Did the ‘Elites’ Really Fail Us?

Understanding our descent into the ravine of populism.

Sarah and I did a Secret pod this morning that was . . . more melancholy than usual. It’s a useful conversation, but not really a fun listen. There’s a last-days-of-disco (or fall of Saigon, pick your metaphor) quality to it.

The show is here. Only for members of Bulwark+.

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(STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

1. Discredit

Shield of the Republic is The Bulwark’s hidden gem and I want to talk about something from the January 9 episode. (Show is here.)

Eric Edelman and Eliot Cohen were discussing the end of the Pax Americana and Eliot talked about how populism (with authoritarian overtones) is ascendent both in America and in much of the West. Eliot said that this populist, revanchist zeitgeist is the reaction to a thorough discrediting of the elites in recent years.

Eliot and Eric have forgotten more about history than I will ever know, so I don’t want to say that I disagree with this assessment. But I do want to offer an alternative reading.

This is going to be a long and philosophical journey, so I’m just going to give you the précis right up top and then you can decide whether or not you want to take the ride:

It is true that Western societies have turned against their elites. But this is not because the elites have failed, or been discredited. On the whole, the elites from our waning age were more successful and effective than their counterparts from previous eras.

Instead, we ought to consider the present moment not so much a reaction to discredited elites, but as an act of self-mutilation committed by a bored, decadent society.

So that’s what we’re going to talk about. You’re either in or you’re out. Let’s go.