The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy

1. Elites Abandon Civic Duty and Local Ties

Elites, who define the issues, have lost touch with the people.

Insulated from common life. Today's elites, including corporate managers and information professionals, are dangerously isolated from the rest of the nation. Unlike 19th-century wealthy families who were rooted locally and saw wealth as carrying civic obligations (funding libraries, parks, etc.), the new elites are mobile and cosmopolitan. They congregate on the coasts, cultivating international ties and viewing the heartland with scorn.

Revolt against "Middle America". This new aristocracy of brains sees "Middle America" as technologically backward, politically reactionary, and culturally provincial. Their advancement requires constant migration, leading them to associate "home" with intrusive neighbors and hidebound conventions. They are at home only in transit, prioritizing a global market in money, glamour, and culture over national or local loyalties.

Patriotism is low virtue. Patriotism ranks low in their hierarchy of virtues, while "multiculturalism" appeals as a global bazaar of exotic tastes and customs to be sampled without commitment. This tourist's view of the world is unlikely to foster passionate devotion to democracy, which requires a sense of shared fate and responsibility rooted in place and history.

2. Opportunity Redefined: Mobility Replaces Democratized Competence

Success has never been so closely associated with mobility, a concept that figured only marginally in the nineteenth-century definition of opportunity.

Upward mobility as the dream. The modern understanding of the "American Dream" has narrowed opportunity to mean upward social mobility, particularly into the professional-managerial class. This contrasts sharply with the 19th-century ideal, which envisioned a broad distribution of property and the democratization of competence – the intelligence and enterprise required for self-reliance and managing one's own affairs.

Competence meant self-reliance. In the 19th century, a "competence" referred both to property and the skills needed to manage it, fostering habits like self-reliance and responsibility essential for democratic citizenship. Extremes of wealth and poverty were feared as fatal to democracy, as a degraded laboring class lacked these qualities. The ideal was a nation of self-governing communities, not just individuals climbing a ladder.

Meritocracy parodies democracy. Social mobility, while seemingly democratic, can solidify elite influence by legitimizing it as based on merit rather than birth. However, it drains talent from lower classes and encourages elites to feel few obligations to their communities or predecessors, prioritizing escape from the common lot over leadership or civic contribution.

3. The Erosion of Community and Public Life

It is the decline of those communities, more than anything else, that calls the future of democracy into question.

Neighborhoods replaced by malls. The decline of self-governing communities, once the basic units of democratic society, poses a fundamental threat. Suburban shopping malls are no substitute for neighborhoods, which fostered civic spirit and informal association. The flight to suburbs, followed by jobs, has left cities destitute, creating polarized environments for the privileged and the poor.

Social engineering undermines ties. Beyond market forces, enlightened social engineering has also destroyed neighborhoods by prioritizing racial integration through policies like busing and breaking up ethnic enclaves. This often requires sacrifices from working-class minorities, not the suburban liberals who design the policies. The goal seems to be remaking cities for mobile elites who see them only as places to work and play.

Loss of informal controls. The atrophy of informal community controls leads to the expansion of bureaucratic controls, weakening social trust and the willingness to assume responsibility. As formal organizations become overburdened, people may improvise self-help, but the foundations of civic life require a public policy goal of restoring informal mechanisms, which market forces alone cannot repair.

4. Democratic Debate Degenerates into Ideological Posturing

Fierce ideological battles are fought over peripheral issues.

Elites lose touch with reality. The growing insularity of elites means political ideologies lose touch with ordinary citizens' concerns. Debate becomes ingrown and formulaic, circulating buzzwords among the "talking classes" who inhabit an artificial world of simulations. New ideas struggle to penetrate rigid left/right orthodoxies.

Ideologues avoid engagement. Instead of addressing real social problems, ideologues exchange accusations (fascism/socialism) and classify arguments as orthodox or heretical. They read only works confirming their views, absorbing energies that might be better spent on self-criticism. This waning capacity for self-criticism signals a moribund intellectual tradition.

False impression of polarization. The dominance of rival elites committed to irreconcilable ideologies creates a false impression of deep polarization. Issues that seem unreal to most Americans dominate national politics, while real problems remain unsolved. This ideological rigidity obscures common ground and replaces substantive issues with purely symbolic ones, explaining why many Americans feel politics has nothing to do with what really matters.

