Well there's the germ of a tactic in Atlas Shrugged that deserves consideration....that being, "what would happen if the intelligentia went on strike? What would happen if the best and the brightest headed for working class jobs rather than the universities and the cushy corporate jobs? What would happen if real education took place outside of the institutions that have been set up to 'contain' it? What would happen if the entire edifice of meritocracy were completely discredited...by laughter? What would happen if there were a slow cultural change...away from commercialism and the worship of material wealth?"
I'm not saying that's what Rand was saying, (though there was some adumbration in there)...I'm just saying that there is such a thing as cultural bankruptcy which is what happens when the vaunted theories and values are a betrayal of everything that one would want to live and work for...and we're living through it right now. I think everyone is affected by it. My kids are about as bright as any I've met and I could easily have manipulated them into the ivy league track...except the very thought of it fills me with nausea. This is more than fin de siecle stuff...this is fin de fin stuff. Really.
Joanna