The Epidemic of Elitism

I wanted to reflect on a few things today.  One of my daily indulgences is listening to a conservative commentator on YouTube by the name of Mark Dice.   Mark is not what you would call a typical "journalist," and to be honest, I don't think that is his aspiration.  However, his insights on contemporary issues are insightful as well as humorous - his impressions of CNN talking-head Brian Stelter (who looks like the fictional George Costanza from Seinfeld and talks like Mickey Mouse) have me almost rolling on the floor cracking up in laughter to be honest, and I could watch those over and over.  Being I don't watch CNN (as Dice aptly calls them, the "Clown News Network"), the snippets that Mark shows on his webcasts are my way of keeping up with what goes on.  Last week, at a Trump rally in Tampa, one of their "reporters" (using that term loosely), Jim Acosta, was heckled off the stage when he was trying to cover the event with chants of "CNN Sucks!" as well as people flipping him off.  Of course, being the liberal he is, Acosta was mortified at how "dangerous" the situation was and of course cried about it all over the internet.  This, of course, got him more derision.  What happened in Tampa last week, as well as President Trump's crackdown on this whole "fake news" cabal, indicates that the "average Joe" on the street is a bit fed-up with the bias the media has.  However, the media's response is not to reflect and evaluate where it went wrong - oh no, they can't do that!  Instead, they are seeking to blame someone for tarnishing their reputation, and of course the usual suspects - President Trump, the "alt-right," and of course those pesky "Russian bots" - are all being bandied about.   However, the problem is actually staring them in the face, and they fail to see that it is themselves who must bear responsibility for the negative opinions the American public has of them.  And, what we see here is a manifestation of a bigger problem, which is the subject of my commentary today.

The real issue at stake is neither the sitting President, Russia, nor an exaggerated threat of the "alt-right," but rather it rests in one word - elitism.   Over the years, I have observed that elitism tends to be a hallmark of at least four classes of people in this nation (and even worldwide) and those four classes are as follows:

1.  Academic elites
2.  Career politicians
3.  Hollywood, musical, and sports celebrities
4.  The "Mainstream" media enterprise

A fifth - corporate moguls - could also be added, but theirs is more subtle in that they bankroll the other four.  The elitism displayed by these classes of people manifests itself in several ways, and here are a few of them:

1.  A delusion of infallibility
2.  An attitude of superiority due to status
3.  A tendency toward revisionism of narrative
4.  A demonization of anyone who disagrees with them

Regarding the fourth, the elitist typically will play the "victim" and claim that the disagreement against them somehow translates as "hate speech," and thus the one who disagrees is labeled often in defamatory ways.   Regarding the second, those of these "priveleged" classes often feel as if they have this quasi-religious and overly-patronizing "mission" to "enlighten" those they feel are inferior to them.   After all, their status (at least in their eyes) makes them "right" about everything (see #1 above) and thus they need to "correct" anything that conflicts with their narrative (see #3 above).  And, anyone who sees otherwise is thus thought of as inferior (the elitist will look down their noses at their detractors to communicate "how dare you!" to them) and if the detractor is seen as gaining too much clout with "the masses," then a propaganda campaign must be implemented to discredit them, or "damage control measures" are to be implemented.   The general attitude then of such people can be summarized as follows:  "WE know what is best for YOU, and therefore how dare YOU question US, and YOU will be destroyed!"   As can be seen though, they fail miserably in this regard due to the fact they underestimate the fact that the normal guy on the street may actually have the good common sense to know better, and that is seen as abominable to the elitist.  However, thankfully many are waking up to the deceptions of the elitist mentality, and the recent backlash against CNN and other media elitists is evidence that there is hope for America, as the "little guy" is now in a position to assert that he isn't a mindless moron and can think for himself or herself. 

I personally have seen one of these elitist classes in action in recent years, as the college where I earned my undergraduate degree in 1996 has all of a sudden become a bastion of academic elitism, and I took on the establishment back in 2014.  At that time, I was interviewed by a conservative organization, the Institute for Religion and Democracy, regarding the rise of liberal theology at my alma mater.  Once the article hit the internet, I caught some serious backlash from the elitists on the campus of that same institution, as I hit a sensitive nerve.   As a result, I was subject to some nasty and defamatory remarks from both faculty and some former classmates alike, and was called names such as "Fundamentalist nut," "archaic relic," and my own intelligence was even attacked by these people, many of whom supposedly were my "brethren" in faith.   Many of the faculty of this institution in question were also members of a certain academic society which, in recent years, has become more about political activism rather than scholarship, and in recent years they have been introducing some things that many laypeople in the religious tradition these elitists represent would find contrary to their convictions.  Yet, in response to that, and in typical elitist fashion, the offending academic elitist was defended by the president of this society, who then turned around and asserted their own "spiritual superiority" over the millions of faithful churchgoers in their own religious tradition, even defaming them as "ignorant."  The term I have for these elitists is not the most charitable, but it does embody what they are - pompous ass.  The pomposity of such individuals makes the fictional Major Charles Emerson Winchester III of the old sitcom M.A.S.H.  look humble.  And, it vividly illustrates what these elitists are capable of.  Let me now contrast another example.

