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I think that is what he is saying.

Though he is saying that the ruling elites are ruling because they are smart, and not that the ruling elites are smart because they are ruling.

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It's a circular definition though - it's not falsifiable, because if they are in power they must be smart, defining smart as "ability to get into power", if they can't get power evidently they are not smart enough... Not very useful, except if you enjoy making "winning" arguments that you can't lose.

Exactly. If you left the ruling elite to breed amoungst themselves you would end up with something like the Russian nobility - idiotic and doomed.

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