[lwouis]

The top of the pyramid are important because they set what the majority of us will want to emulate. If Swift is flying her private jet, then young high-schooler and adults will calibrate on that and fly to Thailand for the holidays because they perceive it desirable to fly around.

If we had influencers who would take a stand, it would be very beneficial at global scale actually. Let's say the top football/soccer players would decline to attend the world cup because having A/C'd stadiums in Qatar, and flying both the athletes and the fans there is generating large emissions. If they took that stand and shared it to their 50M followers-each mimetic fanbase, the benefits for society would be wonderful.

It's worth pursuing exemplarity of our elites because it sets the flagpost for everyone else. Redefining success from rolex, sport car, big house, to let's say skilled handcraft, raising horses, and living in a small rural community; that would really be beneficial to us all.

[avgcorrection]

Do you want to buy a Rolex if Swift wears one? Or Celine Dione or whatever your idol is.

[lwouis]

People buy rolex to imitate "successful" people. Very few buy rolex because it's useful to them or they are into clock engineering. Rolex doesn't output ads that explain how the clock works; instead they pay celebrities to show up with their watches ostensibly.

Look around you at society. People buy brand cloth like $300 white tshirt because of the brand logo on it. I think it's pretty established how humans behave on that regard. Now if you're not convinced (it seems), i suggest you google some sociology studies and look into something more scientific than my example. Feel free to share if my observations are proven untrue.