Ah, great man theory. There's a reason most remotely competent...
"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux@BretDevereaux
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Mar 22, 2025
~1 min read
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Ah, great man theory.
There's a reason most remotely competent historians abandon this model of reasoning by the end of their first year of graduate study.
There's a reason most remotely competent historians abandon this model of reasoning by the end of their first year of graduate study.
Nate Silver@NateSilver538
Like how can you be a remotely competent historian without recognizing that major events in human history are shaped by high IQ, high-agency people who are bad and/or flawed and/or dangerous.
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Certainly history is sometimes influenced dramatically by highly capable people. Of course, hereditary monarchy being what it is, just as often key decisions are made by rulers who aren't very capable at all.
See, for instance, the July Crisis.
See, for instance, the July Crisis.
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I suppose I would also note that 'high IQ' does not appear, to me, to be the only form that 'highly capable people' take. The compression of every virtue to intelligence obscures more than it clarifies.
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux@BretDevereaux
Some people seem a bit confused so let's talk: what Great Man Theory is, why I think Silver is wandering into it and why it doesn't work.
The key thing here is fundamentally it is two propositions that come as a 'package deal' - reject either and it isn't Great Man Theory. 1/
The key thing here is fundamentally it is two propositions that come as a 'package deal' - reject either and it isn't Great Man Theory. 1/
