Honestly, it has been well understood, since agriculture, that there are two ways to live. Egalitarianism and authoritarianism. For egalitarianism to work, there must be minimal stratification and the community must deal harshly with those who attempt to disrupt that order. For authoritarianism (what we now call, even democratic, states) to function over the long term, the wise and just must say and the rest must obey. Fairness or justice doesn’t enter into it, because it is inherently unjust, but for it to last the wise must rule, and the only function of everything else, enforcers, technicians, the whole apparatus of the state and what we now call the market, is to protect that hierarchy. But, because we are human and because, by some fluke of social evolution, we decided upon abstract currency as the criterion for ‘greatness,’ our rulers are not wise and they are not just, but more importantly, they are not effective. And there is nothing sacred or special or worthy about the enforcer class. They are trained dogs, let off the leash to bite those who would challenge the established order. They may perform heroic acts, but only if directed, and allowed, to do so. Usually, though, the job is to be the man standing between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the weak, the man holding the club or the gun. There is nothing worthy about taking a life for an abstraction, only in doing so to save another from unjust harm. And to allow your technicians, or your merchants and bankers, to rule your polity is to invite eventual ruin. It is a sociopolitical imperative, proven again and again throughout history. You cannot base your social order on abstractions, and you cannot entrust the unworthy or the unjust with greater power. In doing so you will have neither egalitarianism nor order, and you await only the richest and most ruthless warlord’s rule, until they, too, make enough missteps to reset the cycle. It is astonishing to me how little the people ruling the world understand about it, or about themselves, and even more astonishing is the lack of self-awareness and introspection of those who serve their order.