The masses must be manipulated. The world is too complicated for most people to make a rational decision and they need guidance. This has always been the way it works. It's a symbiotic relationship. Everyone in society contributes and societies often rely on intelligent individuals for guidance.

Take, for example, a hypothetical workers union in a coal mining town. Those people probably have union lawyers and decision makers staffed with the smarter people who make the decisions. It's literally a media trope: old, salty coal miner encourages his son to get educated and leave coal mining. Son gets educated, comes back, contributes to the miners in his own way.