Excellence

How is excellence under attack in an erronormative society? In the name of equality, those who excel are hammered down like nails standing out. In the name of openness, those who form conclusions about the world based on observable patterns in empirical evidence are urged not to do so; moreover, basing any action on those conclusions are absolutely verboten. In a culture of systemic aristophobia, pattern recognition - a competence closely related with general intelligence - is suppressed at the expense of excellence; thus, stupidity is a central virtue of erronormative society.

Nature is a world of difference, and not equality. Just as different species excel at different things, so do humans. Equality as an end is simply an untenable ideal; where there is freedom from coercion, there is a pareto distribution (i.e. the 80-20 rule applies). However, it is a perfectly reasonable means to achieve stability, if needed.

One such case is the example of the financial inequality that contributed to the economic collapse of 2009. Aside from a few fringe pseudo-economists, it is commonly understood that an extremist cult of financial parasites defrauded the working class out of their savings, through an intricate web of trickery and predatory usury; that was the first of many dominos to fall in what became a credit crunch. Excellence is indeed a virtue, but we should be very careful not to mistake it for its evil twin: exploitation. Nowadays, slaves aren't in chains, they are in debt. It's ok to notice; that's pattern recognition.

Pattern recognition is a prerequisite for excellence; there can't be one without the other. In turn, excellence is the engine of leadership; there is, in fact, no leadership without it. In the Age of Beauty, there is simply no place for stupidity. For humanity, the time has come to say yes to excellence and no to extremism: a universal call for moderation and common sense. Insanity has no future.