-Spiderman
The business, art, and political elites have failed in their duty. Businessmen in the 70s and 80s correctly thought politics were dirty, so they selfishly avoided it. This has led to mass stupidity in politics and the degradation of societal issues.
The blame for much of our society’s woes falls on the elites. The influencers, industry leaders, heads of institutions, political groups, and media. However they perceive themselves, they are the ones with an outsized impact on society through the entities they control and the people who follow them. Americans lament that our last presidential election was between two incompetent septuagenarians. Of all the people in America, why can’t we get someone competent to run? Our elites are at fault.
Elites in Generations Past
I recently read Katherine Graham’s autobiography. She ran the Washington Post growing it from a small, local newspaper to one of the top in the nation. She persevered through a tumultuous personal and business life from multiple miscarriages to loving a brilliant yet mentally unstable husband who committed suicide to dealing with draconian labor strikes to breaking the Watergate scandal while under attack from the White House and media.
Her father, Eugene Meyer, bought The Washington Post when it went bankrupt in 1933. Meyer published his mission statement:
-The first mission of a newspaper is to tell the truth as nearly as the truth may be ascertained.
-The Newspaper shall tell ALL the truth so far as it can learn it, concerning the important affairs of America and the world.
-As a disseminator of the news, the paper shall observe the decencies that are obligatory upon a private gentleman.
-What it prints shall be fit reading for the young as well as for the old.
-The newspaper's duty is to its readers and to the public at large, and not to the private interests of its owners.
-In the pursuit of truth, the newspaper shall be prepared to make sacrifices of its material fortunes, if such course be necessary for the public good.
-The newspaper shall not be the ally of any special interest, but shall be fair and free and wholesome in its outlook on public affairs and public men.
People attacked Meyer, saying The Washington Post is a Republican paper that is against the New Deal and will be incredibly biased. However, the paper lived up to Meyer’s ideals. It was inherited by his daughter Katherine and her husband who both had opposite politics, but the same ideals for media.
Katherine said that in her family:
No matter what you did professionally. You automatically had to think about public issues and give back. Either in interest in your community or in politics. You had to care.
Both Katherine’s parents were super against FDR, and she admitted to being radicalized in favor of FDR in college. She was still open to all discourse and would change her mind. It’s hard to imagine families like this today. Politics went lowbrow as Tim Urban says in What’s Our Problem.
Fear
When I talk to people in business, they privately express their strong views. They worry for our country, our global civilization. But none of them want to be in public. They’re afraid. They lack the courage to speak out as they see what happens to those who do. They have too much to lose.
“I couldn’t make a difference.” “It would only ruin my life.”
The Rules for Radicals playbook of personally attacking those who speak out has worked. It created a generation of alpha cowards— people who are dominant in their business life and cowards in their public life.
Societal Wants
Historians look at the gods a society worships to understand how they act. What do they believe they’re rewarded for in the afterlife? If they’re rewarded for conquering nations and tribes, then it’s a raider/warrior society. If they’re rewarded for being principled, then they’re philosophers. If they’re rewarded for sacrifice, then they sacrifice everything dear to them as a tribute to the gods.
Our elites worship no gods. This has led to nihilism. Our elites have become divorced from meaning. Just as our emotional brain doesn’t adapt well to large societies, our nihilism doesn’t adapt to our modern world. As Michael Strong writes:
We are now living in a social environment that is dramatically different from the environment of evolutionary adaptation.
Strong continues [emphasis added]:
… in the past few centuries modernity has gradually shifted away from traditional identities that were largely stable over generations to the modern notion of personal identity in which we each are expected to have the freedom and opportunity to create our own identity and pursue our own individual destiny. While this major sociological transition has been incredibly liberating, it has also been an immense and growing burden for which many young people are unprepared.
People need guidance and naturally look to elites to provide it. With social media, the masses have never felt so close to elites. Elites have more of an obligation than ever to lead by example. Unfortunately, our elites skirt their duty.
Wanting Consequences
Mimetic theory says what people want comes from seeing what others want. If everyone sees the elites as godless nihilists who value super high-end experiences and material goods, then the masses will want this as well.
I’d prefer our elites secretly have crazy experiences on the side and express any nihilist doubts in private. At least they’d have the brand of a simple, optimistic life outwardly. A life others could look up to. Obviously, it’s best if elites actually lived this way instead of being a facade. This used to be seen as important for society.
As I wrote before on Roman culture:
Many things made Rome great. But culturally what made Rome great was their ambition. It’s why they didn’t fall to Carthage during the Second Punic War. Any other country that lost a generation of men and had their land occupied by an army they couldn’t defeat would have immediately surrendered. They never beat Hannibal’s army in Roman territory, but Rome still won because they persisted. They had ambition and drive that filled every Roman with a sense of purpose.
Children had play time in ancestor rooms. In the rooms were busts of all their deceased relatives. Under the busts, the major accomplishments of their lives were ingrained underneath. When playtime was over, mothers would ask their children “What’s going to be under your bust when you’re gone?” Imagine the society that molded.
Nihilism breeds the opposite of ambition.
Never Meet Your Heroes
A history teacher told me that a few generations back, top politicians and members of the media would go on an annual train ride together in the northeast, where they’d party and do unseemly things. The powerful men who ran society took their mistresses on the trip. The journalists would never write about it as they were in it together. It was a classic old boys club. I heard this from other elderly people in the media as well, but I couldn’t find evidence of it online so I’m not sure this is true. Either way, there were other discreet elite events similar to this.
The point here is that given how elites acted in the past, it’s believable on multiple levels. The behavior was hidden from the masses. It also, oddly enough, shows an honor that doesn’t exist in today’s media. Journalists leak any juicy story today with an iota of evidence, truth be damned.
Little boys and girls who looked up to their heroes didn’t need to know their private actions. Past journalists knew this. Corporate media has lost any semblance of duty– they’re focused on the first-order consequences of their actions– clicks, and attention.
The Hero Gotham Deserves
Noblesse oblige has faded. People rarely think about what is good for society vs what is good for them personally. Some think about what is good for the future of humanity, but often what is equally important is living a life society should emulate. Living a life others want to strive for.
Instead, modern elites push narratives like free will not existing and the world being a simulation. These aren’t true, and worse than that, are actively harmful beliefs for a society to hold.
“Your life sucks. It’s ok, it’s not your fault because you don’t have free will. I was successful because it was fate. I deeply empathize with you because I see you didn’t have any other options given your circumstances.”
The stories we tell should give agency, instead, we’re actively taking agency away from those who need it most. This is evil.
You can taste the nihilism in our culture. The schadenfreude this week regarding the death of those who wanted to explore the Titanic. The negativity perpetuates everything. It’s taught in schools and universities. People don’t want to have children because “the world is so awful”. It’s contrarian to be optimistic during the best time in history.
When LLMs are created to help us do our jobs better, people react not by getting excited, but instead by thinking LLMs will become AGI that will end the world. It makes sense why many people think a future AGI will be evil. They’re projecting their own thoughts. People have the wrong mental model and anthropomorphize AGI, assuming it has the same motivations as humans and thus them. AGI if it ever does exist, will not have human wants.
Let’s bring back optimism. Let’s bring back noblesse oblige. If you want society to burn, then leave. If you want society to thrive, then lead by example. Be the person you want others to be.