by Mike Pyatt
Immediately after the long awaited Mueller Report, that failed miserably to deliver what the Democrats and Progressive Left had hoped and planned, for nearly two years, MSNBC’s, with Morning Joe, and CNN’s, with Chris Cumo, ratings tanked for a few dismal days. Why? Could it be that their audience has wearied of the narrative “President Trump colluded with the Russians?” Only to discover that there was nothing to support the “Cable darlings” forgone conclusions. One might think that the “anchors” would be slightly embarrassed-even a little. No chance. When Trump’s lead attorney, Rudy Guliani, demanded that CNN’s Chris Cuomo apologize for his strident, misleading charges against President Trump, Cuomo, without hesitation, replied, “Never!” Webster defines elitist, “one who is an adherent of elitism: one whose attitudes and beliefs are biased in favor of a socially elite class of people.” Is there a nexus between money, power and elitism? What does CNN’s Jeff Zucker, George Soros, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, and Prosecutor Kim Fox have in common?
If one’s fishing for an apology from the “Mainstream Media” one had best fish up-stream somewhere. Until the rise of social media, and bloggers, CBS, ABC, the traditional cable networks, and The New York Times and Washington Post-those elitist-ruled the roost, undaunted and unchallenged. Most acknowledge, The New York Times story has more sway than the Casper Star Tribune or the Skagit Valley Herald. Perhaps even more than most blog post that goes viral. That may be slowly changing. It’s also true that a degree from Yale or Harvard opens more doors than a degree from Boise State or Liberty University. Most intriguing question, “What’s behind those doors?” Many students return home from those elite schools morally, spiritually and financially bankrupt, and handcuffed to student loans for decades. Is it worth it? Those demanding halls of ivy have gone from puritan Harvard to pagan Harvard, and formerly staunch Catholic Notre Dame University, turned modernist, covers-up classical paintings of Christopher Columbus to avoid public embarrassment. Dartmouth was a frontier school in1769, founded by a congregational minister to educate Native Americans.
Some readers may recall what elitist secularism has done to the former glory of those founding institutions. Yale was founded after Harvard jettisoned its historical theological moorings. Princeton was founded after Yale followed suit. Many Jesuit universities are hollow shells of their former glory, with low theological expectations and an exorbitantly high price tags. Former Drug Czar and Secretary of Education, Bill Bennett noted that as early as 1986, Stanford University, under pressure by a vocal group of dissident students, demanded the administration abolish a freshman course called “Western Civilization.” This marked the end of the Western tradition in favor of trendy courses on feminism, race and gender studies, without debate. Stanford dropped Homer, Dante, Luther, Sir Thomas More, and humanities like a bad habit. Consider another read of Professor Alan Bloom’s 1987, The Closing of the American Mind, or Yale educated, Arthur Bestor’s 1953, Educational Wastelands, charging that progressive educationists had “lowered the aims of the American public schools by divorcing schools from the disciplines of science and scholarship, swapping it for cultural elitists demands.”
Recent scandal of elitist parents scamming the university admissions system, with bribes to well-connected higher education low-lifes, to ensure their offsprings get into the not-so-hollowed halls of university life, confirms that there’s a vestige of “aristocratic elitist” who are convinced that established rules don’t apply to them. The shocker isn’t that it happened, but that those engaged in this swindle were stupid enough to lie to the IRS about it. Were their CPA’s and tax attorneys on a break? Author of Dream Hoarders, Richard Reeves, Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institute, comments that elites, Hollywood or otherwise, believe their children have a “right” to be in the best schools. If they can’t get them in front door, they’ll go through the back door, using illegal bribes, or photo cropping their non-athletic kid into a stellar performer in a sport they’ve never participated. The playing field is definitely, Reeves claims, unequal, and the economic divide grows.
There’re legitimate hierarchies of power, knowledge, income and wealth, for those with substantial means, who wield an arch of influence, permitting different choices, than middle- income America. They’re benefactors of business acumen and capitalist market. Bennett and Reeves understand “legacy” yet tout the role of meritocracy in educational and economic realms. However, their disdain’s for the violator’s obdurate, deliberate educational scamming that erodes and diminishes the effort of those who’ve studied, worked hard, and “played by the rules” to liberate themselves, in pursuit of their educational dreams. Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, who attends meetings in tee shirts and flops, though filthy rich, dresses unlike financial tycoons of yesteryear, has become an elitist and consummate molder of social media and cultural domination. What about Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, owner of the Washington Post, and “world’s richest man?” What could stop him? If President Trump tweets #Fake News often enough?
Late American publisher, journalism tycoon, and social gadfly, William Randolph Hearst, known for his flamboyant methods of “yellow journalism” had tremendous influence in early twentieth century America, controlling the largest newspaper and magazine enterprise in the world. An active Democrat, he ran unsuccessfully for President in 1904. After the “Great War” Hearst gradually adopted more conservative views, and became a militant isolationist and nationalist on foreign policy, deeply anti-communist, and highly suspicious of the League of Nations. He was an early supporter of FDR, but later opposed his Central government expansion. His life story was reportedly the fodder for the lead character in Orson Wells’s classic film, Citizen Kane. Newspaper, filthy lucre and politics appear to be a potent elixir for fostering elitism.
One needn’t be a wealthy “one percenter” to be an inveterate elitist. Abortionist, atheist, secular humanists and racists, for example, are elitist. It’s a state of mind. One who deliberately ignores rules and principles; operating above any law; looking down one’s nose at others from a false lofty, erudite balcony. C.S. Lewis, artfully described the range and reach of elitism, in one of his classics, “The master demon Screwtape identifies elitist humanity’s tendency toward an ingrained habit of belittling anything that concerns the great mass of their fellow men.” Tocqueville warned that the public detests artificial aristocracy and elitism, ”however great its merits.” What’s the stench of neo-elitism: never a thought that one could be wrong. What do you think?
Mike Pyatt’s a Natrona County resident. His email’s roderickstj@yahoo.com
