Nero famously owned Fire Brigades, which he used to wrest vast wealth from Romans by setting fires, putting them out, and then suing to receive payment for his services, gaining properties as landowners defaulted.
It is no secret that some means of influencing peoples minds are possessed by covert organizations. As technology improves this potentiates the permanent enslavement of humanity, but, if it isn't effected in time, the diffusion of that technology to a sufficient portion of the people will prevent it's effective use.
The time is short, and the additionally diffusion of cryptocurrencies, 3D printing, and similar decentralizing technology will render the would be tyrants for life merely equal to the rest of us.
The longer they wait, the lower their chances of success.