5. Academic Pseudo-Radicalism Undermines Common Standards

Once knowledge is equated with ideology, it is no longer necessary to argue with opponents on intellectual grounds or to enter into their point of view.

Jargon replaces argument. Debates in higher education, particularly in the humanities, are dominated by academic pseudo-radicalism that retreats into incomprehensible jargon, claiming it is the language of "subversion" against oppressive "clarity." This makes academic discourse inaccessible to outsiders and reinforces the professional privileges of specialists.

Attack on universal standards. This academic left, claiming to speak for the oppressed, denies universal or transracial values, asserting that common standards are inherently racist or sexist. They argue that the "canon" reflects the hegemony of "dead white European males" and must be dismantled or replaced with "alternative" ideologies like black studies, feminist studies, etc.

Condescension towards minorities. This position, however, shows condescension towards the very minorities it claims to champion. By implying that these groups cannot appreciate or understand the classics, it denies them access to the world's culture, perpetuating a double standard masked as tolerance. This undermines the goal of democratizing liberal culture, which is being abandoned as higher education stratifies economically.

6. The Therapeutic Culture Abolishes Shame and Responsibility

From a secular point of view, the overriding spiritual preoccupation is not self-righteousness but “self-esteem”...

Shame replaced by self-esteem. A therapeutic culture has replaced the concept of sin with sickness and moral judgment with "understanding" and "acceptance." The overriding spiritual preoccupation is "self-esteem," a campaign against shame and guilt aimed at making people "feel good about themselves," particularly victimized minorities.

Compassion degrades victims. This ideology of compassion, while seemingly benevolent, can degrade victims by reducing them to objects of pity and absolving them of accountability. It institutionalizes inequality by replacing impersonal standards, attainment of which earns respect, with a pretense that everyone is "special," leading to cynicism when the pretense is transparent.

Therapy as politics. The therapeutic view has penetrated public policy, notably in campaigns to raise self-esteem as a cure for social problems like crime, poverty, and academic failure. This approach, exemplified by California's task force on self-esteem, relies on "intuitive knowledge" over evidence and promotes a "therapeutic state" that fosters dependence rather than self-respect.

7. Democracy Requires Respect, Not Just Tolerance or Compassion

Respect is what we experience in the presence of admirable achievements, admirably formed characters, natural gifts put to good use.

Tolerance is insufficient. While tolerance is a fine thing, democracy requires a more invigorating ethic: mutual respect. Respect is earned through admirable achievements, character, and putting gifts to good use; it requires discriminating judgment, not indiscriminate acceptance or appreciation of "alternative lifestyles."

Populism values respect. Populism, in contrast to communitarianism's tendency to compromise with the welfare state and its ideology of compassion, is unambiguously committed to respect. It rejects both deference and pity, standing for plain speech and holding individuals accountable for their actions, even if this is dismissed as "judgmental."

Making demands on each other. The current moral climate, valuing "openness" and "understanding" above all, has weakened the capacity for discriminating judgment and made us reluctant to make demands on each other. This leads to tolerating second-rate work and conduct, and ultimately, to indifference, which is a greater threat to democracy than intolerance.

8. The Crisis of the Middle Class and Widening Inequality

The general course of recent history no longer favors the leveling of social distinctions but runs more and more in the direction of a two-class society...

Two-class society emerges. Recent history shows a reversal of the democratization of abundance, with age-old inequalities reestablishing themselves. The global disparity between wealth and poverty is glaring, but the crisis of the middle class is particularly significant, as its power and numbers depend on the overall wealth distribution.

Middle class shrinkage. In the U.S., the upper 20% control half the wealth and have seen income gains, while the middle class has shrunk. Factors include the decline of manufacturing, growth of contingent labor, and the shift to an information/service economy. Even college degrees no longer guarantee affluence; dual-income professional households ("assortative mating") drive upper-class prosperity.

Economic inequality is undesirable. While civic equality (limiting money's influence outside its sphere) is important, economic inequality itself is intrinsically undesirable. Luxury is morally repugnant and incompatible with democratic ideals. Unlimited accumulation allows money to dominate, meaning social and civic equality presuppose at least a rough approximation of economic equality.

