Between demographic trends, the rise of AI, and the nature of power, the possibilities can be very grim.
Jacob Fraden | May 20, 2026 www.americanthinker.com
For decades—perhaps since the era of the Vietnam War—America has lived under the shadow of what many call the “Deep State”: a hidden machinery of influence operating behind the façade of democratic institutions. One of Donald Trump’s central missions has been the struggle against this entrenched apparatus and the dismantling of its vision for humanity’s future. Though he has shaken the foundations of the establishment and achieved victories once thought impossible, the resistance has proven fierce, and the conflict remains unresolved.
Yet the American Deep State is merely the visible crest of a far larger iceberg—a closed club of rich and powerful. These individuals were never elected by the peoples of the world, yet through wealth, institutional control, and social prestige, they have formed an unofficial aristocracy—a closed World Elite Club seeking not merely influence, but stewardship over the future of civilization itself.
The presence of such a World Elite Club is discernible in organizations such as the World Economic Forum, the corridors of the United Nations, international banking institutions, intelligence networks, and the executive chambers of technological empires. Among them are billionaires, central bankers, hedge-fund magnates, ministers of finance, media architects, and the rulers of the digital sphere.
Human nature has always been driven by two ancient appetites: wealth and power. Everything else—including sensual pleasure—is secondary, because power and money themselves are the ultimate aphrodisiacs.
The members of the global elite already possess unimaginable wealth. Their remaining obsession is therefore inevitable: dominion over the future itself. And today, the future appears to be shaped by two colossal forces converging simultaneously: the intellectual decline of humanity and the explosive rise of artificial intelligence (AI). To seize control of these forces is, perhaps, the defining ambition of the World Elite Club.
The reason for the intellectual decline is a sharp reduction in fertility rates in developed countries and, as a result, an aging population. Civilizations, like organisms, die when they cease reproducing themselves.
In Japan, South Korea, the United States, Italy, Germany, and other developed countries in East Asia and Europe, the number of births per woman ranges from 0.7 to 1.7, far below the minimum replacement rate of 2.1. Countries with a fertility rate below 2.1 are doomed and, in 50-100 years, will either disappear or be completely transformed.
Meanwhile, across much of the underdeveloped world—sub-Saharan Africa, parts of South Asia, sections of Latin America, and many Muslim-majority regions—populations continue to expand rapidly, with a fertility rate of 4-6 children per woman. At the same time, mortality falls thanks to medical and financial aid from members of the World Elite Club. Thus emerges a dramatic demographic inversion: the developed world contracts while the underdeveloped world multiplies.
The consequence, according to this vision, is civilizational transformation. Over several generations, the cultural and intellectual profile of entire continents could change beyond recognition.
This is directly related to the intellectual decline of the world population because the intelligence of people in all underdeveloped countries is much lower than that of people in developed countries. Today, in European countries and the U.S., the IQ is in the range of 98-101, in Asia, 100-105, and in Israel, among Ashkenazi Jews, 103-115. On the other hand, people in underdeveloped countries are much less intelligent: in Somalia, the IQ is 68-72, in Niger 65-70, in India 76-82, and in Latin America, 82-96.
Hence, we arrive at the inevitable conclusion: if nothing significant happens, in 2-4 generations the demographic shift will lead to the extinction of developed countries, while growth in underdeveloped countries and uncontrolled migration to developed countries will lead to the dumbing down of the entire planet—there will be fewer smart people and more dumb people.
Of course, we are talking in statistical terms: the overwhelming majority of people will become stupider, but a relatively small percentage of smart and talented people will always remain.
While the natural intelligence of the world’s population is declining, the pervasive AI grows; that is, humanity is getting dumber, while AI is getting smarter, and it grows at an incredible rate in two directions: information processing and robotics.
In a not-so-distant future, AI will replace many human professions that require mental work: doctors, lawyers, scientists, inventors, journalists, writers, accountants, programmers, teachers, and many others. Professions that require manual work will also soon be replaced by AI robots: surgeons, nurses, construction workers, farmers, musicians, soldiers, and salespeople, etc.
A future begins to emerge in which billions of human beings become economically unnecessary. And then comes the terrifying question: What becomes of a civilization in which the majority of humanity is no longer needed for productive work?
The World Elite Club solution lies in the old imperial formula: divide and rule. If current trends continue for centuries, nation-states themselves may gradually dissolve into something else entirely. Borders blur. Populations merge. Humanity stratifies into rigid layers.
One could imagine a future world divided into three castes:
The Plebs—the vast majority (perhaps 99% of all), intellectually diminished, politically passive, sustained through entertainment, subsidies, algorithmic distraction, and dependency.
The Managers—a narrow administrative-technocratic class (no more than 1%) tasked with supervising the plebs through AI systems, surveillance networks, and robotic infrastructure.
The Elite—an extraordinarily small global aristocracy possessing knowledge, power, longevity technologies, and near-total control over planetary systems.
History may then complete a dark and ironic circle. The ancient Roman Empire understood the principle of managing the plebs: bread and circuses. Keep the intellectually inferior population entertained, fed, distracted, and emotionally stimulated, and political stability can be maintained.
In such a world, the masses may gradually cease to be viewed as citizens and instead become perceived as a logistical burden, so I can imagine that the Elite will find a way not only to limit the birth rate of the plebs but also, in the more distant future, to get rid of all these useless masses altogether, say, through their natural extinction.
In the future, humanity would not disappear entirely. Rather, it might contract into a tiny biological elite surrounded by intelligent machines, synthetic servants, cyborg systems, and autonomous networks. Yet the greatest danger may lie not in that distant age, but in the turbulent transition leading toward it.
There may come a time when millions—perhaps billions—of people find themselves economically obsolete, yet retain enough awareness to feel humiliation, resentment, and rage. A civilization drifting into purposelessness can become profoundly unstable. As the old American proverb warns: “An idle mind is the Devil’s playground.”
Such an era could become a time of unrest, fragmentation, violence, and spiritual collapse—a historical storm unlike anything humanity has previously endured. Whether the World Elite Club possesses either the wisdom or the moral restraint to navigate such a crisis remains an open question.