What hell to run an institution these days! You must pledge allegiance first to your funders, then to do right.

Wealth has never been humble; but these days it brags and bullies like never in memory, insisting on subservience or else. Corporate, academic and philanthropic chieftains are hired to run errands, not their outfits. Wealth equals wisdom, does it not? If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?

Elon Musk, while the most conspicuous in both fortune and hubris, is one of a burgeoning breed. These plutocrats give to get – power, influence, fame. Recipients of their bounty must kiss their cloaks. One objectionable move and off with their heads. Only toadies need apply.

Musk spent two hundred and eighty-eight million bucks to reelect the Nameless One. I spell out the number to give it time to sink in. Do you think he wasn’t buying something? He was buying the key to trillions. He was buying America – for cheap. Many plutocrats these days run for office. Musk, no dummy when it comes to money, found buying a candidate a better bet. The Nameless One, whose vanity knows no bounds, imagines he can control his prodigious benefactor. Among my few delights these dismal days is the prospect of these fatsos vying for the pinnacle of power.

Wealth was less obnoxious when I was younger. Carnegie, Morgan, Rockefeller, Gates, Soros, Bloomberg directed their benevolence to honorable ends. A sense of propriety governed philanthropy: thou shalt not flaunt.

These days, humility is out and ostentation in. Greed is good. As Americans grew disaffected from politics, the wealthy connived to purchase influence. They bought judges, who bent the law in their favor. They bought scholars, who produced tomes defending their interests. They bought media, to mangle the minds of the unsuspecting. After the Citizens United Supreme Court decision in 2010, the wealthy were permitted to spend what they liked on elections. Surprise, surprise, they revised the laws so the rich would get richer and the poorer stay poorer – while persuading the poorer, who vastly outnumbered the rich, they were better off screwed. If the Nameless One has his way, he’ll cancel elections altogether. Why vote when you have a Perfect Leader?

Justice Brandeis got it right: the greater the concentration of wealth, the less freedom for all. Dissent gets outlawed. Independence is denounced as disloyalty. Dissidents start getting slaughtered – or sent to Siberia (or Guantanamo). That’s the horror movie we’re watching now. Those who claim otherwise are clueless, complicit, or cowards. If you’re running an institution, you’re either buckling to the new reality or inviting annihilation. None is safe; even I, with our cozy little congregation, feel the chill. Of wealth, there’s never enough. “Wealth is like sea water,” said Schopenhauer; “the more we drink, the thirstier we become.”

It’s appalling watching powerful organizations kowtowing to the new overlords, but can you blame them? It’s easy for me to be outspoken – the most I risk is me. But if you’re the boss of a collaborative enterprise, you may risk its survival and the well-being of those who depend on it. No doubt you console yourself with bromides – “can’t buck City Hall,” “cost of doing business,” “live to fight another day” – while you squirm with shame.

Who will win the war between the rich and the rest of us? My crystal ball is out for repair. I’m betting on the many over money, but that may be wishful thinking.