Monopoly and Ego: The Philosophy of Power, from the Professions to the State

Who has the right to own what belongs to everyone?

A ruler treats the state as his household. A party leader treats the party as his property. A private organization claims that only its members may practise a profession. Each time, something built by many people is claimed by a few as theirs to control.

Monopoly and Ego is a philosophical study of how power is acquired, justified, challenged, and abused, and of how free people can resist it. It follows one question across twenty-four centuries, through seven great thinkers:

• Plato: how democracy can give birth to tyranny
• Machiavelli: how power is acquired and kept
• La Boétie: why people submit to concentrated power
• Mill: why independent thought must be protected
• Michels: why every organization tends toward rule by a few
• Fromm: why people may welcome authority instead of freedom
• Arendt: how loneliness, the death of truth, and thoughtless obedience prepare the ground for domination

The book then applies their insights to our own time. It covers the struggle of two healing professions against a powerful monopoly, how democracies decline without a single coup, and the United States under the Trump administration as a test case. It looks at the division of peoples after the pandemic and at the coming age of artificial intelligence, which may allow power to be concentrated as never before. It also argues for the role of parliament, law, and fundamental freedoms (speech, press, association, and occupation) in keeping power accountable.

Every chapter argues against itself, setting out the strongest objections and answering them. The book ends with ten practical tests that anyone can apply to any claim of authority, whether in a professional body, a university, a sports organization, a political party, or a government.

Monopoly is not owned by the right or the left, by America or Asia, by governments or companies. It is a temptation that arises wherever people hold authority over something others need.

No one owns power. It is only ever held in trust.