The book “The End TimesPeter Turchin has argued that the American social pyramid has become top-heavy, with too many elites and “elite wannabes” competing for too few positions in the upper echelons of business and politics. When the balance between elites and the majority tilts too far in favor of the elites, serious political instability becomes inevitable. The aspiring elites have always outnumbered the elites, but in America today the number of aspiring elites is at an all-time high. With fewer opportunities and diminishing returns, this group is falling into discontent and despair.
Turchin calls this “elite overproduction,” and it’s a major cause of today’s political turmoil. Unless something changes, the three groups — elites, wannabe elites, and the majority — will be in a death spiral that heads toward violent political division.
Witnessing the ugly side of some of the best and brightest people has finally helped you realize all the lies and injustice you believed while struggling to climb that greasy pillar.
In every sense of the word, I am an aspiring elite, and if you’re reading this, you probably are too, so I want to speak to my fellow aspiring elites, especially those of you who aren’t sure what to make of this dangerous political climate.
Maybe, like me, you were a bright kid from a lower-middle class background who left a Republican neighborhood for a higher education and a good job, and who is now doing better than most people back home. Or maybe, like me, you were reeling from the shock of going from nowhere to somewhere else, and had to learn the hard way that the humble values you grew up with, even your patriotism, were not respected elsewhere.
Maybe you felt like an alien imposter, always hiding your talents while slowly adopting new ways of speaking and thinking. Or even worse, maybe you felt ashamed of where you came from and began to look down on the people there. Maybe you feared that if you really “put your heart and soul into it,” you would risk damaging relationships, missing opportunities, and slipping off that greasy pole and back into the world you came from.
Seeing conflict as it really is
And then along came Trump. Whether you supported him or not was irrelevant, but you were probably surprised, like me, by the sudden, incomprehensible, and relentless contempt for him from nearly everyone around you. You may have found the bombast, indignation, and condemnation jarring, especially when you learned how much people back home loved and respected him.
And after a while, you may find yourself becoming a little indignant as you watch friendly, intelligent people hurling insults at Trump supporters, mocking their backwardness and stupidity, questioning their humanity, comparing them to terrorists and fifth columnists.
Maybe you finally start to get annoyed when you realize they’re not just talking about strangers, but about your grandmother or people from your hometown. Perhaps you start to wonder what these friendly, intelligent people are really thinking. youIf you’re like me, witnessing the ugly side of some of the best and brightest people has finally helped you realize all the lies and injustice you believed while struggling to climb that greasy pillar.
If you’re like me, you may have accepted the arrogance of a hostile class, realized that in so doing you betrayed your values and the people who love you most, and finally begun to listen again, to hear rings of truth beyond the hyperbole and noise just as you did when you were younger.
Maybe, like me, you realized that it all had fallen apart, that the bitter hatred and suffocating fear had become a convenient smokescreen for a failed elite far more sinful than Trump. And maybe, through the fire-and-brimstone preaching, you finally saw the naked face of tyranny: a regime that is lawless, greedy, bloodthirsty, and above all, undemocratic.
Maybe you saw the Administration lying, breaking every rule, violating every norm to destroy Trump and making a mockery of the Constitution and the fundamental principles of democracy. Or maybe you saw all the leaks, legal battles, censorship, surveillance, and “election hardening” as just plain old corruption that looks better. Or maybe you realized that the anti-Trump movement was also an attack on people back home and their right to self-governance.
Maybe you, like me, see this as a fight for freedom against tyranny, liberty against slavery, politics by the people, with the people, for the people against oligarchy. Maybe you see this not as about Trump or J.D. Vance or Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but as about the future of America as a republic, not a permanent bureaucracy in which a special class controls our most basic rights and privileges.
Future defections
If you’re an elite wannabe like me, you might hesitate to wage war against the culture, the institutions, and the governing philosophy to which you’ve pledged your allegiance. You might fear ostracizing yourself, sacrificing your career, slipping off the slide. You might feel like there’s not enough incentive.
I’m not here to tell you what’s best for your career or your personal life, but we are at a tipping point: Who wins this election will determine whether America can survive as a self-governing republic, or whether a permanent bureaucratic dictatorship takes its place.
You may think it won’t affect you, but I promise it will, and if it doesn’t affect you, it will affect your children and the good people of your hometown. Hard work, creativity, and merit are how outsiders like us get ahead. Without them, you can’t get ahead. But the coming tyranny is deeply hostile to these values. Tyranny demands submission above all else, and yet submission can only take you so far as the regime allows. If you’re a spiritual bureaucrat, this may be appealing, but if you’re like me, young, hungry, innovative, and willing to live and die for something bigger, you’re going to suffer terribly under this new system.
Feeling so threatened by Trump, this administration will offer you quotas, castes, censorship and surveillance. It promises to punish and reward according to its own priorities, not yours. Above all, it will ensure that your most basic freedoms are outsourced to some select caste or impersonal process, regardless of your hard work, creativity or merit.
If you are already struggling with the burden of your current situation, remember that it doesn’t have to be this way. The values you were raised with are still important, and they will help you after this burden is lifted from your neck. But I also hope that you understand the dangers and the consequences of inaction. You must opt out.
We have already seen some key elite defections, including Elon Musk, JD Vance and RFK Jr. As November approaches, these defections will only accelerate.
So now is the time to decide which side you’ll take. This isn’t about Trump, and it’s not about the people back home. This is about you and your future. We hope you’ll join us.
