In 1984 and Brave New World, we saw extremely effective authoritarian governments of different sorts.
While of course elements of those books exist in our structures today, there is one key difference: Western governments, and western elite, are now incompetent. They have inherited a once meritocratic, productive system, and turned it into precisely the opposite.
Despite this, the authoritarian impulses of these fools are increasing. In the U.S. the power of the federal government has correlated precisely with its decreasing competence. Garbage public schools, useless regulations, terrible laws which every citizen violates 5+ of which every day, leading to the dysfunctional anarcho-tyranny which we now live in.
Does anyone know any books or media which actually got this right? I'm guessing maybe cyberpunk/corporatist dystopias?
Elite schools are, if anything, even worse when it comes to teaching children these 'luxury beliefs'.
A society is based on social status. This can be based on wealth, but it can also be based on any number of other things. Traditional tribal societies are based on the 'big man' giving away his property in order to win support - which increases his social standing. In the Middle Ages, poverty and asceticism was what got you social standing, at least in some contexts. What also got you social standing was impeccable religious orthodoxy, holding the 'right' beliefs.
What we are seeing now is the construction of a society where social standing is determined by these aforementioned 'luxury beliefs'. They are destructive to people and to society. But this has never stopped anyone from doing anything. In fact, it is what is known as 'honest signalling'.
In the animal kingdom, a gazelle when seeing a lion, often jumps high in the air - which makes it more difficult to escape from the lion, but it is an 'honest signal' in that by intentionally hindering itself, it's telling the lion: "don't even bother to pursue me, I'm so confident that I can sabotage myself and still not be eaten by you".
What the elites of today are saying: I can adopt these destructive beliefs and still not be ruined. It's an honest signal, regardless of how destructive it is to that person and to society. This increases their social standing, which is what all of this is about.
Those aren't the future rulers of our country, just the people who think they'll be ruling our country. The REAL elites are training their kids well, and you'll never hear about them.