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Murdoch Family Themes

1. Family Media Empire

• Mythologizing Keith Arthur Murdoch and Gallipoli
• Daily Mirror in 1960
• Oxford, Press baron, wielding political power

2. Mind Games & Control

• HBO's Succession
• All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way
• The whole point is that the crazy old man doesn't know that Cordelia is telling him the truth
• Rupert's trust dividing control equally among wife and four children
• Is daddy going deaf? No, he's just not listening
• Family retreat, therapy

3. The Architect of Influence

• 92-year-old patriarch, King Lear in every sense but one...
• Project Family Harmony: aggressive options to neutralize James, the troublesome beneficiary
• The idea was that it would incentivize them to cooperate

4. Sibling Rivalry

• Have you ever done anything successful on your own?
• Why were you too busy to say "Happy birthday" to your father when he turned 909?
• Does it strike you that, in your account, everything that goes wrong is always somebody else's fault?
• Airing the dirty laundry didn't come naturally to James
• Matthew Freud concerted leak campaign to make Liz the new favored successor

5. Conservative Values

• James didn't share his vision for the family business; Harvard Lampoon; Rawkus Records; Digital Publishing
• Conservative politics across the Anglo-Saxon world
• Why didn't James quit? He was guided by a lesson from the Commedia Divina: Dante encounters Pope Celestine V
• Inferno, Limbo, Paradiso
• Nobody wants to hear a rich heir from a powerful family complain about his father. History has plenty of those.

-- The Guardian

The House of Murdoch: Myth, Mind Games, and the Architecture of Power

Few family dynasties have left as deep an imprint on global media as the Murdochs. Over the course of a century, Rupert Murdoch transformed his father’s modest Australian press holdings into a transnational empire, shaping public opinion across continents and embedding his political influence into the very fabric of the Anglo-Saxon world. Yet, behind the relentless expansion and conservative ideology lies a more primal narrative—one of succession, rivalry, and the inevitable erosion of family harmony in the face of unchecked power. The Murdoch family saga, in its mythologizing of origins, its internal mind games, and its contested inheritance, evokes the echoes of Shakespearean tragedy and Dantean reckoning, illuminating the contradictions at the heart of inherited empires.

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• Ukubona:

  • Perception: To See

  • Reason: Understand

  • Actions: Recognize

  • Heaven: Visit

I. Family Media Empire: The Myth of Keith Murdoch and the Making of Rupert

The Murdoch myth begins with Keith Arthur Murdoch, the Australian journalist who made his name mythologizing the disaster of Gallipoli. His dispatches, condemning British incompetence and lionizing Australian sacrifice, cemented his place as a national figure and laid the foundation for a media career that would see him acquire the Herald and Weekly Times in Melbourne. But it was his son, Rupert, who would take the mythic inheritance and wield it with singular ambition.

In 1960, Murdoch acquired the Daily Mirror, setting the stage for his ascendance into British media and, crucially, into the corridors of political power. Oxford-educated, but with the ruthless instincts of a press baron, Murdoch understood that newspapers were not just businesses but instruments of influence. By the 1970s, he was no longer just a publisher; he was a kingmaker, a force to be reckoned with in the highest echelons of power. His media holdings would become the fulcrum of conservative political projects across the English-speaking world, from Thatcher’s Britain to Reagan’s America and beyond. But an empire built on such raw political leverage is never merely inherited—it must be fought over.

II. Mind Games and Control: Succession and the Theater of Power

HBO’s Succession dramatizes, with uncanny precision, the psychological warfare within media dynasties. The Murdoch family, like the fictional Roys, exists in a space where love is transactional, loyalty is provisional, and control is the only currency that matters. The principle that “all happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” finds its fullest expression in the Murdochs, where every act of familial affection is subsumed by the question of power.

Like King Lear raging against the storm, Rupert Murdoch’s tragedy is not simply that his children vie for his throne, but that he cannot accept the truth when it is spoken to him. The whole point is that the crazy old man doesn’t know that Cordelia is telling him the truth. The division of power—equal shares among his wife and four children—mimics an illusion of fairness, but in a dynasty where the patriarch has always wielded absolute control, such a division only breeds paranoia. As the heirs circle the throne, they are left to ask, Is Daddy going deaf? No, he’s just not listening.

