The only luxury and at the same time the only props of the following plot are some deck chairs. There were about a third as many as passengers.
In the first days, between three or four ports, these deck chairs constantly change hands. As soon as someone stood up, the deck chair was considered free. Slip symbols were not recognized. This exercise became completely accepted and proved to be expedient. The number of deck chairs was about enough for the particular need, one could usually find one if one wanted. A Commodity that was available in limited numbers was not in short supply.
After leaving a port where passengers had changed as usual, this order suddenly broke down. The new arrivals had taken the deck chairs and claimed permanent ownership. They therefore declared even a deck chair that was temporarily not occupied by them as "occupied". This was still not enforceable by occupancy symbols. But it succeeded through the joint effort of all also-occupants. If you approached a free deck chair in any suspicious way, you were rejected by the poses, gestures and shouts of the also-owners. The deterrent actions were so impressive that a physical conflict did not occur.
Moreover, in the course of time, they were reinforced by the fact that the owners moved their deckchairs closer together, until finally concentrations arose that resembled fortified wagon castles. The just not occupied deck chairs were folded together and served as a ring wall.
After the assertion of exclusive powers of disposal of a subgroup over a generally coveted commodity, the hodgepodge of passengers acquired structure. Two classes had established themselves, possessors and non-possessors, positively and negatively privileged. If one compares these two new subgroups with the totality of passengers who had participated in the earlier order, it immediately becomes apparent that what was really original about the new order – at least in its first phase – was the establishment of Negative Privileges. One subgroup was denied access to a commodity. The privileged subgroup, on the other hand, could use this good as needed, i.e. just as everyone could before.
Assuming that their needs remained the same, they had not yet gained any advantage over the former entirety. The enviable thing about their situation was that they did not belong to the others. But further above all in the expandability of her position. It would require little imagination to predict the further course of events if the journey continued for a while under the same conditions.
The next step is undoubtedly the temporary rental of the deck chairs to some non-owners. In return, services can be rendered in addition to goods, and here again primarily the assumption of the function that arises with every claim to ownership, the function of the guardian. The deleation of the guardianship to some non-possessors not only brings a real relief to the possessors, it also leads to a further enrichment of the inner structure, which can now unfold in three parts: in the groups of the possessors, the guardians and the only-dispossessed (Nur-Besitzlose). At the same time, an essential clarification is achieved: From now on, the merely propertyless are in the worst situation by their own free will and fault.
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POPITZ, Heinrich, 1992. Phänomene der Macht. 2., stark erw. Aufl. Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr (P. Siebeck). ISBN 978-3-16-145897-2, p. 187–189.
We only repeat the standard question that must always and everywhere impose itself on this last group when we consider how this could happen. The process is clearly taking place against the will of the majority, the result is unfavorable for the majority. It does not have to go that way, but it can go that way – as everyone knows. The minority, absurdly enough, has a chance to impose its new order. How, in what is this chance based? (p. 190)
⇒ The Superior Organizational Capability of the Privileged