Podbit · Dwarkesh Podcast
Death was the sentence on the books for almost everything. But in reality, your patron intervened, a word was put in, and you paid a fine. The one person who was actually executed was the one who had angered his patron. The entire justice system was a rehearsal for divine grace, with the patron standing in for the saint and the judge standing in for God.
Where this was said
At 43:00 · chapter starts 36:13
Patronage was the fundamental glue of Renaissance society — from papal army command to hotel stays. When Paul III chose competence over family, Romans rioted demanding more nepotism. [1] — Ada Palmer "99 of 100 death sentences commuted: In Renaissance Florence, perhaps 99 of 100 capital convictions ended in a fine rather than execution, b…" 45:00
In Renaissance Florence, perhaps 99 of 100 capital convictions ended in a fine rather than execution, because patronage networks intervened to win clemency for the accused.
Giordano Bruno survived multiple Inquisition trials through patronage, but when he angered his patron, that patron turned him in — leaving him without protection and leading to his execution.
Factories that replaced coal engines with electric ones in the early 1900s got only 6% efficiency gains. Those that redesigned their entire factory around electricity got a 3x productivity improvement. Swapping AI tools into your existing structure will give you 6%. Rebuilding around AI will give you 10x.
Lebanese terrorists backed by Iran were holding American hostages throughout the Reagan presidency. Reagan had loudly campaigned against negotiating with terrorists — putting him in an impossible position that his team quietly decided to ignore.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the US openly supplied Iraq with weapons, training, and intelligence. At the same time, Oliver North was secretly funneling missiles to Iran. The US was playing both sides of a shooting war.
Oliver North traveled to Iran under the alias 'William P. Goode' with a fake passport. CIA Director William Casey allegedly gave him cyanide pills so he could kill himself rather than be tortured if captured. He returned safely and the deal moved forward.
The Pentagon sold missiles to the CIA for $3,700 each. The CIA sold them to Richard Secord at cost. Secord sold them to Iranian middleman Ghorbanifar for $10,000 each. Ghorbanifar charged Iran even more. The profit — including $3 million in interest in one Swiss account — was diverted directly to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
America secretly transferred 2,000 missiles and missile parts to Iran in 8 shipments over more than a year. Only 3 of 7 hostages were released. Three more were taken. The net result was zero freed hostages and a full-blown constitutional scandal.
On October 5, 1986, a CIA Contra supply plane flew a weapons drop at 2,500 feet in broad daylight. A Sandinista soldier shot it down. The only survivor, Eugene Hasenfuss, had borrowed a parachute from his skydiving brother. He was captured, paraded in front of cameras, and told the Sandinistas everything he knew.
The CIA supply operation used a front company called Southern Air Transport, widely known to be a CIA cover. Crew members of the downed plane carried their Southern Air Transport employee IDs in their wallets. One also had a business card directly linking him to Oliver North's office in Washington.
When the scandal broke, Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall conducted what became known as a 'shredding party,' destroying a day's worth of documents. The full truth of Iran-Contra may never be known because of what was fed through that shredder.
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