Demagogue

So the fact that there is a word for this, demagogue, and that vile strongmen throughout recorded history have taught and preyed on fear of the other to divide the majority or plurality and thus gain power and control; does the fact that history is replete with this ugly phenomenon and that despite our living in the information age, and thus having super easy access to all this history and information, does any of that matter? I guess we really have to look at root causes. About 50 percent of any society are susceptible to fear, easily manipulated, and generally not super smart or able to think independently/critically. This is just simply a given. And these people do amazing and beautiful things in most circumstances. About 35% of people in any society are both smart and have a social conscience. About 15% are smart and are douchebags, and just want wealth or power, at whatever expense. Sometimes the 15% (or a subset of them) get so greedy that they are willing to create/promote hatred to squeeze a little bit more, mostly out of the 50% (getting them to act against their consciences and their own interests). It's really all up to the 35%, and I think we've failed. We failed to educate. We failed in the political process. We promoted a doctrine of moral relativism at the very wrong time in history. We sucked up to mass media and popular culture also at the very wrong time in history. We allowed "wedge issues", tailor made by the 15%, to cause us to succumb to dislike of the 50%. We also failed to shame the 15%, but that is only possible when we sufficiently educate the 50% such that we have shared values with which to shame the 15%.