Fractal Dysfunction

I've recently taken to describing the two most important factions of "the Elites" (note: I did not say "major" factions) as "rationalists" and "realists."  I did not coin these two terms, but I've come to use them in a peculiar way.  In particular, I view "realists," as exemplified by modern realists in the tradition of Carl Schmitt (Hitler's lawyer) and F.A. Hayek (neoliberalism's primary architect) as power addicts, and I view "rationalists," as exemplified by pretty much every other intellectual as enablers of the power-addected realists ("he beats me because he loves me").  Applying the Pareto Principle, I'd argue that 10% of "the Elites" are realists, and almost all of the rest are rationalists.

Interestingly, if you look at the broader adult population, "the Elites" are probably only 10%, leaving almost everybody else-- who I've come to think of as the SSDD (Same Shit, Different Day) crowd.  By the way, I celebrate the SSDD crowd precisely because they are just normal folk trying to get along and enjoy life.  I'd love to be half as happy as the SSDD folks I know, who include the majority of my family.

If my ballpark estimates are correct, that means that no more than 1% of our population dictates how all of us live, which is consistent with economic data.  And I'm sure that we can drill down further and discover that the core power-a-holics that drive society represent only between 0.0001-0.1% of the entire population.

Does that make any sense?  Should the societal equivalent of a desparate heroin addict dictate society's mores and actions?  I don't think so.  The fact that people like me are instictively compelled to fill any perceived power vacuum does not mean that people like me should dictate how everybody else lives.  I am not superior to the SSDD crowd.  Indeed, I'm so far away from the mean that I should be classified as deviant, but people like me are elevated to leadership roles every day.  Unfortunately, the vast majority of people like me view "leadership" as an opportunity to prey upon the rest of society as opposed to an obligation to serve.

I'm Done With Mainstream Econo-Blogs

Naked Capitalism is the last mainstrream econoblog that I still frequent, and I've decided that continuing to visit the site is of little value to me.

It's bad enough that Yves has elected to give "air time" to the smug, self-celebrating Philip "I'm so fucking smart" Pilkington, a guy who pimps MMT in a way to make it sound hopelessly naive.

But the real problem is tha lack of any effort to define solutions to the problems that are now so very clear.  The aim of the blog appears merely to be to confirm, yet again, that people like "us" were right to say there's a problem because, well, there's a problem!  Mirable dictu!

Quelle surpise?  Not really.  You make money by exercising people's concerns, not by resolving them.

Why quit frequenting NC now?  I have found that all I care about are comments from attempter and DownSouth.  Everybody else is too stuck within the current paradigm to say anything of interest.  Like me, however, attempter and DownSouth don't comment nearly as much as they once did.