Why Our Elites Stink

NY Times ^ | July 12, 2012 | David Brooks

[C19fan]

Through most of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Protestant Establishment sat atop the American power structure. A relatively small network of white Protestant men dominated the universities, the world of finance, the local country clubs and even high government service. Over the past half–century, a more diverse and meritocratic elite has replaced the Protestant Establishment. People are more likely to rise on the basis of grades, test scores, effort and performance.

[LibLieSlayer]

A life member of the gop/e tries to paint himself as one of us... NO SALE!

LLS

[dagogo redux]

“And for the first time in the history of the nation, there is not a Protestant on the Supreme Court. Not one.

Wow, I was beginning to think no one else was connecting the dots. Very astute observation
________________________________________________________________________

Very interesting. Can you please elaborate on what the picture looks like with the dots connected? And who drew those dots? Not being sarcastic or antagonistic - I’d really like to know.

Besides Ginsberg, are all the rest Catholic? Any avowed atheists?

With the dots connected, can you posit a plausible theory that would explain why a series of Protestant Presidents (except Muslim Obama, of course) would go out of their way consciously to appoint non-Protestants?

Thanks.

[GOPJ]

The best of the WASP elites had a stewardship mentality, that they were temporary caretakers of institutions that would span generations. They cruelly ostracized people who did not live up to their codes of gentlemanly conduct and scrupulosity. They were insular and struggled with intimacy, but they did believe in restraint, reticence and service.

Today’s elite is more talented and open but lacks a self-conscious leadership code. The language of meritocracy (how to succeed) has eclipsed the language of morality (how to be virtuous).

David Brooks is close to understanding. Doesn't it seem strange countries run by 'kings and queens' (even though many are personally borderline incompetent) - tend to create more stable societies?

[SoConPubbie]

Character counts

We’ve been saying this for many years, and the media elite (including Brooks) have been telling us we’re crazy — “Clinton is brilliant! Obama is awesome!”

Virtue matters, and the Left has none.

And neither does that lying, left-wing, Progressive Liberal Mitt Romney.

[Clay+Iron_Times]

You first have to ask why did we come here in the first place? What were our ancestors escaping? What was raging in Europe at the time for a people to cry out for freedom. Freedom from what?

[justiceseeker93]

The problem is the elite is try to enslave us all. This is new since 50 years ago.

Actually, more like 100 years ago, with the ascendancy of Woodrow Wilson.

Read some of the material that Wilson had written as a big name political science professor at Princeton and you can see his big government biases - and disdain for the Constitution - before he became President.

[Rides_A_Red_Horse]

Character counts

---

Too many voters have been trained by pop culture and the entertainment brokers to chose style over substance.

[justiceseeker93]

And for the first time in the history of the nation, there is not a Protestant on the Supreme Court. Not one.

As much to point, I believe this is the first time in our history where every member of the SCOTUS went to law school at either Harvard or Yale. (Ginsburg graduated from Columbia Law after two years at Harvard Law.)

Imagine that: of all the law schools in the country, only the two most elitist Ivy League schools have been deemed capable of producing "la creme de la creme"!!!

There was a time when geographical diversity was a consideration in SCOTUS appointments. No more, apparently.

[DManA]

Sigh, has it been 100 years? It seems just like yesterday Woodrow was elected.

[Texas Fossil]

Education =? Indoctrination

(My son-in-law is a Harvard Law Grad, corporate attorney & Conservative)

[justiceseeker93]

Sigh, has it been 100 years?

Yes, 100 years ago today (1912), ol' Woody would have been campaigning for the presidency to which he was elected that November. BTW, Theodore Roosevelt, the third party "Progressive" candidate in that race, wasn't too far behind Wilson in his big government predilections by that time.

[Clay+Iron_Times]

Very few probably “get” your moniker.

Never the less it is the times we are living in, Laodicea and all

[justiceseeker93]

Over the past half–century, a more diverse and meritocratic elite has replaced the Protestant Establishment. People are more likely to rise on the basis of grades, test scores, effort and performance.

Brooks may be right, except for those benefited by Affirmative Action!!!

[Ohioan]

Suggesting that those who have fundamentally stultified the quality of American education, journalism, theology & politics, are some form of new "meritocratic elite," is about as silly a notion as one is likely to find, even in the New York Times.

Let me suggest a better term, "pretentious air-heads" suffering from the spreading contagion from the Cloud Dancing antics of the far Left.

Any student of the history of American public discourse, political campaigns, journalism, etc., will realize that there has been a virtual collapse of analytic quality--it is the difference between the understanding of a Jefferson, the reasoned discourse of men like Webster & Calhoun & their entire generation, and the 30 second sound bite.

I do not know why Brooks considers his subject malodorous, but his term "elites," must surely be tongue-in-cheek. (And while I have a weakness for using hackneyed cliches that convey my meaning, I will assure you that I am still more than adequate to handle any of those "elites" in a debate over political direction. The 30 second sound bite is scarcely at what would have been the equivalent of the third grade level in antebellum America.

Cheers!

William Flax

[Texas Fossil]

to rise on the basis of grades, test scores, effort and performance

And, the takeover of academia by the left allowed them to decide who excelled in grades, test scores and performance. They were the judges of those things. Education became indoctrination.

[RichInOC]

I’d say today’s meritocratic elites achieve and preserve their status not mainly by being corrupt but mainly by being ambitious and disciplined.

Dave, I can think of some situations in which that could be considered a distinction without a difference.

[x]

I think a lot of the failure of our “elites” is the lack of classical education and a focus on the soft subjects like law, political science (sic), psychology and others. The lack of classical education means they have little appreciation for western culture and no perspective on history.

Classical education, as in Plato and Aristotle? A lot of political philosophy and psychology there, no?

The lack of science and math (hard subjects) means they have mushy thinking and can't tell hard facts from half-truths.

Plato and other Greeks praised the clarity of mathematics. That still didn't prevent them from believing some strange things.