4 ms·

This tactic of people not quite there saying they have it but don't deserve it (offering personal anecdotes in the Atlantic no less) seems a bit much. The troub

This tactic of people not quite there saying they have it but don't deserve it (offering personal anecdotes in the Atlantic no less) seems a bit much. The trouble with the new meritocratic elite the author describes is that it isn't broadly recognized as an elite by the people outside it, which is arguably the source of cultural tensions now. It lacks a certain legitimacy, as though some people arrived and collected the symbols of an establishment and pretended to become them, like driving your own limousine and telling people you are rich. They have seized institutions certainly, but dying ones. Personally I don't have much patience for writers who forfeit the stewardship of the culture they inherited, especially to signal they have somehow transcended it. It's a kind of moral bargaining that avoids accepting they have failed to build and sustain the freedoms and opportunities of their culture, and these are the self justifying stories they tell themselves. Being more concerned with how to distribute wealth than how to build, grow, and sustain it is a cheap substitute activity. They are nice words that provide comfort to some readers I'm sure, but I can't afford such cheap ideas.

frazbin 5y ago
I'm sure you don't have time for this; none of us strugglers do. Gotta do it anyway though-- can't save the republic without saving a few voters. Please recognize that the culture we've inherited comes with a lot of liberal values and also massive amount of hypocrisy-- strong values loosely held if you like; and that liberal whiners necessary to align those values with actions in a real nation. Making money is the bottom line.. unless you're approaching a failed state; then all of a sudden avoiding instability is the bottom line. Spitting on someone who is trying to gently and sensitively remind you that we are starting to look a little more like a failed state... seems really disrespectful of the process that got us here.
- motohagiography 5y ago
  I can't quite parse this. What does this mean? Not sure whether anyone has asked for this gentle sensitivity, that we are somehow obliged to the author for it, or that we should sustain their pretenses. My comment was to assert that in spite of the author's contortions, their concern for others seemed self-interested, aspirational, and insincere.

frazbin 5y ago

I'm sure you don't have time for this; none of us strugglers do. Gotta do it anyway though-- can't save the republic without saving a few voters. Please recognize that the culture we've inherited comes with a lot of liberal values and also massive amount of hypocrisy-- strong values loosely held if you like; and that liberal whiners necessary to align those values with actions in a real nation. Making money is the bottom line.. unless you're approaching a failed state; then all of a sudden avoiding instability is the bottom line. Spitting on someone who is trying to gently and sensitively remind you that we are starting to look a little more like a failed state... seems really disrespectful of the process that got us here.

motohagiography 5y ago
I can't quite parse this. What does this mean? Not sure whether anyone has asked for this gentle sensitivity, that we are somehow obliged to the author for it, or that we should sustain their pretenses. My comment was to assert that in spite of the author's contortions, their concern for others seemed self-interested, aspirational, and insincere.