The Institution of the Atrium - The antidote to Privatocracy

This article is a work in progress.

Privatocratia

Latin Term for "Rule of the Private".

• Term: Privatocratia
• Meaning: Rule or government by private individuals or private interests.
• Derivation: from Latin privatus (private, individual) + -cratia (rule, government, from Greek kratia).
• Follows the pattern of Latinized terms like democratia (democracy) and aristocratia (aristocracy).

I may have coined this term.

Don't despair.

Our Western governments are privatocracies. Some more than others: yes, European Union, you are the poster child.

We are facing the hidden tentacles of corruption hidden through layers of nepotism and money hidden in the back pockets of children, third-generation cousins, and friends of friends.

And all these tentacles are protected under the EU shield of "privacy", "GDPR", "cookie consent forms", and a myriad of rules and regulations. Did you think these were meant for YOUR protection?

This system has a proven track record of protecting our elected and unelected officials from the offensive eyes and questions of our citizens.

Privatocracy is the institution of slavery, perfected.

But solutions already exist to disabuse our governments and states of privatocracy. And it is only a matter of time until this happens.

This article is meant as constructive criticism. A form of government is better than no form of government. There is incredible virtue in performing state functions. And a peaceful technical revolution with societal implications is better than the violent lessons of the past (karma always moves regardless of entropy control).

Slavery perfected

Overall Tax Burden / Tax Wedge

• EU:

  • Kept at home (net take-home pay + benefits): ≈ 60–62%
  • Paid to government (taxes + contributions): ≈ 38–40%

• USA:

  • Kept at home: ~68%
  • Paid to government: ~32%

Most people end up paying up to 40% of everything they earn to their state. When these taxes do not result in an increase in infrastructure, applied research, and in the overall increase of people's wellbeing, directly proportional to the amount of taxes, you have a form of slavery.

But Privatocracy makes this the perfect form of slavery. Because nobody knows who the masters are. Enter your favorite conspiracy theory.

The perfect form of slavery is one where the masters are not known and cannot be made responsible. Neither today nor by history, tomorrow. You pay now almost half of what you make, you have no idea where that money goes, and your hard-earned virtues are used against you, because you do want some form of "state" to exist.

There is no apparent limit: tomorrow you could pay more than half and then be sent to war, even against your will.

The Roman Atrium

Time for a palate cleanse.

Rome became a republic through the sacrifice of familial ties as being less important than the virtues aggregated into the concept of the republic.

The Atrium is a symbol of transparency. We do not need to enter the houses of our government officials. But we need radical transparency for everything related to the state budget. Who touches this money (be it by laws, voting, spending, contracts with the state, or information access) must be fully transparent with their name, assets, and maybe more. And this should apply not only to government officials, but also to NGOs, private companies, citizens, etc., who touch the state budget.

Roman Republic: the morning “open house” – the salutatio

Roman magistrates, senators, and other prominent citizens followed a tradition where their domus (house) doors were open each morning to receive clientes (clients) and other visitors.

This was a structured ritual:

• At dawn, clients arrived to pay their respects.
• The patron (the official or noble) received them in the atrium.

This was both social and political: it kept networks alive, let petitioners present requests, and showed the official’s willingness to be accessible.

Political accessibility as a duty

For elected officials (magistratus), physical accessibility was tied to the idea that they served the populus Romanus (Roman people).

Shutting oneself away or refusing to see citizens could be seen as arrogance or even a sign of tyranny.

Cicero, for instance, notes in "De Officiis" that magistrates should “make themselves available and approachable” to all citizens.

This Roman practice of “public-private space” in the home evolved into later European traditions of public audiences with rulers.

Governance transparency in history

Roman Empire (27 BCE – 476 CE)

Under the Empire, the salutatio continued, but now directed toward the emperor and high-ranking officials.

Citizens, petitioners, and ambassadors could attend the adventus (public appearance) or be admitted into the atrium palatii.

The audientia publica was a formal audience for legal and administrative matters.

Access became more hierarchical: the closer you could physically get to the emperor, the higher your status (proximus ad aures principis — “nearest to the ears of the prince”).

Early medieval courts (500–1000 CE)

Germanic and early medieval kings kept the tradition of a public court day (placitum or mallus), where anyone could bring a grievance or request.

