I would say that you pretty much nailed the position of elites and how they are the most entangled ones when it comes to "the empire" (too much skin in the game, I guess). It's indubitable that culture and empire are both natural processes. But it really seems to me that they are separable. That is, even though in present day they are both essentially synonymous, apparently it was not always the case. Well, "the empire" surely knows how to appropriate the rest of the nature to meet its ends.