12 January

Tarde, Plato, Lippmann, Lawrence and others independently saw aristocracy as the mature state of society. They saw democracy as a transition state, when new aristocracies replace old ones. They both thought hierarchy in society is created by hierarchies of value, that the role of the aristocracy is to cultivate and protect the most valuable parts of civilisation, to be copied by others who in turn defer to the hierarchy for guidance. It’s a very difficult idea for our democratic age to think about, we’re so used to seeing imbalances of power and wealth in hierarchies, but we see less the hierarchies of value that create them. That’s because the job of our democratic age is to create the next aristocracy. That’s probably what populism is clumsily tapping into, peoples’ desire for hierarchy. Of value, not just wealth and power.