And so the family, in a bid to manage the inevitable, stages retreats and therapy sessions—farcical gestures towards reconciliation in a world where trust has long since eroded. These are not efforts to heal, but rather strategic maneuvers in the war for succession, an attempt to manufacture the illusion of harmony where none exists.

III. The Architect of Influence: The Last King Lear

Rupert Murdoch, at 92, is King Lear in every sense but one—he has not yet relinquished his power. He remains the architect of influence, orchestrating the fate of his empire with the precision of a battlefield general. Yet even he must contend with the shifting tides of internal rebellion. Project Family Harmony, his attempt to neutralize the troublesome James Murdoch, is a study in aggressive pacification, an effort to strip his son of leverage under the guise of equitable settlement. The strategy was clear: let them all believe they were being incentivized to cooperate, while ensuring that no one heir could wrest full control.

But no kingdom survives forever, and no patriarch rules indefinitely. The old Murdoch, like all media emperors before him, will ultimately cede the stage—whether by design or by death. The question is whether his legacy will be defined by his empire’s continuity or by its inevitable fragmentation.

IV. Sibling Rivalry: The War for Inheritance

Media dynasties, like royal houses, are rarely built on fraternal solidarity. The Murdoch siblings, bound by blood but divided by ambition, engage in a delicate dance of betrayal and self-justification. Have you ever done anything successful on your own? The question lingers in every succession struggle, an implicit challenge to each heir’s claim to the throne.

James Murdoch, cast as the reluctant prince, found himself ensnared in the contradictions of inheritance. Unlike his father, he never fully embraced the hard-edged conservative vision of the Murdoch empire. He flirted with independent ventures—Harvard Lampoon, Rawkus Records, digital publishing—but his successes never matched the scale of his father’s conquests. And yet, he remained tethered to the empire, unable to walk away.

When internal divisions spilled into public view, it was never James who initiated the leaks. Airing the dirty laundry didn’t come naturally to James, but it came naturally to those maneuvering against him. Matthew Freud’s concerted campaign to elevate Elisabeth Murdoch as the new favorite successor was a masterstroke of media manipulation—one that demonstrated, once again, that in a family empire, loyalty is always conditional.

V. Conservative Values: Power, Politics, and the Burden of Inheritance

Rupert Murdoch’s empire is not just a business; it is a political project. From the pages of his tabloids to the primetime slots on Fox News, his influence has been a defining force in conservative politics across the Anglo-Saxon world. Yet, the irony of dynastic succession is that ideology is not always hereditary. James Murdoch never fully shared his father’s vision for the family business, and yet he did not leave.

Why? Perhaps, like Dante’s encounter with Pope Celestine V in the Commedia Divina, he saw departure as an act of cowardice. Celestine, the pope who abdicated, was condemned by Dante for his weakness, his unwillingness to wield power when it was thrust upon him. James Murdoch, raised in a world where departure signaled defeat, could not make the break. ^{1 2 3}

But in the end, does it matter? No one wants to hear a rich heir complain about his father. History has no shortage of sons who resented the burden of inheritance, who struggled against the shadow of a towering patriarch. The Murdoch family, for all its wealth and power, is no different.

The end of the Murdoch era will not be a singular moment, but a slow unraveling. The empire built on myth, mind games, and political dominance will endure—until it doesn’t. And in the echoes of its fall, the next great media dynasty will already be rising, ready to script its own tragedy.