9. The Decline of Nations and the Rise of Tribalism/Cosmopolitanism

The world of the late twentieth century presents a curious spectacle. On the one hand, it is now united, through the agency of the market... On the other hand, tribal loyalties have seldom been so aggressively promoted.

Weakening nation-state. The weakening of the nation-state underlies both global unification (market, capital flow) and fragmentation (ethnic/religious conflict). The state can no longer contain either force. Nationalism is attacked by ethnic particularism and by cosmopolitan elites who argue for internationalization.

Cosmopolitan elites lack loyalty. The decline of nations is linked to the global decline of the middle class, historically tied to the nation-state. The new cosmopolitan elites, tied to international markets, feel more kinship with foreign counterparts than with their own countrymen. Without national attachments, they have little inclination to sacrifice or accept responsibility beyond their immediate enclaves.

Cosmopolitanism as parochialism. This cosmopolitanism, uninformed by citizenship, becomes a higher form of parochialism. Elites invest in private services (schools, security) but relieve themselves of contributing to the national treasury. This "secession of the symbolic analysts" is a revolt against the constraints of time and place, undermining the common ground provided by middle-class nationalism.

10. The University Retreats from Public Discourse

The fundamental issue goes unnoticed: the abandonment of the historic mission of American education, the democratization of liberal culture.

Stratification of higher ed. Debates about higher education focus on elite universities and cultural wars, ignoring the majority of students in state and community colleges. Due to rising costs, liberal education is increasingly a prerogative of the rich, while most students pursue practical subjects with little exposure to humanities or critical thinking.

Academic jargon isolates. The academic left's retreat into specialized jargon and "theory" isolates them from the public and the real crisis of education: the decline in basic skills, general knowledge, and moral values. They dismiss critics and the public as incapable of understanding complex ideas, reinforcing their own professional isolation.

Assimilation into corporate order. The university's real corruption comes not from academic radicalism but from its assimilation into the corporate order. This diverts resources, fosters quantification, replaces language with jargon, and creates a bureaucracy focused on the bottom line. This drives critical thinkers into humanities "theory," which is no substitute for social criticism addressing the university's role in the status quo.

11. The Loss of the Art of Argument

What democracy requires is vigorous public debate, not information.

Information replaces debate. Despite the "information age," public knowledge of civic affairs has declined because the public no longer participates in debates. Information, readily available, makes no impression when debate is a lost art. Debate, not information, generates the questions that make information relevant.

Press abandons public forum. Journalism, once fiercely partisan and a public forum extending the town meeting, became more "responsible" and "objective" around the turn of the century. Influenced by progressives who distrusted popular judgment and saw government as a science for experts, journalism shifted from encouraging argument to circulating information, often filtered through public relations.

Argument is educational. Unlike Lippmann's view of debate as a defect arising from lack of information, argument is the essence of education. It forces articulation, risks views, and cultivates eloquence and judgment. It requires entering opponents' arguments, risking persuasion. Democracy is the most educational government form because it extends debate widely, making citizens articulate and critical.

12. The Secular Soul Searches for Meaning

Never was there, perhaps, more hollowness at heart than at present, and here in the United States. Genuine belief seems to have left us.

Secularization leaves a vacuum. The gradual decay of religion, despite high nominal adherence, has secularized public life and relegated religion to the sidelines, especially among elites. The vacuum is filled by a permissive, therapeutic culture replacing sin with sickness and moral judgment with non-judgmentalism and self-esteem.

Therapy replaces religion. The therapeutic worldview, stemming partly from psychoanalysis, presents itself as a cure of souls, but replaces moral insight with symptom management and introspection with external validation. It encourages dependence and a cult of the victim, failing both as politics and as a replacement for religion's ability to address existential suffering and the "dark night of the soul."

Illusion of mastery persists. Commentary on the "modern temper" often frames it as a tragedy of lost illusions due to critical reason, contrasting modern sophistication with past innocence. However, this ignores that religious faith has always grappled with doubt, suffering, and the limits of human control. The one persistent modern illusion is mastery, fostered by scientific control over nature, but now challenged by growing awareness of its limits.

Last updated: June 26, 2025