Much as i appreciate the poet of Lord Weary's Castle, i think
it would not be hard to demonstrate that for every year in which
Lowell wrote a good poem--Robert Duncan wrote a better one.

The trouble is, there's a bunch of authority-basis principles;
one might find them distributed according to Jungian axes, perhaps
(but that's a discussion i prefer not to go into just yet), or the pure
hap of parenting: legitimacy via force, via politics (which
may or may not coincide with consensus), via tradition, via the trappings
of authority itself (which, alas, is most true of American business today--bad
decisions don't seem to matter, as long as you "walk the walk"), via love &/or
family, or (finally) via competence--this
last the one that i, being the sort of person i am (INTJ), consider the only sane
alternative. Does that mean i want a meritocracy whose leadership is
determined by exams? (I have to admit i haven't been impressed by the
Mensans i've met--the local artists' co-op had far more interesting, &
accomplished, people in it.) Well, at the very least, --this last election could
have been solved by a spelling test.