In medieval tradition, kings were appointed by God. That Divine Right meant that a king could do no wrong. A badly run country or an evil king was not the result of God making a mistake, but rather a sign of his displeasure with those being ruled.
The Industrial Revolution replaced that ideology with the divine right of wealth. Capitalism assured that meritocracy could guarantee that those who were rich deserved all they had because they were better than anyone else. If things were going wrong in society, it was because capitalism was being foiled by those being ruled.
Republicans have further distilled this creed to wealth being the only measure of worth. They need guns to protect wealth, strong borders to protect wealth, a strong police power to protect wealth, and an intrusive government to make sure capitalism protects the wealthy at all costs. Once in a while a poor person will ascend to riches which _ like knights or saints from the peasantry in the olden days _ proves everything is working well.
Eventually, for better or worse, the kings were replaced by various new mythologies, capitalism being only one among many. At some point, the sheer increasing folly of any system causes social collapse.
I’m not sure exactly what point we are at, but the voices claiming wealth is always right have grown very loud.
HuntingtonHarborThoughts 