The Equality Paradox
Here is a picture that does not seem to matter much:
They are all well known rulers of various localities (I almost said nations). The modern ones in the bottom tier are dressed poorly. Note carefully I did not say cheaply. It is as a ruler expensive to dress “down”, pretending to be clothed in common raiment. They (in the bottom tier) all wear “designer” clothes. Since every garment is designed by someone, the word merely means expensive.
Intricate, handsome dress is deprecated by our elite over much of the world, except for the elites’ requirement that their servants look their part. Chauffeurs, stewardesses, waiters, doormen all must wear well structured uniforms. But not their masters. Our rulers, pretending to be one of us, must, they reason to themselves, look like we do.
Some elite still don the box-cut suit (ugly as it is; sans waistcoats) on formal outings, and even from time to time tuxedos and gowns. But even these vestigial formalities are fading.
The changes happened because, as you might have guessed, Equality.
Rulers of old, men who led nations, wore superior dress, often uniforms, on all occasions, intricate clothing with substantial variation between lands. The Britons, conquering the world, brought their dress with them, and it was adapted by many, which was well enough. But now we see it in its cardboard stripped-down form, which by its very ugliness discourages its proliferation.
The fiction of Equality begins with the vaunted Will of the People. The People are asked to vote from among (it is said) an Equal crowd of candidates, to pick rulers to represent them. Yet no one who runs for office believes himself Equal, because if he did, he wouldn’t run. If rulers really believed in Equality, they would be like William F Buckley and pick temporary rulers’ names from the phone book.
We never get the Will of the People, either, as it is understood. If people were Equal, all would vote identically, and so there would be no need to vote. We vote because Inequality exists. If the People were a little Unequal, they would vote mostly the same way, and voting would be uninteresting. If they are as we see, Unequal to good degree, then voting merely causes discord and division. (See the upcoming Son of Everything You Believe Is Wrong for detailed arguments.)
Rulers and would-be rulers, with some exceptions, brag that they are one of the People. We recall the picture of Senator Chuck Schumer pretending to grill hamburgers, just like we do, only not having any familiarity with the task, he forgot to light the fire. Importantly, his staffers forgot too.
There is a paradox. Rulers believe they are above the masses, and deserve their elevation, even if they have achieved their positions by the result of tumultuous and divided votes from those very masses. Yet they must affect the ways of the masses, at least when they suspect they might be seen: when they are out of sight, or think they are, they often behave differently. Worries about being caught out drive these hidden practices to lesser frequency.
Rulers largely train at what are called elite schools, but in order to maintain Equality, they cause those schools to DIE (Diversity, Inclusion, Equity), which is to say, to suffer from Equality. Graduates are still labeled, among themselves, “elite”, but the dumbing down has caused the lessons to be less and less worth learning. Rulers are now less able, and more ignorant, because they have be made to, or have chosen to, forgo the hard discipline of learning real things.
Don’t forget the lesson plans are largely the same wherever you go in the world, which is a kind of Equality, too. Education itself causes this uniformity.
That rulers with increasing frequency behave and speak in public like the masses, is by now well known. And have you heard what passes for music? If not, don’t. Crude and vulgar is Equality; it is what wins votes. They suppose.
Thus does democracy drag everything lower and lower in a vicious feedback. It must, too, because they masses look up to rulers, the elite, as people to emulate. But the masses see only themselves looking back, with those at the top saying “I am like you”, so the masses excuse themselves their even worse behavior; the trend is particularly marked in those peoples thought to be more deserving of Equality.
Equality, as you have heard me say before, is the Great Leveler. No peak can remain standing against its mighty force. The only real question is how long it takes.
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Indeed, the way our leaders dress reflects the coarsening of our culture.
With our president dropping F bombs and the opposition party making videos with words that would be bleeped from Prime Time, our politics displays the demeanor of a feral junior high student.
It is precisely as you describe - and the answer to your question in the last sentence can only be: "gradually, then suddenly".
I'm not sure how close we are to the 'suddenly' ...