I received early admission into the cultural elite when I was accepted by early decision at Amherst College in November, 1968. I had a slim awareness that I came from a community and family of some privilege, as did a majority of my Amherst classmates; but I was surprised – and enthralled – by the suggestion, subliminally made by the college, and overtly by many of my classmates, that I was – that we were — now among the “best and brightest”. It produced in many of us, and certainly in me, a kind of cosmic swagger which could only be replicated by those who had the fortune to be admitted to the very few colleges and universities that were among the most selective in the country.
The educational resources at Amherst were extraordinary. The talent, if not brilliance, of many of my classmates, was humbling. I celebrate that, and regularly give thanks for it. But the culture of the college, and campuses similar to Amherst, provided a patina of arrogance and smugness that was easy to put on and often difficult to wash off. I long ago learned that whenever I dropped my college affiliation into a conversation, I was usually met with nodding smiles and then, predictably, was offered an elevated place and voice at the table. I exploited that. Many of us did.
What tempered this cultural arrogance was the perception, which I think could be borne out in fact, that most of the elder generation of graduates of elite colleges and universities at the time were Republicans. That they enjoyed – and held onto, their elite status while at the same time were fiercely resistant to the progressive views promoted by their younger fellow alums. Some fifty-one years later, for a multitude of reasons, that has more or less flipped. College graduates, especially from the more selective colleges, now tend to be Democrats, openly bringing their progressiveness and — overtly or unwittingly – bringing their cultural and intellectual arrogance with them.
And that is now being exploited by the ear-splitting and mind-numbing cacophony of people who are fiercely resistant, if not rabidly hostile to, what they identify as the elites. There are more media platforms that any of us can count that have zeroed in on the “elites” as the primary targets of their ridicule, anger, if not hate. Some (like the adherents of the New Apostolic Reformation) go as far as declaring that the “elites” are demonic.
A primary instrument in this discordant orchestra is Donald Trump, our President-elect. Born into enormous privilege, and having graduated from the elite Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Donald Trump was never fully received in the cultural elite. Perhaps it was because he was from Queens (and not Manhattan), perhaps it was because he preferred glitz to understated glamour, perhaps because he chased after headlines, and financially stiffed vendors for not paying their submitted bills. About forty years ago, the popular comic strip Doonesbury regularly lampooned “The Donald” by featuring his yachts and his misguided notion of “quality”. He didn’t fit in. And he was ridiculed, which he no doubt has remembered, and is exacting pay-back.
And now he has nominated some people to his Cabinet who have been exiled from the elite. Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy left the elite cohort of the Democratic party. Some might say they were dismissed, and in Kennedy’s case he has been essentially disowned from his own storied and elite family. Peter Hegseth carries the pedigree of the elite (having graduated from Princeton), but his lobbying then-President Trump to pardon members of the US military convicted of war crimes – Lieutenant Clint Lorance and Major Matthew Goldsteyn — and to reverse the demotion of Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher for many crimes — may disqualify him, at least for some.
These Cabinet nominees, along with some others — particularly Matt Gaetz, come across, to me anyway, as grievance appointments. Sticking it to the elite. But you can’t govern by grievance. And we need to respond, act, and resist when necessary. And still need to spend some time figuring how best to do that.
That said, actions and resistance will only be effective if those of us who are accused of being in the elite come to terms with it – not with denial, but with some self- reflection and acknowledgement of the arrogance that we bring into our positions and conversations. I was welcomed into the elite early on by my acceptance at an elite college. Others of us arrived some other way. It is hard to give it up. Progressive elites advocate for a level playing field, but are often blind to the lofty position they have claimed – or have been given – on the field of life.
The temptation is to create distance between those of us who are disheartened by what is happening from those who are supporting it. That will only ratchet up the grievance – on both sides. And will feed Donald Trump’s boundless appetite for grievance.
Jesus said, take the log out of your eye (Matthew 7:5). For many of us, actually for most of us, it is not a log. It is a veneer of the arrogance of elitism that we need to continually identify and scrape off. Because the arrogance inevitably comes back to coat our bodies and cloud our minds. And then we need to strive to recognize that our hearts are opened when – and only when – we work through our temptation to keep us separated from one another, forsake the illusion that so-called elites are the “best and brightest”, and figure out how best to engage in relationship. Even with — no, especially with — those with whom we bear grievance.
