Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Love how people try to rationalize these vultures. The elite and their PMC toadies are just corrupt. That’s it. The united states is corrupt to it’s core because we allowed the elite to run things.


> we allowed the elite to run things

I'm pretty sure that being elite is a symptom of running things, not the cause of running things.


> because we allowed the elite to run things

By definition, a society’s elites always run things…


True. How's that worked out so far?


> How's that worked out so far?

Pretty damn well in the long run!


Worked great for the French too, right up to the Revolution.


> Worked great for the French too, right up to the Revolution

Each of the French Revolution’s successive governments had their own sets of elites. (La Révolution itself had its elites.) Arguing against elites as a category is arguing against hierarchical sociology. It’s inchoate. We don’t have an example of a society without elites; we barely have examples of social animals without hierarchies. (Zebra herds.)

And speaking of the French Revolution, the elites ex post facto were not only mostly the same as before, they escaped with so much money and wealth that it’s actually debated if they increased their wealth share through the chaos [1].

[1] https://www.jstor.org/stable/650023


Nah, one day we'll just have flat societies with AIs to replace the beaurocracy and elites and manage everything for us. Nothing could go wrong with that! </sarcasm>.


You ever lick a boot clean off the foot wearing it?




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: