The mob has always been easy to lead by the nose. It's not rational argument that gets people elected it's image and rhetoric. If the guys with the good PR dept are cool guys then society wins if, on the other hand, some complete wankstain gets a hold of a weapons grade marketing machine then we have a clusterfuck. Protip - there are no good guys anymore, the wankstains sorted that out last century. 
This highlights the failure of the educational system. There were never good guys. Good guys are a myth.
Before the current order we had things like (in no particular order) the scramble for africa, monarchies, the trail of tears, Fulgencio Batista, the conquest of canaan, medieval catholicism, protestants, the czars, the golden age of quackery, the golden age of piracy, slavery in america, slavery in europe, slavery in africa, slavery in rome, the list goes on and on
EDIT:
slavery in asia, ignorant abrahamic religious beliefs, ignorant eastern religious beliefs, ignorant african and native american religious beliefs, whaling, child labor, traditional chinese medicine, imperial japan, henry the 8th, andrew jackson, the people who lobbied to put the electoral college in the constitution, the people who lobbied to allow the slave trade in the constitution, the confederacy, king george the third, prohibitionists, slavery in ancient greece, aztec human sacrifice, roman emperors persecuting christians, roman emperors persecuting non-christians, Tiberius, the targeting of civilians in warfare, people profiteering off of the plague, fake fortune tellers, fraudulent claims to divinity by the pharaohs, circumcision, dickensian workhouses....