Thxs for responding.  Not so much 'evil men in purple robes' as the unstoppable economic and political growth paradigm; the Tragedy of the Commons.  Longtime readers of my postings on Yahoo:AlasBabylon understand my concept of the detritus-driven 'Humanimal Ecosystem' that overlies the Natural Ecosystem.  We could classify all detritovores from keystone predators all the way down to gnats and slugs.

Once the fossil fuel detritus is burned up, us humans will be remelded into intimate contact with the forces of Nature again; just as we were before the discovery of coal, natgas, and oil.  How many have thought as they open a longneck of beer that the energy required could have saved a life elsewhere?  Very few.  Economics, by its inherent design, creates an infinite spectrum of elites. My examples of wolfpack vs reindeer is a vast oversimplification of what is actually a worldwide energy competition to determine dominance.

It is better if one visualizes a entire 'humanimal taxonomy'; lions, wolves, bears, eagles, badgers, elk, deer, antelope, sparrows, trout, pigeons, gnats, etc.  Those who have no access to anything detritus-derived; their lifestyle is strictly bio-solar driven could be considered 'Human plants'-- maybe a primitive tribe could be found in New Guinea to fit this humanimal description.

At the other end of the spectrum are the very powerful and rich who essentially are the keystone predators: their natural inclination is to make choices that impact through the entire humanimal foodchain, just as Yellowstone wolves culling elk increases beaver habitat and sapling regrowth along streambanks.

The IMF, WTO, CIA, and other 3-letter orgs is nothing more than the exosomatic extension of humanimal fangs.  Wolves can only grasp what their fangs can reach-- Humanimal fangs can extend worldwide due to detritus-derived exosomatic guns, bombs, propaganda, interest financing, and political streamlining of resource flows.

Bob Shaw in Phx,Az  Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?