8: On Risk Management and Marketplace Mentality

Abstract

This section shows the various ways that oligarchs improve the risk profile of their domains. The section begins with a list of leaders who have lost their organizations through the breakdown of their networks. It then addresses what modern scientific study has made of the Machiavelli’s key idea of fortune. Treating chance as a Bayesian function where future events can be predicted in ranges of outcomes, The Oligarch attempts to show by example how relying on single value solutions, such as financialization, growth, or even freedom, risks the stability of any organization. This section is derived from arguments about the sustainability of systems, where risk is reduced by distributing the assets to be protected rather than locking them up behind high levels of security.