Leveling Up – And Down   

There is an old aphorism which says that people tend to find their own level, whether in their work life, their social life, or in a new hobby. The implicit corollary to that is that there may be a fair bit of up and down before that happens.

A less benevolent but more modern version of this is the Peter Principle, which says that in any organization, people tend to be promoted above their level of competence. That is, they do well at one level in the org, and so are promoted, and if they do well there they get promoted again, but eventually they get promoted to a level at which they don’t do well. The implicit corollary to that Principle is that once there, it is very hard to move them back down to a level at which they might again be competent.

I offer here a small example of the value of having an electoral system, if only as a way to defeat that corollary to the Peter Principle. Below is a recent photo from the internet of the former Boy King, showing him to have once again found the level he was at prior to 2015: