Incompetence and mediocrity can arise from: 1) a natural tendency for mentors to select mentees that are less competent than they are; that are more loyal to them and less likely to think independently; and 2) many/most mentors have already been selected through this process and—far more seriously—this has happened due to a clandestine war that has been waged against Europe since the end of WW2. USA has the same problem as do Canada, NZ and Australia. The entire West has already been taken over by this process. ABN