Something I find interesting about the French Revolution is how slowly the commoners came to seriously consider alternatives to the default system of rule, desp

Something I find interesting about the French Revolution is how slowly the commoners came to seriously consider alternatives to the default system of rule, despite sustained loss-of-credibility by the elites. This seems to fit with your /institutional memory/ model. > But it is not clear whether going further > and entirely removing it is going to be better. There is room to distinguish strategic leadership and middle-management. Strategic leadership sets coherent direction for an institution, and continues to be relevant. Middle management is a vestige of the industrial era, where manpower and scale were interchangeable concepts. The orchestras show that there is an alternative to middle-management. We don't really have a word for this, but we could call it Elders. A key difference between Elders and Middle Managers is the role of skills. Elders must be at least competent at domain-relevant skills to be relevant, and their respect grows with skill mastery. Whereas, in a MM culture, having skills excludes you from influence. You are either a career manager (entirely without domain skills), or you convert. In the process of conversion, you will have social pressure applied not to get your hands dirty.