The Iron Law Of Excellence

Remember when you were a kid and thought everyone was equal and life was fair? 

Good times. 

Life humbles us all with the “The Iron Law of Oligarchy,” which theorizes that every complex society inevitably ends up with a ruling elite.

We have an elite simply because not everyone can command armies, build companies, play in the NBA, or win the Nobel Prize. Those elites need incentives like notoriety, or they won’t bother with greatness. They’ll settle for regular jobs, robbing society of their unique gifts. Twentieth century historian Arnold Toynbee called this elite group the Creative Minority. 

Toynbee also popularized the idea that civilizations collapse from the inside, not from outside threats.

But if we are the source of our own success, then how are we also the source of our own demise? 

Civilizations decline when the elites turn decadent. When they stop focusing on perfecting their craft and instead start basking in their luxury. This makes the masses angry and resentful, and social cohesion evaporates. 

The Creative Minority earns its position by creating. When it stops creating but expects to keep the status that creation earned it, it stops being a Creative Minority and instead becomes what Toynbee calls the Dominant Minority.

That’s when hierarchy starts to rot.

People can respect authority. They can respect talent. They can respect someone having more money and more recognition. What they struggle to respect is someone demanding excellence from below while exempting themselves from it above.

Top performers should be celebrated. Leaders should have authority. Excellence should earn status.

But the higher you rise, the more excellence the culture should demand of you. And therefore, the more excellence you can demand of your culture.