However, from the “elite” kids I’ve met I find it far more likely that they are suffering from imposter syndrome and will do anything to chase external validation to soothe it.

The children coming from these status driven institutions are less villain and more victim

Stellar point. And I think this is where most ink and tears will be spilled, as we focus up up up to the archons on capital that entrap us so.

And yet.

What's really notable to me is that we don't have smart amazing interesting people in the world who kind of float along, with cheap rent & interesting times in cities.

My gut read is that the past couple hundred years have, at their better points, been at least in part due to people having some graces of circumstance to humble a long until they happen into or start something really neat. And we've lost all the space where that happens. Life is too expensive to figure things out over time at, at this point.

The second order effects are even worse than the primary. We don't have people who delayed and deferred and eventually had something click, that they had the runway and low rents to keep whiddling away on, until it happened.

Humans are absolute masters of organic development, of sticking to hobbiest and interests for a long long time, and that used toean something. But we lack the grace to let that happen. As consolidation after consolidation sweeps across corporatedom, we are ever more desperate for what last few niches remain where we'll get at least some kind of recognition and financial reward for entailing ourselves to that giant enterprise, that almighty buck.

I don't really know. Maybe things aren't as wildly tipping over as they feel. But I think the lifeblood comes from within, is an amazing spirited force, and it's so rarely able to be listened for & fed the sunlight time and twiddling to blossom.

Sure there are winners taking all, and that's rotten and stinks and is gross and deserves screeds, and we should be mad. But I'm most afraid we forget what does work, what did work, that class based conflict distracts from holistic improvement of our societies. I've tried here to write what I think is some of our best sides, what allows art and culture and exploration to flourish, and move us, and it pains me so much to see how much harder it is, how daunting it is, to keep a roof over your head in someplace with other interesting people, and with health insurance.

We absolute see AI as a campaign of fright, to compel us in. Rhetoric to amplify the stakes & stress the need to be ever on the march forwards, or perish.

But to fall into this narrative is to let it ensnare us. Resistance only requires living good lives. 8 don't disbelieve in conflict but real victory will also require something further, something nurturing.