretation of foreign religions placed the traditional Roman religion in a tertiary position. During the early period of Christianization, agnosticism and lack of faith was common, and the attempts by Julian the Apostate and Marcus Aurelius to turn back the tide of Christianity were ineffectual. By contrast, the Roman economic class at times intersected with, intermixed with, or challenged the Roman military class. Pompey and Crassus were large landowners, and the period of their ascent is described by Spengler as such: “At the beginning a man was wealthy because he was powerful — now he is powerful because he has money. [..] Democracy is the completed equating of money with political power.” [Oswald Spengler, Decline of the West, Vols 1-2] All of this lead to the Imperial Roman Structure, with a military dictatorship at the head, a secondary economic power, and a tertiary religious power.

3. WOKE IMPERIALISM
The structure of Woke Capitalism is described as having a primary priest class, with a secondary economic class. The structure of Neoliberalism is described as having a primary economic class, with a secondary warrior class. If we combine or layer these two structures together, we get "Woke Imperialism." Woke Neoliberalism has, like Woke Capitalism, a primary priest class, which directs economic activity according to social, moral, or spiritual goals. But like Neoliberalism, its secondary economic activity subsequently directs tertiary military activity. In this system, the military plays an important role in the system, but wars are downstream from moral and economic considerations. In such a system, the "military-industrial complex" is first and foremost an economic system, and warrior virtues as such as subordinated within the confines of economic interests.

4. CHOMSKYIAN IMPERIALISM
Right-wing conspiracy theorists tend to see the economy as ideologically controlled. They see Klaus Schwab as an esoteric wizard, and the WEF as a cabal of satanists. They view the power structure as Woke Imperialism, with Jeffrey Epstein at the top, the bankers in the middle, and the military at the bottom. Leftists such as Noam Chomsky, on the other hand, tend to view media and religion as tools fashioned by capitalism to support itself, which directs and controls military invasions for ultimately economic purposes.

Chomskyian Imperialism describes a structure where the economic class dominates, followed by a supportive priest or media class, and is finally followed by a warrior class which is suppressed and controlled. Egypt under the control of Joseph seems to have followed this formula, with economic power reigning supreme over the traditional Roman caste system. Many countries in Asia, which traditionally had Buddhist religious structures which are now degraded or muted, could be said to follow this structure.

5. THE BRAHMINIC STRUCTURE
The Brahminic Structure describes a state in which the priest class dominates, followed by the warrior class, with the economic class as tertiary. It is essentially an expanded form of the Melchizedek Structure which includes an economic function.

6. THE LOMBARDIC STRUCTURE
The last structure, the Lombard Structure, is one in which the economic class dominates all others, followed by a secondary warrior class, and finally a diminished priest class. The mercenary wars of Italy, as described by Machiavelli, took place in the context of an exponentially growing economy, the foundation of the banking system, and expanding international trade. Unlike the era since 1945, when European warfare has been relatively rare, the employment of mercenaries in Italy was frequent and brutal. The church did have a decisive role to play in Italian politics, with the papacy supporting the Lombard banking system, going to war, and hiring its own mercenaries. However, the religious or ideological function in itself was diminished during this period, which led to the breaks in orthodoxy during the return of Neo-Platonism, Humanism, the Renaissance, and the controversy of Galileo.