[ThrowawayR2]

> She believes that the “rich elites” have a great burden of responsibility towards the world, which she justifies with shaky zero sum logic...

"Noblesse oblige"? "With great power comes great responsibility"†? "To whom much has been given, much is expected"? The belief that the wealthy and powerful have a duty to use that power to improve the welfare of the society in which they live has been around for a long, long time. Characterizing it as "jealousy" is unfounded.

† A phrase that I today learned existed long before Stan Lee's popularization of it; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_great_power_comes_great_r...

[BaronSamedi]

The point that struck me was the assertion that American elites have become dysfunctional. And, that wokeness is more of a symptom rather than cause of that dysfunction. That is a very interesting idea and worthy of consideration. Historically, crises among elites are dangerous. Elites losing the confidence of the people, for example, is destabilizing. Severe conflict among elite factions (sometimes during a loss of confidence period, sometimes not) can also produce instability or worse.

[photojosh]

Perhaps you'd be interested in Peter Turchin's theory of "overpopulation of elites" being a root cause of societal dysfunction.

http://peterturchin.com/cliodynamica/intra-elite-competition...

[BaronSamedi]

Thank you for posting the link. I have read this. What do you think about Turchin's theory? I'm unsure whether I agree with it or not.

[photojosh]

I find it plausible, because of my understanding of how revolutions happen. At the least, it's one view of things.

People who are really scraping to get by don't have the mental bandwidth to put time into revolution. You need people with spare time to organise to kick things off, and only then once you've started a movement you can get the masses on your side because you're offering an alternative.

[mpweiher]

> "Noblesse oblige"? "With great power comes great responsibility"†? "To whom much has been given, much is expected"?

"Eigentum verpflichtet. Sein Gebrauch soll zugleich dem Wohle der Allgemeinheit dienen."

That's article 14 paragraph 2 of the German Grundgesetz (Basic Law ~ Constitution). Translated: "Property entails obligations. Its use shall also serve the public good."