" In affluent, high tech economies, the masses are superfluous - even as cannon fodder. Wars are no longer fought by conscript armies but by computers - and, in the collapsed states that litter much of the world, by the ragged irregular armies of the poor. With this mutation of war, the pressure to maintain social cohesion is relaxed. The wealthy can pass their lives without contact with the rest of society. So long as they do not pose a threat to the rich, the poor can be left to their own desires.
Social democracy has been replaced by an oligarchy of the rich as part of the price of peace"
in "Straw dogs" by John Gray
