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We're ..... already here.
No, it isn't elites in the sense of Aristocrats or Philosopher-Kings the way a lot of reactionaries would like. It's elites of culture - Hollywood, sports figures, quasi political public figures (talking heads), and pretty much anyone who can find a way to capture 1mm+ eyeballs one way or another.
Now, you might respond "No,no,no by elite I mean people with, you know, demonstrated skill and capability!" Well, it's turtles all the way down. One man's skill is another man's luck, just look at the recent thread on the stock market. Also, if you think the most meritocratic are the ones who naturally progress to the top of large organizations, I've got a Google and United States Army certified bridge to sell you.
The entire idea of "replace bad elites with good elites" fails because having any elites in the American system allows for co-opting of the system. Bernie Bro's will talk about the moneyed elite buying elections, MAGA types will talk about the Deep State bureaucracy elites stealing elections. They're both wrong in a factual sense (which is, you know, the most important one) but they're both leaning on an elite-vs-people ontology as the primary engine for deteriorating social and economic conditions. This is because it's such a simple and compelling narrative and has worked hundreds of times all of the world. "THEY are fucking you over!" Is politicking in a nutshell. There's a reason we call it Red Tribe vs Blue Tribe on this website.
Elites should be less socially relevant to people. I've written about this before but a huge part of Trumps appeal is that a lot of his base viscerally, deeply sees Trump as one of their own. They feel like they can reach out and touch him. Flashback to early in the 2016 election cycle and we were, then, headed towards Hillary Clinton vs Jeb Bush. That's an election that feels awful because neither candidate is
not a lizard person grown in the Epstein cyborg bunkerparticularly personable. But I wonder if it would've been one of the more substantive elections in recent history. "Hey, both of us have the personality of a damp phonebook ... I guess we to have to talk about the issues!" That turns into elites with high political / technical salience getting their shot at leadership, instead of those with high social salience. President Mitch McConnell? Never in today's world ... but I have a suspicion the Founding Fathers would've looked at him and said, "That's your fucking guy!""Elite worship" as you term it is a very fancy version of parasocial relationships with strangers. I can't think of an argument for why a deeply committed parasocial relationship is ever a good thing. Instead, strengthen actual in person social relationships. But at the level beyond your own family (which, for any healthy adult, will always be their number one social relationship). But don't extend it to strangers, which just turns into you creating conceptions of reality that already fit your pre-defined values system. I'd say, draw the demarcation point at people you see semi-regularly and know the names of. People who might greet you on the street. Put politicians right after those folks in terms of relative social importance. I want my relative prioritization of my relationship with Steve, the retired Army Colonel at my regular bar, to be far more important that my perceived relationship with Biden/Trump/Kevin Sorbo.
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