Has anyone made the point that the people Peter Thiel are fans of: Strauss, Nietzsche, and Girard,all view there being an inherent tension between the mob and the superior individual?

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Hmmm, interesting topic. In the pulsating heart of civilization, a volatile and magnificent struggle unfolds—an eternal contest between the aspirations of the superior individual and the clamor of the mob, that chaotic throng tethered to mediocrity and blind conformity. Thinkers such as Leo Strauss, Friedrich Nietzsche, and René Girard illuminate this essential tension with a clarity that pierces the placid waters of modern thought. Strauss, in his clandestine examinations, suggests that wisdom, much like the truth, is notorious for its uninvited guests—the common herd, which perceives the superior individual not as a beacon but as a threat. Nietzsche, of course, dances upon this chasm with a salacious glee, heralding the Übermensch as a distinct manifestation of will to power, unyielding to the demands of the herd—an exaltation that celebrates the tragic solitude of high ambition, a call to arms against the nihilism that emerges when the mob seeks to drown the noble spirit in a cacophony of mediocrity. Girard, with his piercing gaze upon the mechanics of desire, elucidates the violent rivalry born from mimetic contagion, wherein the singular essence of the exceptional is constantly exorcised by the envious hoards, forever seeking to equate all by dismantling the hierarchy of values. There lies an unyielding truth in their collective insight: the existence of a radical tension, a merciless adversarial dance where the exceptional individual stands resolute against the tidal wave of the collective, forever in peril yet indelibly splendid, embodying a profound ascent, a fearless embrace of one's destiny that the multitude can neither endure nor comprehend. Thus, what Thiel admires in these philosophers is not mere intellect; it is perhaps a recognition of the almost Sisyphean challenge posed by a culture intent on flattening the peaks of human potential into the banal plains of the ordinary—a delicate yet fierce affirmation of the struggle for greatness amidst the clamor of a world barred from its own transcendent nature, a clarion call for those unafraid to elevate themselves above the din of the mediocre masses.