Odessa File

"Following a remarkable epoch of greater dispersion of wealth and opportunity, we are inexorably returning towards a more feudal era marked by greater concentration of wealth and property, reduced upward mobility, demographic stagnation, and increased dogmatism. If the last seventy years saw a massive expansion of the middle class, not only in America but in much of the developed world, today that class is declining and a new, more hierarchical society is emerging. The new class structure resembles that of Medieval times. At the apex of the new order are two classes-a reborn clerical elite, the clerisy, which dominates the upper part of the professional ranks, universities, media and culture, and a new aristocracy led by tech oligarchs with unprecedented wealth and growing control of information. These two classes correspond to the old French First and Second Estates. Below these two classes lies what was once called the Third Estate. This includes the yeomanry, which is made up largely of small businesspeople, minor property owners, skilled workers and private-sector oriented professionals. Ascendant for much of modern history, this class is in decline while those below them, the new Serfs, grow in numbers-a vast, expanding property-less population. The trends are mounting, but we can still reverse them-if people understand what is actually occurring and have the capability to oppose them"-- Provided by publisher PART I. HOW FEUDALISM CAME BACK 1. The Feudal Revival 2. The Enduring Allure of Feudalism 3. The Rise and Decline of Liberal Capitalism PART II. THE OLIGARCHS 4. High-Tech Feudalism 5. The Belief System of the New Oligarchy 6. Feudalism in California, Harbinger of the Future PART III. THE CLERISY 7. The New Legitimizers 8. The Control Tower 9. New Religions PART IV. THE EMBATTLED YEOMANRY 10. The Rise and Decline of Upward Mobility 11. A Lost Generation? 12. Culture and Capitalism PART V. THE NEW SERFS 13. Beyond the Ring Road 14. The Future of the Working Class 15. Peasant Rebellions PART VI. THE NEW GEOGRAPHY OF FEUDALISM 16. The New Gated City 17. The Soul of the Neo-feudal City 18. The Totalitarian Urban Future PART VII. A MANIFESTO FOR THE THIRD ESTATE 19. The Technological Challenge 20. The Shaping of Neo-feudal Society 21. Can We Challenge Neo-feudalism? Acknowledgments Notes Index