Elite overproduction

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elite_overproduction

by 2color • 3 years ago

2 3 3 years ago

en.wikipedia.org

2color2• 3 years ago

Peter Turchin's theory on elite overproduction is pretty interesting and is salient to our time.

It seems difficult to "overproduce elites"? Consider literacy, which was a marker* of the aristocracy many centuries ago, yet now is nearly universal. It seems more as if "when former markers become common, new markers —based on cargo culting the extant high status population— enter popular consciousness"?

See also the (I am convinced originally a joke which got out of hand) U vs non-U kerfuffle.

* the Jaquet-Droz automata: the writer, the musician, and the artist were not a random selection of three accomplishments, but those which distinguished the elite of the time.

2color2• 3 years ago

I think Peter has a slightly different definition of an elite that at times correlates with education and literacy. According to him, elites are the ones with social power, which in recent times is correlated with wealth.

U vs non-U kerfuffle is pretty interesting. I wasn't aware of it!

Elite overproduction

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