The Technocratic Elite and the Dystopia of Meritocracy by Fareed Zakaria
at CNN
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“Let me be clear. I — of all people — am not calling for a revival of the WASP establishment,” Fareed writes in his latest column for The Washington Post, but in this national moment of reflection upon the presidency of George H.W. Bush, “can we learn something from its virtues?”
“For all its faults — and it was often horribly bigoted, in some places segregationist and almost always exclusionary — at its best, the old WASP aristocracy did have a sense of modesty, humility and public-spiritedness that seems largely absent in today’s elite. Many of Bush’s greatest moments,” Fareed writes, “were marked by restraint, an ability to do the right thing despite enormous pressure to pander to public opinion.”
The WASP establishment “could afford to think about the country’s fate in broad terms, looking out for the longer term, rising above self-interest — because its own interest was assured” through “bloodlines and connections.”
“Today’s elites are chosen in a much more open, democratic manner, largely through education. Those who do well on tests get into good colleges, then good graduate schools, then get the best jobs and so on. But their power flows from this treadmill of achievement, so they are constantly moving, looking out for their own survival and success.”
“Most damagingly, they believe their status is legitimately earned…Today, chief executives and other elites pay themselves lavishly, jockey for personal advantage and focus on their own ascendancy.”
“Trump has found a genuine vein of disgust among many Americans at the way they are perceived and treated by their more successful countrymen. The violent protests that have been happening in France are similarly fueled by rural, poorer people who believe that the metropolitan elites ignore their plight. The 2016 Brexit vote reflected the same revolt against technocrats.”
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