[VLM]

Absolute power corrupts absolutely, so you're guaranteed to have a 100% fail, a worse outcome than your zero-sum game, which merely fails most of the time.

What's most likely is an oligopoly of multinational corps really being in charge, with a thin veneer of democracy as a marketing message to keep the population under control. "You're not really feudal serfs because you get to vote for your overseer, among two candidates selected by the plantation owner who only differ in minor, yet rabble rousing irrelevancies" Or rephrased, the American system, but worldwide. It may not be a good system, but its a stable system.

We already have it, to some extent. Is there any real ideological/moral/ethical difference between the neo-cons and the taliban other than minor stuff like selection of holy book (said by a former -R who more or less got kicked out by the extremist fundamentalist neos)?