Elitism is the belief or notion that individuals who form an elite—a select group of people perceived as having an intrinsic quality, high intellect, wealth, special skills, or experience—are more likely to be constructive to society as a whole, and therefore deserve influence or authority greater than that of others. This is dictionary, but maybe a bit out of date.
The question is, how does one become a member of the elite? It seems that in today’s world, it simply requires being elected to office in government or successfully using social media to influence opinion.
The problem is that it so often turns out that these “elite” are not in fact more constructive to society as a whole, but simply become more like drones in a hive, with privilege but no requirement to produce anything of value, and with no ambition except to remain among the “elite.”
It’s easy to agree that those with demonstrable high intellect, special skills, or useful experience might merit extra influence or authority, but inherited wealth does not, and it is profoundly evident that elected office holders are rarely constructive to society as a whole.
Nevertheless, governments are necessary, and governments require that certain people be allowed to rule the others—the problem is in the “remain among the elite.”
We need doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs, and homemakers writing our laws, and we don’t need bureaucrats and lobbyists writing rules to implement them.
We have disinformation, we have misinformation, we have truth—but we don’t have a reliable way to tell one from the others. The only arbiter we have is power, and that’s not trustworthy, as power corrupts. Misinformation gets labeled as disinformation and becomes punishable by those with power. Only the mind free from the threat of punishment for having thoughts can discern truth, and therefore only when the power is limited. Power is limited when it is divided and distributed among divergent ideals, the ideals of freedom versus control.
America was an experiment to see if free people could govern themselves, or what would happen to people without royalty, and for a while America has been a beacon of hope to people all over the globe. The genius of America has been the separation of powers, but it appears power is being recaptured and re-solidified by the media and the judiciary.
There is a way to have a government that doesn’t become a class of useless drones—term limits. Term limits must be hard coated and final, one term and go home. I believe that it really doesn’t matter much just how long the term, not too short but not too long. Once elected, with no reelection to be concerned with, the officeholder will be free to vote as he or she truly believes is best. I believe that with true term limits in place and in three, maybe two cycles of this government, this once great country would rise again. With no reelection available, lobbyists will find that buying their legislator will become too expensive and they will have less influence.
Randall Sellers
Tennessee