The royal hall (aula regia) was the setting for public meals, ceremonies, and audiences.

Kings were expected to be seen by their people, reinforcing legitimacy.

High medieval monarchies (1000–1400 CE)

In feudal Europe, rulers continued the practice of “open” mornings for vassals and petitioners.

The English monarch’s Court of King’s Bench and the French lit de justice both echoed Roman public legal audiences.

Public feasts, coronations, and processions reinforced the idea that the ruler was accessible. In reality, intermediaries increasingly filtered requests.

The French “lever” and “coucher” (1600–1789 CE)

Louis XIV of France formalized a public morning ritual (lever du roi) where nobles could attend as the king awoke and dressed.

Habsburg and British public audiences (17th–19th c.)

The Habsburg emperors held “public audiences” where commoners could present petitions, often standing in large reception rooms reminiscent of Roman atria.

British monarchs continued “levées” into the 19th century: a morning reception for officers, diplomats, and petitioners.

Modern implementation

Constituent “open office hours” by elected officials today are a direct descendant of the salutatio.

Many institutions and officials have public email addresses, but there is little provable public data to assess whether they respond to complaints and/or solve them. In practice, officials may choose to ignore their emails without any consequence.

The digital Atrium is the antidote to Privatocracy

The state budget is lava. All who touch it must be known.

The state budget, as implemented now, is the definition of money laundering: one big pile that gets redistributed.

Who are the people who lead the companies that have contracts with the state? Their name should be public.

Who leads the NGOs that are funded through state grants? Their name should be public.

All such data should be public, so anyone can personally analyze it with their tools. And yes, Artificial Intelligence is one of those tools that can successfully be used to find big discrepancies fast. Use AI to highlight issues, and use deterministic methods to analyze each case.

The money is the energy of the nation. It is the gift of the nation. If you touch it, your life must be transparent.

The Privacy Pushers

The privacy pushers argue that citizens need privacy against an unfair state.

The state argues that citizens need privacy against private companies.

This is how the common citizens are used as a human shield to protect corruption.

It is obvious that you cannot have "privacy" from the state. If the state wants, they will know everything about you, without you even knowing they know.

Who benefits from "privacy" regulations? Those who do not want their activities and resources to be caught in systems that analyze data.

The argument of this article is that the state-budget-adjacent people are not your average citizen. They should not have privacy, because they turn into slave owners or slave-owner supporters.

But the privacy pushers, instead of making sure the state is fair through transparency, push a battle that can never be won. They become part of "the system".

Privatocracy feeds off an inefficient state with high taxes and the incentive to fiscal evasion and money laundering, which drives people to say they want privacy for themselves, against the state. But there is no such thing as privacy against the state. Privacy is a red herring. It is a story with no substance.

Can I opt out of Privacy?

What is the mechanism to opt out of GDPR? Provably and publicly.

What is the mechanism to opt out of continuously consenting to cookie forms?

The whole internet has billions of dollars in losses because of these regulations. We also pay with a loss of intelligence that could have been transferred to AI systems.

The internet population is used as a human shield to protect high-value corruption from being discovered. And we have been endoctrinated to love the cookie consent form as a symbol of protection.

Blockchain and AI

Blockchain tech brought immutability, censorship-resistance, and pseudo-anonymous transparency.

The privacy argument is what made blockchain tech feckless.

People have preferred to steal money and use cryptocurrency for doing everything their governments regulate and ban (a pressure safety valve). And at the same time, feed the corruption feedback loop: Taxes increase -> censorship increases -> people evade rules -> privacy needs increase -> privatocracy strengthens.

AI has been gutted by cookie consent forms, copyright complaints, GDPR issues, and government involvement in information alignment.

The solution is clear: AI's greatest TAM is analyzing the state budget. Analyzing all the laws for inconsistency. Analyzing all the institutional activities.

Use deterministic systems with mechanisms for storing data and proving authenticity. Use current AI tech to analyze the data and sort by importance. Use humans to provably and publicly verify the cases.

TAM: ~€8.8 trillion just for EU states.

Constructive criticism

I have been building (self-funded) tech for decentralized states and free citizens for the past 4 years. With great sacrifices to my own well-being.