347 sats \ 2 replies \ @grayruby 29 Mar \ on: Elites, the curse of recursion, and the half-life of policy mostly_harmless
This is very well written. Kudos.
What happens when the institutions, media, governance structures elites once held great influence over begin to lose their own power over the machinery that sets the world in motion? Do elites just go gentle into that good night and accept their less "elite" status and just have fun staying rich or do they rage rage against the dying of the light and seek new paths to exert their influence over?
Do elites just go gentle into that good night and accept their less "elite" status and just have fun staying rich or do they rage rage against the dying of the light and seek new paths to exert their influence over?
I, like Mr. Thomas, have wondered the same.
Preliminary research suggests that the idea that many bitcoiners cherish, that the groups they hate will be vanquished, wallowing in the mud while the bitcoiners ride around triumphantly in chariots, would be historically unprecedented. The usual scenario is that most of the current elites will continue to be richer and more culturally prominent in the post-btc rapture than most plebs, since they have more money to deploy in service of the new thing, whatever that is.
If you want to make a different case, you'd be bucking history. In fact, it's probably truer now than ever before, since Bezos doesn't need to maintain economic viability of a collection of steel foundries to stay rich; he just needs his broad market exposure to continue to pay returns, and whatever btc he owns to appreciate. The very top dogs may be new dogs, but unless there's some kind of ethnic cleansing / cultural revolution where they are actually murdered, the old dogs will still be around.