Being better is not what you think it is. It means suffering more than anyone else, for less personal benefit. This is repugnant to people because: 1) It is indelible proof that being less is a choice. That doesn't feel good to those who have decided not to be better. 2) People project their own wickedness onto the person who is better. They assume that he or she will do what they would if they were in that place.
Beyond the effects of these beliefs, there is an incessant stream of people telling them that they are the same as everyone else; that there is no such thing as someone who is better than another, or of one idea being better than another, or of a culture being better than another.
When God assigns someone to do something, is he making them arbitrarily special by imbuing them with special magical power? Or is he simply using someone who has already acquired most if not all of the light and truth they need to be used in the ways he chooses? God told Moses to part the Red Sea before he did it, and without that word he would not have been able to do it. But was Moses a normal man when he was told to do it? Or had he already completed 80 years of training under God's graceful tutelage? What man do you know who, if a voice in his head said, “command the seas to part and they will obey my word”, would then convince 6 million people to follow him to the beach, and then proceed— in front of all of them as they are pursued for their lives by the most powerful army in the world—to command the sea to part with no doubt that it would be done?
By fooling ourselves into believing that God instantly transforms normal men and women into holy men and women, we cut ourselves off from the instructional period every single one of them underwent. We avoid that intense, painful, prolonged journey thinking that somehow we can possess what they had after this life without doing any of the things they did during this life, which is exactly how they became who they were, and without which they could not receive what they did.
God might not command you to part the Red Sea, sure. And you might not end up rich and powerful. But if you follow every commandment you know, and every one he will give you after that, one thing will happen for sure. You will grow in light and truth at an exponential rate. Knowledge will flow to you in a way that is so powerful that no thing, no person, and no situation in your life will be able to stop it. This is how Joseph of Egypt was able to become the wisest man in the known world while locked in a dungeon for ten or so years.
If we do not accept that some people are greater than others, we cannot believe that there are behaviors, attitudes, and motivations better than our own, or worse than our own. This is damning in two ways. First, it terminates any real effort to become better. Whatever gulf exists between us and God is cemented through believing there is no bridge between. Second, it will result in the eroding of your character down to the lowest common denominator. If one isn't greater than another, then there is no reason not to adopt the most depraved behaviors, attitudes, and motivations.
We see both perspectives in play in modern society. We see the middle class adopting the worldview of the underclass in everything from work ethic to dress to music. Now, what happens on the outside is far less important than what happens on the inside, but the latter is usually evidenced by the former.
That some are better than others is objectively true.
At what point can a woman call herself wealthy? When her net worth is $100k? $200k? $20mm? Whatever the threshold, surely there is a point where the facts support that she is, in fact, wealthy.
At what point can a man call himself an expert weightlifter? When he can squat 500 lbs? 600? 700? When he holds the world record? Whatever the threshold, surely there is a point where he is, in fact and not in opinion, an expert weightlifter.
How many times does someone have to actually do exceptional things before their belief that they are exceptional ceases to be hubris or narcissism?
“For of him unto whom much is given much is required...” (D&C 82:3) If you possess more light and truth than your fellows, you have a responsibility to help them more than you would if you didn’t.