6 January

I think all civilisation is the management of one basic fact. Stupid people are too stupid to recognise their own stupidity. That sounds like some cheap shot or judgment, but actually it’s a deep reflection on how societies have always worked. Intelligence is what progresses all societies, and part of managing that intelligence is knowing how to manage the absence of intelligence too. Populism is what happens when this basic fact is ignored. Critically, no person gets to decide who is intelligent and who isn’t - we all collectively decide, based on what ideas actually work, across generations. Our institutions make that judgment, across generations, which is why populists destroy those first. Populists used to trash and burn monasteries too.