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Most admired elites in the west: 1940s: decorated military veterans 1950s: spies 1960s: rocket scientists 1970s: brain surgeons* 1980-1987: investors 1988-1997: hackers 1997-2015: entrepreneurs 2015 - now: nobody * when did ‘brain surgery’ replace ‘rocket science’?
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Because of polarization today’s most admired elites are also some of the most hated: tech barons, politicians — anyone in a field with wide influence on public life. AOC, Elon Musk, and Bernie Sanders all have huge numbers of both dedicated followers and passionate detractors.
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But that “answer” sheds no light on the systems dynamics. It just reflects back to you a bunch of your own definitional choices. In every chicken-egg loop the most interesting answer isn’t “chicken” or “egg” it’s “farmer”. Or, even better, the Farming Cultural-Industrial Complex.
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Great! So now we’re in the Theory of History domain. Classic systems analysis stuff. People have fought over origin narratives as proxy wars for contemporary conflicts for as long as there’s been recorded history. Which of these narratives would you like to chose today? :)
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