Any elite promotes an ideology to justify its role. The apocryphal tribal “strongest man” theory of leadership requires too much energy _ a new challenger all the time _ both to ruler and ruled.
Now we claim not to have a hereditary aristocracy anymore, but in fact the movers and shakers of society do tend to come from the same families, or at least the same milieu. Wealth and power move nepotically from generation to generation, as they always have, with just a little leavening by “new men.” It has been thus throughout history, and we fool ourselves not to believe it is so now.
The myths have been varied. The aristocrats might be favored by the gods, or have blue blood, or be the most intelligent or most honestly just be necessary to society. And wealth is always associated with power, power with rulers.
To preserve their purity, elites try to dissociate themselves from the rabble.
They rely on family connections, or behavior, or philosophy, or simply wealth. A great show of pretensions, manners, and display to prove they are not like everyone else.
Current aristocrats claim to be meritocrats. They “deserve” what they have because they are the “best” _ intelligent, hardworking, whatever. Of course, many have simply won the lottery of life, as in all previous aristocratic claims.
I suppose the new crop is no worse than any of the others. But I dislike their crowing arrogance, especially when so many of us can see it is so clearly artificial.
HuntingtonHarborThoughts 