For all the discussion about what the WEF* can and can't do, t | Imperium Press

For all the discussion about what the WEF* can and can't do, think of them as analogous to the Roman senate. Here was a body of men with no official power, no formal sovereignty, and yet the Roman state always consulted them and all but did as they said. The Romans called this auctoritas, and our word is almost the same. When Gaddafi was told by the American state department to step down as de facto monarch over Libya, he replied simply that there was no office to step down from. And yet, no one would think that Gaddafi was not effectively sovereign over Libya. Power need not carry a title, and a title alone does not impart power.

It's also worth noting in relation to Rome, that the revolution that toppled the Republic came only after someone figured out that they could openly defy the senate. All the Ciceros in the world clamouring about "our democracy" could not stop it, because at the end of the day, history is not moved by ideas or institutions, still less by words, but by men and their deeds.

(* and to a lesser extent the EU parliament)