In order to generate some extra income, I edit and type articles and papers for a graduate student at Catholic University in Washington, DC, by the name of Pete.  Pete is a good guy, and in typing a lot of his manuscripts over the past year, I have learned a thing or two that has enriched me personally as well as financially.  One of the major focuses of Pete's research is on the life of Edith Stein, or St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.  In his research of this great saint and martyr of the Church, Pete has extensively read about her academic background, and that is something I want to focus on here for the moment.   Edith Stein (1891-1942) was a Carmelite nun of Jewish heritage who converted to the Catholic faith when she was a young college student, and she is noted as a philosopher as well as a spiritual giant of the Church.   The type of philosophy that Edith studied was something called phenomenology, which has to do with the structures of experience and consciousness, and the major aspect of this is a reflection upon the phenomena that appear in acts of conscience.  The main proponent of this school of thought was a German-Jewish philosopher, Edmund Husserl (1859-1938).  Husserl had two main proteges who went different directions - one became a martyr, while the other an academic elitist.  Those two people, respectively, were Edith Stein and Martin Heidegger (1889-1976).  Both of Husserl's proteges were as different as night from day, and whereas Edith Stein was a deeply religious (or would be) person of humility and piety who was eventually murdered in Auschwitz, Heidegger was a Nazi collaborator who eventually unseated Husserl at the University of Freiberg and succeeded him.   Heidegger, in contrast to Stein, was the quintessential elitist - he curried favor with the authorities to advance his own position, and he viewed even his mentors (such as Husserl) as "inferior."  Unfortunately, Heidegger would have undue and destructive influence in theology as well, being that later people such as Jurgen Moltmann and Stanley Hauerwas would be influenced by him, as well as others such as Paul van Buren and Biblical hermeneutic "experts" such as philosopher Merrold Westphal and others.  Heidegger's influence on postmodern revisionism is so pervasive, as a matter of fact, that some people I have read even say he "Nazified" Biblical scholarship and theology.  And, in doing so, Heidegger was being a true academic elitist to the core. 

The attitudes of the elitists today are in stark contrast to the virtues in the past demanded of authorities, in particular the clergy and nobility, that are evident.  In his book Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites, the Brazilian philosopher Plinio Correa de Oliviera notes something that sort of defines what the essence of nobility embodies, and that is Christian virtue.  As he explains on page 67 of the text, Christian virtue and the Christian ideal are part of the very essence of nobility.  This virtue is driven by the cardinal virtue of charity, which means therefore the dignity of personhood is extended to all social classes, while at the same time respecting an established hierarchy.     Looking at it from that perspective, the long-discarded code of noblesse oblige would come into play, in that those in authority or having a certain status should act accordingly.  So, when media elitists promote "fake news," are they doing this?   Not at all - if anything, they embody the sin of lying and "bearing false witness" (meaning gossip and defamation on baseless grounds) and thus forfeit their respect; in short, Jim Acosta has no right to cry "foul" when a fed-up average American at a Trump rally flips him the bird and says his network "sucks."  It also means that the elitists of today are not truly elites, in that the latter understand the responsibilities of their position and should have the humility to act decently and in order.  Many academics, press people, celebrities, and politicians fail miserably when it comes to this aspect, and therefore they are mere elitists rather than elites in that they inflate their own self-importance and delusion of power rather than exercising their position and its roles responsibly.  That will therefore lead to the concluding thought to this discourse now.

In all of the four groups mention who are guilty of the cardinal offense of elitism, there are distinctions to be made.  For one, if one is an academic, the focus should be on scholarship.   If one is a politician, the focus should be on responsible leadership.  If one is in the media, the focus should be on responsible and objective journalism.  And, if one is in entertainment and sports, the focus should be on using talent to entertain and also aesthetic quality, rather than cheap marketing and no-talent soapboxing.  There are those in these four classes who do exemplify the true virtues of their professions, and those people are to be commended - it is what will make them legends and ensure a place in the annals of history.  But, that caliber of professional in these classes is becoming more and more rare these days, and hence the problem.   When we get back to academic elites being actual scholars, career politicians being real leaders, celebrities being genuine artists, and media elites being true journalists, I believe society will have a surge of healing and reparation to that will correct much of its damage.  Of course, at the central core of all this is a return to faith, for in faith do we find the true transcendental properties of truth (dealing with leaders and journalists), goodness (dealing with academics), and beauty (dealing with the celebrities among us).  And, ultimately, that is centered on the proper place of God as the center of our society, but it starts first with God being at the center of our own lives - change inwardly manifests outwardly eventually.  Any rate, those are today's thoughts.