social network stratosphere

Artist Mark Lombardi investigated social networks, particularly those of the uber-powerful. He diagrammed the relationships between players and events that allow one to look at the whole and recognize the tangible reality that we normally only describe as shady back rooms. This article says:

To track these events in the context of the drawings is to experience their import freshly, to undergo a shock of mixed recognition and surprise.

I'm fascinated with social networks and how those with influence pass it around. Who are these people? Did the vast majority of them just dumb into their lives in which they now wield tremendous influences over the lives of others, and are only some of them the select few who paved the way for their friends and families due to hard work and seizing opportunity, or are money, opportunity, and intangible inherited traits or outlooks contagious, weaving a web through some families strong enough to turn them into dynasties? The Bushes are a good example, and were one of Lombardi's favorite foci as he charted the sheiks, senators, and anonymous movers with which they moved.

For me these diagrams are like cotton candy mixed with heroin. That they transcend sketching without losing its familiarity, and resemble the easy perfect arcs of daVinci is icing on the cake.