Elitism in America

From the time we take our first U.S. History or American Civics courses (if they even still teach those) we are instilled with the idea that America is an inherently classless society.  We learn that American culture, spawned from a violent rupture with the past and cultivated in the soils of a new continent, is simply too informal and modern in its nature to possess any entrenched class distinctions.  We learn this as though it is a given, something which cannot and need not be analyzed, and which is an inherently positive characteristic upon which so many of this country's successes have been built.

In our daily lives, however, there is still very much a struggle against elitism.  It is ubiquitous, and is indeed inherent to our present-day culture.  This fact has been brought to the forefront in recent years after very decisive election outcomes, however it is not that new.  Whether it a younger sibling ranting about the excesses of the "rich kids" at school, or a grandparent scornfully rejecting a product because they don't buy "nuthin' fancy", the tension is ever-present under the surface.  It is quite clear that the rupture with the past alluded to above may have not been as decisive as many would believe.

This points to one silent, underlying fact which American people of all backgrounds take for granted: that there is and always been elitism in one form or another.  True, hereditary nobility has been abolished, we do not have feudal lords reigning over entire counties or states, but then again, none of these antiquated signs of largess are even necessary prerequisites for elitism in the modern era.  The Industrial Revolution and its legacy have long since transferred the bulk of society's wealth out of real estate and into personal property.

None of this is news, nor is it truly insightful to note any of it. What is important to note, however, is how elitism in America is cleaved in two, with one form admired and revered, with the other scorned and hated.  This is what is truly interesting.

Elitism in the form of measurable wealth is adored and aspired to in America in a way which is perhaps unique on Earth.  When some one here makes a name for his or herself by way of conspicuous consumption, a lavish lifestyle, and often the outsourcing of work to an impoverished country, their business isn't nationalized.  Protests are not held outside of their mansions.  Hell!  At this point, few people find it even politically feasible to have such individuals (who are very few in number) pay their fair share in income tax!  No, instead we give them a TV show and a photo op with the President of the United States.  Now that degree of deference, reverence, and admiration is truly unique.  Even in other developed, mixed-market economies, the view of the rich is a much more critical and skeptical one.

It is astounding that so many Americans see the abuses and excesses not as crimes out of which the super-rich buy themselves, but merely as earned privileges which they themselves would exercise should they ever attain the same level of wealth.  Many of us whose families have been in the United States for at least three generations are the very descendants of the impoverished, malnourished workers who wasted their lives away under the Rockefellers and the Carnegies.  Yet too many of us dream not of profiting from our own work and genius, but of becoming the next mogul.

There is, of course, another phenomenon other than the possession of material wealth which is deemed a form of elitism in the United States, and that is education.  Education, in stark contrast, is not revered and aspired to in the United States as is the acquisition of material wealth.  No, this is the despised and distrusted form of elitism.  Professors who are the veritable experts in their field of research are disregarded as being out-of-touch elitists.  Writers who take on the often unsavory task of holding up a mirror to society have their insights pushed to the side by those who would use that writer's very credentials to disqualify him or her.  And scientists, the people responsible for your comfortable standard of living and lengthy life expectancy, are subjected to 15th century-style charges of blasphemy and heresy.

So while true elitism - the kind of elitism that can allow a person to buy himself or herself out of the very struggle and suffering inherent to the human experience - is aspired to and respected, the honest pursuit of bettering oneself through education is viewed as tricky and dishonest, something to be the subject of scorn.

Part of me would like to view this curious split as an accident of history or perhaps a cultural quirk, that perhaps an entire culture misdirects its distrust of one powerful group of individuals toward a less powerful yet still, relatively speaking, elitist group.  I cannot, however, leave it at that.

It appears, rather, that the true elites - those who amass wealth and do so frequently without earning it - enjoy and profit from the misconception that the educated and critical are the ones to distrust and despise.  I would even dare say that they perpetuate this misconception for their own personal gain.  Why wouldn't they?!  If taking all the resources without earning them is threatening to the people, then the people should be opposed to it.  But the people must have knowledge and be capable of critical thinking in order to perceive that threat and react to it appropriately.  So how can this reaction be stopped?  Convince the people that knowledge and critical thought are the true threats, that the protection is in fact the danger and the danger the protection.

Of course, this cannot be the case every single time.  To say that it were would be to claim that all social interactions are controlled and predetermined, which is of course absurd.  What is far more likely is that the distrust of education - for whatever reason, whether because of its social implications, its tendencies toward complication and entropy - is a facet of an American culture which seeks at least a semblance of honesty and simplicity.  What is just as likely is that this cultural facet is honed in on and taken advantage of for the purpose of pushing the proverbial needle in one direction by a group or groups in order to suit their own objectives.

The next few years will reveal to what extent American society will engage in uncomfortable discussions about wealth and class in order to move its policies back (yes, back!) to ones which favor the middle class and nation as a whole.  I remain doubtful, however, about any significant progress being made until we look at the cultural underpinnings of our political views on wealth and class in America, which is to say, until we look at the way we look at this topic in our everyday lives.