He was definitely among the ruling elite from an early age. His father was a engineer in Nazi Germany well educated and under the Communist system he did well. At an early age cousin same age as myself was very involved in the Communist youth groups served his stint in the East German Army, was a youth political leader. He was afforded the best education getting a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering two homes and as he described it two really crappy cars. I expressed an interest Marx as theory at that he laughed. He could quote Marx verbatim to the page and chapter. Literally years in political school. It seems he is today a dedicated capitalist not because he prefers the system as he stated it is "what he knows how the world works". For him West German capitalism was a perfect fit. His one criticism of Marx was that he did not understand people and what motivates them. He called Socialism a good idea but to me he was out for his share or more.
I tend to view people as another living organism. As a living organism we seek reinforcement as do all living organisms with a central nervous system. It gets complicated humans require a broader range of reinforcement than flat worms.
About 20 years ago anthropologist documented two Baboon troops who were in direct conflict over a meat packing dump in Africa. It seems the two troops managed to kill off the Alpha males and their female counterparts due to infected meat. What was left were the lower status juvenile males and females in one troop. These survivors spent long hours involved in group grooming, nurturing the young and managed to avoid a typical Alpha hierarchy. They totally avoided the meat dump even without competition. After a decade a much more peaceful troop of Baboons emerged. I am not sure what their status is today.
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