https://www.isegoria.net/2012/03/getting-out-of-fishtown/ From the ancient Greek for equality in freedom of speech; an eclectic mix of thoughts, large and small Sat, 06 Jun 2026 05:13:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1 https://www.isegoria.net/2012/03/getting-out-of-fishtown/comment-page-1/#comment-463790 Buckethead Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:24:20 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=28487#comment-463790 I can’t now remember where I read it, or who wrote it, but a decade or more ago I ran across the idea that one advantage of an aristocratic system is that it prevents this sort of hoovering. In a sort of backwards Peter Principle, it ensures that there are competent people who can be promoted. The moderately gifted among the lower classes, or the gentry, will advance to positions of leadership within their class — or in this case, in their locality. The truly gifted can of course move up to the nobility, but social pressures will keep that to a relative minimum.

]]> https://www.isegoria.net/2012/03/getting-out-of-fishtown/comment-page-1/#comment-463153 L. C. Rees Tue, 20 Mar 2012 17:32:54 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=28487#comment-463153 That efficient meritocracy is the slow decapitation of the lower orders is what I took away from The Bell Curve. Overproduction of elites a la Peter Turchin is the compensating mechanism. When there’s not enough sinecures to go around, aspiring elitists go downmarket in search of power. The lower orders agitate, society breaks down, existing ranks of elites get thinned, and the process begins anew. That many of today’s potential downmarket agitators think revolution is a dinner party (or faculty symposium) is one reason the current order continues to lurch forward despite building up kindling for the flames.

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