Thompson!
Oh boy an ARGUMENT! But about what? I'm not sure... but that shan't slow me down!
As a matter of practice, I think *anyone* who thinks they are uniquely qualified to make decisions for others is "elite" or a member of "an elite" (or more acutely "the elite"). This includes Billionaires (faux or real) and Career Politicians (and Wall Street bankers, and Captains of Industry and ...) .
They, of course, would claim that they achieved their status through their own merits. Trump "earned" his money and Hillary "worked her way up through the trenches" and they both believe that they are uniquely qualified to have undue sway over our collective futures. I contend that THEY both believe themselves to be at the pinnacle of a meritocracy... one measured in $$ and the other in political success. "I am rich (or powerful) because I am *good*!"
Many of the rest of us question this. We suspect them *both* of achieving their respective successes by "gaming the system", and some of us might even suggest that the financial system as well as our political system can ONLY be succeeded in through gaming at some level. Especially in the extreme?
What do we do with the likes of Bernie? Is he just another "elite"? Or is there another class of people who really do work for and earn their successes and leave the "gaming of the system" to others? I want to see Bernie as a Career Statesman rather than a Politician...but that might just be my Polyanna showing through. I'm also more willing to see Gary Johnson as a "Successful Businessman" than Donald Trump, despite the many orders of magnitude difference in (presumed?) net worth. Gary might have obtained much of his own (relative) wealth/success through various forms of gaming the system, but not as blatantly or egregiously as "the Donald" seems to have.
I believe your hair splitting regarding the singular or plural use of the term "elite" is apt. I believe that when it is used singularly: "Donald Trump believes he is elite"; it's meaning is pretty obvious and straightforward. He believes that he has (and deserves) to have an inordinate amount of influence on other's lives (You're FIRED!). When it is used in the collective "Hillary is a member of 'the elite' " we are probably using it as a code-word for "those people" which, depending on your biases could mean a lot of things. The wealthy, the politically powerful, the influential, the educated, are all probably referred to as "the elite" by some group, most likely those without wealth, political power, influence or education.
As somewhat of a libertarian (not Glen's dreaded "Libertarian") or anarchist, I defeat this by ignoring it (for the most part). I believe that the power of "the elites" can be taken from them simply by ignoring them. There are some people who would not work for Donald Trump at ANY PRICE, as there are others who would not defer to Hillary under ANY CIRCUMSTANCE. I might be one of those people, there may be a number of others on this list as well.
What are we arguing about again? - Smith ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
