Philip K. Dick was the visionary writer that inspired Minority Report, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, They Live, Blade Runner. He had this "crazy" theory back in the 70's that the Roman empire never died and was still in control. Interestingly enough, if you do the research, the same 12 families still own most (if not... all) of the resources on the planet. Remember, tyranny is not an -ism, it just is.