Do we really get the “elites” we deserve?

Elites have generally been associated to a class of gentle and wise people whose ways tend to command respect, adulation and emulation. They constitute, namely, of a political, business and intellectual dominant minority often dubbed establishment. Since the 1980s, they have been operating almost like a multinational with a tainted brand of global citizenship that cuts across border, skin colour, religion and gender.

When well meaning, elites set up the norms expected to bind citizens into collective contentment. Alternatively, when cynical, they yield discontent that may drift into disarray. As currently expressed by the worldwide anger. Even if the backlash varies in intensity and dissemination from one country to another. Negative stimuli have never seemed more pervasive. Anyway, what matters is we are finally waking up to the spontaneous convergence of sordid interests.

However, it would be unfair to suggest that the entire establishment has morphed into a club of self-serving morons. It is rather the arriviste chunk of insiders has ganged up with the nouveau riche chunk of outsiders in a sleazy and bountiful ride to the Great Deception. Yet, the writing has been on the wall. There has always been plenty more to the Paper Miracle, the Reform Blossom and the Cooked Miracle than meet the eyes.

Guess who eased, albeit unwittingly, the process of doing monkey business? We the undiscerning citizens, the self-indulgent media, the fabricated experts have now the opportunity to redeem ourselves and also the elusive incentive to spin out of the Vicious Cycle. To begin with, we ought to seek to break free of our mental and material shackles. Did I ever claim it would be a piece of cake?

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