Say instead of president, Obama is King of America. In feudal societies, kings and queens would issue titles and land to individuals for reasons such as political promotion, alliance deals, rewards of service to the crown, dowries, etc. Presumably, the rich and influential would be given the best rewards, even political opponents the king doesn’t want to piss off.
So how would King Obama issue titles and recognize dukedoms and earldoms and such?
A few off the top of my head:
[ul]
[li]Bill Gates would be Duke of Washington[/li][li]Donald Trump would be Earl of Manhattan[/li][li]Arkansas would be a caliphate under the Walton family[/li][li]Texas would be divided among various oil-barons[/li][li]The Koch brothers would be Dukes of Kansas[/li][/ul]
Most of the major cities would probably be Free Cities (as it was in the Holy Roman Empire) rather than personal fiefdoms of anybody. Most of the Chesapeake Bay area would also be under direct control.
Sigh… I knew the “aren’t we already in a feudal society” comments would crawl out of the woodwork.
I could have named any type of government and the same comments would still germinate. What if the USA were actually a theocracy run by televangelists? “Wait, aren’t we already a theocracy run by televangelists?” “What, Obama’s not already the Pope?” yadayadayada
If you are thinking in terms of land… sorry you are, a few centuries, behind… that was then…
If you think in terms of who controls the means that produce wealth.
it becomes obvious that the capitalistic societies have become neo-feudal .
Who controls the mines, the factories, the commerce companies, the railways, the news corporations, the banks, the entertainment, etc…
A few people…
And the rest of us work in “their fields”, making them wealthier, while keeping pennies for ourselves.
Yes, this, sort of. I began to see this coming about 40 years ago, when I was a young adult, living in an apartment building that was owned by some big corporation that was otherwise in the main business of making corrugated cardboard products (I think). I started to notice that more and more, fewer and fewer bigger and bigger concerns owned more of everything, and the rest of us all paid rent to them for everything we want to use (like a roof over our heads). That’s when I began to notice the patterns of which here and there speaks.
Perhaps the country is turning into one gigantic Company Town, rather than a feudal state.
‘Killy’ by Donald E. Westlake was one of my favourite books as a child.
I ain’t yer vassal
So don’t push me around
I’ll blow up yer castle
If you make me plow yer ground
So don’t give me no hassle
Because I ain’t yer vassal!
I’d rather be a mercenary so I can wage war on those infidels in the city state of Santa Fe.
