Quick theory on the 'apex' person...

Random thought I had in church yesterday: Lawyers and their derivatives (Judges, etc.) are the apex people of our society. There is no one more powerful, ultimately, than a lawyer in American society, because these are the people who mediate disputes between two or more equal parties. Without lawyers and a judiciary, democracy couldn't exist with our current code of laws--people would get frustrated and start killing one another, and society would break down.

At that moment, I made a conceptual leap -- lawyers' preeminence is directly related to our society. That is, I think any capitalist democracy will have many powerful lawyers. I thought through other forms and flavors of government and derived the 'apex people' I thought would fall out of them:










Society typeapex individual
Feudalism/Manorialism
Ex: medieval europe		Lord of the manor
BeaurocracyGovernment workers
Enlightened Despotism
Ex: Louis XIV France		court syncophants
FascismMilitary
Corrupt BureaocracyMob Bosses
TheocracyPriests
Pure Democracy
Ex: Ancient Anthens		Demagogues


The one constant in history is human nature. People have a certain set of motivations, drives, and organizational/communicative abilities. Thus, given a certain set of government societal strictures, it seems that a certain type of 'Apex Person' will fall out of any society.

There's a good PoliSci thesis in there somewhere.

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