Parenti on Democracy

I'm not sure if it's wealth alone or just monopolies on power and influence achieved one way or another. The dark ages of many european nations were branded by churches' influence over monarchs' own decisions. They had at some point and in some places more real estate than anyone else, and usually supported wars for gains, but they gained their own power by monopolizing the irrational in commoners and printing god's approval or forgiveness as they claimed they can do so. I'm not exactly well versed in the topic, but as a commoner myself I see the current concept of 'wealth' complicated by math, stonks and such as some sort of the same religious bullshit, but somehow more excusable in our age and time.