kevin_strom on Nostr: In certain past societies, fame and glory were part of the compensation package for ...

In certain past societies, fame and glory were part of the compensation package for those of great ability, consistency, insight, pluck, and daring. Men so rewarded would have their pick of the best women, of course, as well as attracting wealth from patrons. When a society has commercially oriented and alien-controlled mass media, however, (something the ancients didn't suffer from), fame and glory are given to corrupters, subverters, the purely mercenary, and their accomplices, so the model breaks down.

You are right about monetary incentives. I think William Gayley Simpson was correct in saying we need a conscious, trained-from-birth aristocracy, dedicated like a holy order to the preservation and advancement of our kind. But if people who sell plastic toilet seats make more money (read: command more resources), incentives become perverse and, again, the model breaks down.