On this head, therefore, the discipline of modern business life may be said simply to retain something of the complexion which marks the life of the higher barbarian culture, at the same time that it has not retained the disciplinary force of the barbarian culture in so high a state of preservation as some of the other occupations just named.

This is exactly right - but it's rarely acknowledged.

And if you're in that class you don't need to care about the laws of nature, because if you can use persuasion or force to make others care for you, it's no longer your job to care.

It's more efficient to leave the lower classes to deal with physical and scientific reality, while you get on with the business of ordering them around for your benefit.

But - as I'm suggesting - this is an incredibly bad basis for anything that pretends to be a democracy. Eventually it fails to work, because even if you own the entire population of the world, it can only buffer you against (e.g.) climate change to a limited extent.