LogFAQs > #911060916

Zeus posted...

Technically third-gen (and her second-gen father built the company into a powerhouse), but sure.

Technically fourth - Vince's grandfather founded the company, Vince Sr inherited it, and then Vince Jr turned it into the globe-strangling powerhouse that it is.

But realistically, there's a huge difference between what the company was and what the company is - Stephanie and Shane are the only ones that really grew up in the middle of a media empire. Vince Jr grew up miserable, living with his mother, and really only came into the business when he was older - and then immediately changed what the business was. Shane and Stephanie literally never wanted for anything, and spent most of their childhood watching large and powerful men constantly bowing to the whims of their egotist father. That's the sort of "second-gen" inheritance that usually leads to trouble.

I always like the metaphor of the family of "Mayors" (who are basically emperors in all but name) from the Foundation novels - as Asimov describes it, "Indbur I was a ruthless genius, Indbur II was just ruthless, and Indbur III was neither". That's usually a pretty good outline of how power tends to descend in noble lines (with occasional dips and troughs here and there to make things interesting).


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