not always. they undid themselves by getting rid of standardized testing, by dumbing down the public education system at all levels, and by cranking up the costs of educations. establishing a princedom needed a highly talented prince and lots of fortuna (can't translate this without losing half its meaning), but machiavelli did say that a prince of mediocre talent would still manage to handle an established princedom. so current western elites were really incompetent. i've read some of the stuff the late russian empire believed and what they occupied themselves with, and they remind me of the western financial class, based on what little i've seen. if he saw them today, i wonder what would machiavelli say of them?
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