It is that system of authority that is at the heart of the corruption.
The shift, Gladwell said, was from a system of authority ranking, or paternalism, to one of market pricing.
The problem with the old system of authority ranking was arrogance — the assumption that the world ought to be ordered according to the whims of Capital.
The new doctrines on faith and the priesthood of all believers rejected Roman Catholic teaching on salvation and the priesthood and undermined the traditional system of authority.
The Chernobyl explosion, 30 years ago this month, arguably played a key role in the demise of the Soviet Union – if only because it crushed whatever credibility remained of a system of authority whose claims included the safe mastery of technology.
In "The woman and her five would-be lovers", a merchant's daughter overturns the entire medieval system of authority, locking up king, vizier, superintendant and judge in compartments of a cupboard where they urinate on one another.
One section of the film examines the historical links between various companies and mid-20th-century fascism, which are used to support a broader claim that modern consumer capitalism is, at bottom, an oppressive system of authority.
Thus, it was in the interest of conservatism to take the task of centralization in hand, bring it to a successful conclusion, and create a new system of authority compatible with the preservation of royal and aristocratic dominance.
A closed system of authority in which democracy is a dirty word, secrecy is a virtue and unaccountable individuals combine spiritual prestige and temporal power is a breeding ground for abuse and cover-up.
But in trying to impose a system of authority based on loyalty to himself, he created a lasting rift in Fatah between his "outside" people and younger local leaders.
