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RE: Consensus exists only in equalitarian groups, where everybody has the same rights to express their will by influence and be influenced by all the others
This is the SNAFU principle, which states, true communication is only possible between equals.
When a power hierarchy exists, the members with less power will distort the facts to adhere more closely to the desires of those with more power. This distortion may be conscious or not, but it is inevitable.
There is a fail safe that can be used by rulers aware of this. The court poet and/or fool are employed by wise rulers to keep from falling into a "bubble" mentality. This allows the ruler to maintain a connection with reality, while surrounded by fawning sycophants.
As long as the truth teller is given no real power, but given incentive in the form of privilege, the ruler is safe.
Thanks for that insight form history, very interesting. I knew about the court jesters, but not how it tied into giving a ruler feedback that others were afraid to give. hehe.
Even the Jester's costume is a parody of the king's garb. The points on his hat, with the bells, are the points of the crown, and the jingling adornments of authority. The Jester, in parody of the king, even has his own fool, which is the scepter he is to be seen carrying with him that is usually topped with a little jester's head, a sort of infinite regress in parody of parody. The ventriloquist and his dummy, that talks back to him, is a derivative of this as well.
I often wonder if the president and vice president might be patterned after this arrangement.
Indeed! And today's court jesters can still be seen as the group of ostensible "comedians" who wrap their political criticism in a thin veneer of "comedy" while actually saying things mainstream network news could never get away with.
They are also to provide a vicarious rebellion against the ruler by the the ruled. If the fool shoves it in the ruler's face then the subjects are less likely to get it in their head that they need to do it.