I have posted this before. C. S. Lewis, in his satire “Screwtape Proposes a Toast”, has the demon Screwtape, in his address to the College of Tempters, describes how to take advantage of the resentment that many mediocre people have towards the more talented. Describing this type, Screwtape says (page 8)
“And therefore resents. Yes, and therefore resents every kind of superiority in others; denigrates it; wishes its annihilation. Presently he suspects every mere difference of being a claim to superiority. No one must be different from himself in voice, clothes, manners, recreations, choice of food: “Here is someone who speaks English rather more clearly and euphoniously than I — it must be a vile, upstage, lah-di-dah affectation. Here's a fellow who says he doesn't like hot dogs — thinks himself too good for them, no doubt. Here's a man who hasn't turned on the jukebox — he's one of those goddamn highbrows and is doing it to show off. If they were honest-to-God all-right Joes they'd be like me. They've no business to be different. It's undemocratic.” “
Screwtape points out that this resentment leads to a desire of the resentful to install a dictator who will ‘cut the superior people they hate down to size’
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