The Power Structure of the World examines a five-tiered model of global control structured as a pyramid. The framework outlines how influence and perception interact through identifiable layers of participants, each serving a defined function within the system of power. The explainer visualizes this model as a continuous hierarchy sustained through communication, belief, and institutional design.

Original Article

Podcast Version (36:34)

The Pyramid of Control

At the foundation lies the general public, labeled the Prisoners of the Cave, a reference to Plato’s allegory. These individuals inhabit a mediated environment of screens, notifications, and curated information. They interpret the images before them as reality because they live inside the shadows projected by others. Within this environment, perception functions as containment. The introduction of terms like “conspiracy theorist” creates linguistic boundaries that preserve the wall between the real and the represented. Each reinforcement of that language renews the lower tier’s dependency on the imagery that defines its sense of truth.

The True Believers

Ascending the structure, the True Believers occupy the second tier as politically active participants who commit themselves to causes that absorb their frustration and identity. The explainer draws on Eric Hoffer’s concept from The True Believer, describing people who join movements to escape personal uncertainty. The Duke model highlights movements such as Black Lives Matter and MAGA as examples of this psychological mechanism. True Believers find direction through collective certainty. They act with intensity, amplify ideology, and channel emotional energy into sustained action. This layer transforms diffuse discontent into a focused force that powers the levels above.

The Assets and Their Roles

Above the believers operate the Assets — figures who influence events without full awareness of their integration into the larger structure. They occupy roles in journalism, finance, activism, or politics. Each acts through professional routines that align, intentionally or incidentally, with the strategic interests of higher authorities. The explainer lists forms of activity, including information leaks, sexual blackmail schemes known as honey traps, and scapegoating operations that create designated fall figures. Some Assets control narratives through editorial framing or media production. Others sustain financial mechanisms through corporations or foundations. They move within visible systems, unaware of the coordination that gives those systems direction.

The Handlers’ Coordination

The Handlers form the managerial class that organizes the Assets and directs public perception. They operate through formal institutions and personal networks that link private industry and government administration. The Council on Foreign Relations serves as a primary example, illustrated by a chart showing its continuous presence in United States policymaking over 70 years. Handlers rotate through corporate boards, think tanks, and government posts, shaping continuity across administrations. Their visibility serves as both influence and insulation, drawing scrutiny toward themselves and away from the unacknowledged architects above them. Through their mediation, complex agendas acquire the appearance of a democratic process.

The Power Elite Oligarchy

At the summit stands the Power Elite Oligarchy, described as a lineage-based network that maintains control through legal and financial architecture. The video presents the Rothschild family as a visual symbol, showing Walter Rothschild riding a tortoise to illustrate patience and intergenerational strategy. Duke’s report links this lineage to older centers of commerce and governance, tracing continuity from the British and Dutch empires through Venetian banking dynasties to the Byzantine system of state finance. The enduring method of control derives from ownership structures — corporations, trusts, and foundations — that extend the founders' will beyond their lifetimes. These entities serve as immortal instruments for strategic persistence.

The Global Public-Private Partnership

The explainer concludes with a diagram titled the Global Public-Private Partnership. This structure defines the operational mechanism through which the upper tier transmits policy downward. Private policymaking organizations such as the World Economic Forum generate the agenda. Global distributors like the United Nations formalize those agendas into frameworks. National governments implement them through regulation and enforcement. The media circulates the approved narrative to the public, who internalize it as civic consensus. Each level interacts through visible legitimacy, yet the direction of influence flows from the concentrated private apex to the dependent public base. The system advances through repetition, coordination, and time.

The Function of Epistemological Warfare

Throughout the model, epistemological warfare maintains the pyramid's cohesion. The report defines it as a contest over the control of knowledge and meaning. Language, finance, and culture serve as the operational tools. By framing perception, those at higher tiers stabilize their authority without resorting to overt coercion. The manipulation of representation becomes the sustaining force of governance. Each narrative, image, and policy aligns to preserve the hierarchical structure.

The Closing Challenge

The explainer ends with a direct appeal. When current events appear incoherent, the viewer must decide whether to accept the prevailing interpretation or to investigate its origins. The call to inquiry positions awareness as the act that breaks the metaphorical chains of the cave. The model’s complexity becomes a map of inquiry rather than an article of faith. Through this framework, Peter Duke defines a structured vision of global power that links ancient lineage, modern institutions, and the psychology of belief into a single system of coordinated control.

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The Duke Report - Where to Start

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Foundational Articles

* Meet Your Rulers

* Do You Know the Difference between Liberty and Freedom?

* The Power Structure of the World

* The Star Within the Circle

* Rituals in Plain Sight

* A User’s Guide to Neuro-Linguistic Defense

Podcast (Audio & Video Content)

* Palmerston’s Zoo Episode 01 - Solving the Paradox of Current World History (9 Episodes)

* Oligarchic Control from the Renaissance to the Information Age

* Epistemological Warfare, Rituals in Plain Sight & The Modern Anglo-Dutch Empire with Peter Duke & Sam Cheney

* The Grand Design of the 20th Century

* Bots React to Neurolinguistic Defense

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