Susan Jacoby’s latest article examines how the word “elite” became a slur.
Pity the poor word “elite,” which simply means “the best” as an adjective and “the best of a group” as a noun. What was once an accolade has turned poisonous in American public life over the past 40 years, as both the left and the right have twisted it into a code word meaning “not one of us.” But the newest and most ominous wrinkle in the denigration of all things elite is that the slur is being applied to knowledge itself.
. . .
America was never imagined as a democracy of dumbness. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written by an elite group of leaders, and although their dream was limited to white men, it held the seeds of a future in which anyone might aspire to the highest — let us say it out loud, elite — level of achievement.
Amen to that. Personally, I would prefer an elite leader. I want “the best” - an intellectual, pragmatic leader who understands nuance, doesn’t see the world in black and white - even if that makes him “not one of us”. The alternative reminds me a lot of Idiocracy.
In any case, it’ll be a wonderful change of pace from the past 8 years.