Imagine telling the original artist right after they finished it that in 113 years time people would be posting his/her creation in full color and high fidelity on a communications system that instantly made it accessible to anyone in the world. That would completely blow their mind.
I'm confused about what this picture is trying to say. What do the 2nd, 3rd and 4th tiers from the top — rule by royalty(?), indoctrination by the clergy, oppression by the military — have to do with capitalism?
Or it could be the rulling class takes the biggest cut, clergy the next biggest etc. with workers at the bottom supporting the entire system but receiving the least.
None of that has anything to do with capitalism, though. You're just pointing out the negatives of tyranny, which, arguably, capitalism doesn't necessitate.
First, the money goes underneath the liberal politicians and their capitalist and fascist cronies. The Marxists got that wrong. They don't serve capital - capital serves them.
Second, replace the religious types with media personalities.
Third, replace the diners with upper middle-class "managerial" types and move them one step up.
Fourth, move the goon squad one level down and - of course - replace them with pigs.
Not really. I don't think religion was ever used to control people. Certain aspects of religion was used to justify certain classes hoarding the real means of control - which is always a material thing - but that makes religion no different than any other justification (such as nationalism or the belief in the so-called "free market")
Marx himself had a pretty nuanced take on this - I'd say he was half-right about it. The Marxist-Lennists completely fudged it - as they do with almost everything - but even anarchists got this horribly wrong.
Even if you disagree with what I'm saying - and most leftists do - you still have to admit that the only way you control religion today is through media.
Less than a decade after this "meme" a communist society was formed and it ended up with pretty much the same hierarchy. Just with different costumes for the people at the top.
Tribes, miltaries, religions, businesses, governments, political parties, courtrooms, sports teams.... basically every kind of grouping of people is in a hierarchy. We don't have hive minds, so we aren't always going to agree on everything. When there's disagreement, someone needs to make a decision. The person who decides is going to be higher in the hierarchy than the people who have to go along with that decision. It's necessary for things to function.
Socialism is similar to a religion. "We just need to all believe the same thing and everything will just work out." And also similar to religions, the belief that their group is more special and different from others mean they will tend to deny the hierarchy they're in. The leader becomes sort of like the Pope, the infallible one that is of pure belief, so not above us in a hierarchy but the vessel by which we will achieve our perfect society.
But in the end it's all the same hierarchical shit. Best we can do is have a system where we can vote out the people at the top of the hierarchy when they get too corrupted by the power.
“a man stole a Softdrink from the supermarket. Every man is a thief”
No, not every hierarchy is tyrannical. Some of us are lucky enough to be able to vote out those above us in the hierarchy.