Show code cell source Hide code cell source

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import networkx as nx

# Define the neural network layers
def define_layers():
    return {
        'Suis': ['Foundational', 'Grammar', 'Syntax', 'Punctuation', "Rhythm", 'Time'],  # Static
        'Voir': ['Bequest'],  
        'Choisis': ['Strategic', 'Prosody'],  
        'Deviens': ['Adversarial', 'Transactional', 'Motive'],  
        "M'èléve": ['Victory', 'Payoff', 'Loyalty', 'Time.', 'Cadence']  
    }

# Assign colors to nodes
def assign_colors():
    color_map = {
        'yellow': ['Bequest'],  
        'paleturquoise': ['Time', 'Prosody', 'Motive', 'Cadence'],  
        'lightgreen': ["Rhythm", 'Transactional', 'Payoff', 'Time.', 'Loyalty'],  
        'lightsalmon': ['Syntax', 'Punctuation', 'Strategic', 'Adversarial', 'Victory'],
    }
    return {node: color for color, nodes in color_map.items() for node in nodes}

# Define edge weights (hardcoded for editing)
def define_edges():
    return {
        ('Foundational', 'Bequest'): '1/99',
        ('Grammar', 'Bequest'): '5/95',
        ('Syntax', 'Bequest'): '20/80',
        ('Punctuation', 'Bequest'): '51/49',
        ("Rhythm", 'Bequest'): '80/20',
        ('Time', 'Bequest'): '95/5',
        ('Bequest', 'Strategic'): '20/80',
        ('Bequest', 'Prosody'): '80/20',
        ('Strategic', 'Adversarial'): '49/51',
        ('Strategic', 'Transactional'): '80/20',
        ('Strategic', 'Motive'): '95/5',
        ('Prosody', 'Adversarial'): '5/95',
        ('Prosody', 'Transactional'): '20/80',
        ('Prosody', 'Motive'): '51/49',
        ('Adversarial', 'Victory'): '80/20',
        ('Adversarial', 'Payoff'): '85/15',
        ('Adversarial', 'Loyalty'): '90/10',
        ('Adversarial', 'Time.'): '95/5',
        ('Adversarial', 'Cadence'): '99/1',
        ('Transactional', 'Victory'): '1/9',
        ('Transactional', 'Payoff'): '1/8',
        ('Transactional', 'Loyalty'): '1/7',
        ('Transactional', 'Time.'): '1/6',
        ('Transactional', 'Cadence'): '1/5',
        ('Motive', 'Victory'): '1/99',
        ('Motive', 'Payoff'): '5/95',
        ('Motive', 'Loyalty'): '10/90',
        ('Motive', 'Time.'): '15/85',
        ('Motive', 'Cadence'): '20/80'
    }

# Calculate positions for nodes
def calculate_positions(layer, x_offset):
    y_positions = np.linspace(-len(layer) / 2, len(layer) / 2, len(layer))
    return [(x_offset, y) for y in y_positions]

# Create and visualize the neural network graph
def visualize_nn():
    layers = define_layers()
    colors = assign_colors()
    edges = define_edges()
    G = nx.DiGraph()
    pos = {}
    node_colors = []
    
    # Add nodes and assign positions
    for i, (layer_name, nodes) in enumerate(layers.items()):
        positions = calculate_positions(nodes, x_offset=i * 2)
        for node, position in zip(nodes, positions):
            G.add_node(node, layer=layer_name)
            pos[node] = position
            node_colors.append(colors.get(node, 'lightgray'))   
    
    # Add edges with weights
    for (source, target), weight in edges.items():
        if source in G.nodes and target in G.nodes:
            G.add_edge(source, target, weight=weight)
    
    # Draw the graph
    plt.figure(figsize=(12, 8))
    edges_labels = {(u, v): d["weight"] for u, v, d in G.edges(data=True)}
    
    nx.draw(
        G, pos, with_labels=True, node_color=node_colors, edge_color='gray',
        node_size=3000, font_size=9, connectionstyle="arc3,rad=0.2"
    )
    nx.draw_networkx_edge_labels(G, pos, edge_labels=edges_labels, font_size=8)
    plt.title("Murdoch's", fontsize=15)
    plt.show()

# Run the visualization
visualize_nn()

Fig. 31 Glenn Gould and Leonard Bernstein famously disagreed over the tempo and interpretation of Brahms’ First Piano Concerto during a 1962 New York Philharmonic concert, where Bernstein, conducting, publicly distanced himself from Gould’s significantly slower-paced interpretation before the performance began, expressing his disagreement with the unconventional approach while still allowing Gould to perform it as planned; this event is considered one of the most controversial moments in classical music history.