How Elite Are the New Elite?
7th October 2023
“What would the Romans do?” is always a useful way to consider issues of public policy. This is not to say they got everything right – their views on women were a bit iffy while about their attitudes to slavery, the less said the better (even if, on both, the reality was more nuanced than is often assumed). On the other hand, a civilisation which built the largest ramp ever constructed by man just to mop up the remnants of a failed revolt would probably not take 20 years to build a train line.
The Romans invented decimation. ‘Nuff said.
For whereas Roman society started with aristocrats and forced them to become meritocrats, the New Elite is composed of self-described meritocrats who are trying to become aristocrats. Membership of the caste is often hereditary – Goodwin, perhaps flippantly, suggested one test for membership is whether one’s parents have a Wikipedia page – and a range of signalling mechanisms have been developed to allow members to display their status – declarations of pronouns in one’s biography standing in for a coat of arms, knowledge of the latest progressive fashions replacing a familiarity with courtly etiquette.