An elite skewering

The Hayride ^ | 1/5/2010 | MacAoidh

[Hayrider]

Among the many issues we focus on within the pages of this blog are the worthiness – or lack thereof – of the elites here in America and elsewhere in the Western world. It is our contention here at the Hayride that elite status must be maintained through merit and quality; if elites do not reflect the best values and traditions of a society then either they aren’t actually the elites or the society as a whole is in the process of rejecting its best values and traditions – with steep decline an inevitable result.

[Hayrider]

The New York/Washington/Hollywood elite is losing ground quickly with the American people, and they know it. They also don't like it.

[advance_copy]

The Dow Jones was at 10,650 when the market closed on January 3, 2000. It closed at 10,572 when the market closed on January 4, 2010

The Dow was down 78 for the decade.

[Cicero]

A good article. You correctly say that this has been going on for about 40 years. I would arbitrarily set the date at 1968. That was the year of the great Cultural Revolution, the Hippie revolution, the LSD revolution. It didn’t just happen in Berkeley or Columbia. It also happened in Europe, sending de Gaulle scurrying out of Paris in fear of the student revolutionaries.

I think Andy Warhol had a handle on it. From that time forth, you could be famous for . . . well, for being famous. People were celebrities because they were celebrities, regardless of how immoral or empty headed they might be. And that has been the case ever since. If you want to understand the culture, look at the cover of People Magazine, or leaf through US. But it’s not just the popular tabloids—it’s the whole culture. You can get a Nobel Prize simply for being a celebrity—which is the only claim that Al Gore or Barack Obama could possibly offer.

Famous because you’re famous. The idea used to be that you were famous because you were good, or admirable, or had accomplished something valuable. Now it’s just a matter of how well you can preen on stage. Move over, Audie Murphy. Make way for Madonna. Move over, John Wayne. Make way for Tom Cruise.