Meet the World's Super Class: Why They Call the Shots
newsweek.com
newsweek.com
There has always been a class of ruling super-elites. Always has, always will be. Period.
The beauty of free-market capitalism (coupled with representative republicanism) is that the class is very fluid and far more transparent. People rise to "eliteness" and fall back down again - and far, far more people today have a shot at this kind of eliteness than ever have before. A lot of the old rules still apply (e.g., it helps to start off rich), but a lot of the old rules have been broken (e.g., you don't have to be the king's son).
What's the author's proposed solution (in search of a problem?)? Global governance! Yes, that's right. Let's take a system whereby people have the opportunity and fortune to become part of the elite by merit or sheer good luck or grassroots political support and change it so that only those who are approved may become part of the elite, and let's give that small group absolute power, and give them a structure by which they will never lose their eliteness, and make sure that merit or good luck has nothing to do with it, and oh, by the way, there won't be any way at all for them to be held accountable.
Great idea.
Depends on the culture and technology level. With primitive technology in certain cultures, there's a "big man" who still has to farm his own yams but who gets a little more input generally -- however, he doesn't actually get to order people about. Then you get a little more technology and some bigwig is bossing people around.
I think we will come out the other side where technology is so advanced that nobody really needs to depend on other people, thus we will be independently equal, and thus, not be ruled over. Not to mention, with nonbiological intelligence, the difference between any two humans intellectually will just be noise.
On paper.