You Can't Win (This Way)

The paradox here is similar to that faced by the climbers: even by rebelling against a failing social order, the enforcer winds up reinforcing it. Their anti-social behavior—their insubordination, their betrayal of their families, their violence and law-breaking—is all reabsorbed into the social order, just as the sociopathic social climber becomes the most powerful and dedicated servant of the social order. Both the climber and the enforcer have escaped the trap of the schemer, who can have no meaningful goals, but the price they’ve paid is that their goal is ultimately defined by the broader social order.
--A. Kotsko