Dominance not talent usually rules

Watching a series of bad commercials on television I wondered why they increasingly seem to be so untalented---while posing as being talented and clever which makes them worse. Books, films, politicians, and celebrities in general are increasingly showing the same lack of talent and cleverness and the same pose of being clever and talented.

Ads, films, etc. are of course mainly about making money for the products advertised, so they are dumbed down to appeal to the largest number of people---ingenuity or imagination is not their main concern. Greed has much to do with the lowering of quality and can come with some deeper baggage, like nepotism and bias.

But this lack of talent and cleverness also has much to do with the fact that dominance not talent usually rules in business, politics, and culture. If an organization is dedicated to real talent and merit and is also dominant then we can see more ingenuity or imagination, but that combination of dominance, ingenuity, and imagination is not common.

It sounds too cynical but if you are a rising business person, politician, writer, etc. you should know that talent or merit alone won't bring you success in the world, talent needs to be attached to dominance to be heard.