Bi-Weekly Discussion - Elites & Counter-Elites
Details
This is going to be an online meetup using Zoom. If you've never used Zoom before, don't worry — it's easy to use and free to join.
Click on the Zoom link below at the scheduled date/time to log in...
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HOW WILL THE CONFLICTS BETWEEN ESTABLISHMENT ELITES & COUNTER-ELITES AFFECT TRUMP'S 2ND TERM?
INTRODUCTION:
This meetup will attempt to give our members a crash course in what sociologists & political scientists call "elite theory" - i.e. a theory of the state that seeks to describe and explain power relations in society. As Wikipedia helpfully explains, "in its contemporary form in the 21st century, elite theory posits that (1) power in larger societies, especially nation-states, is concentrated at the top in relatively small elites; (2) power 'flows predominantly in a top-down direction from elites to non-elites'; and (3) 'the characteristics and actions of elites are crucial determinants of major political and social outcomes'." Political philosophers have been theorizing about the role of elites in politics since the days of Plato & Aristotle, but the modern origins of elite theory comes from the so-called "Italian school" of thinkers like Vilfredo Pareto, Gaetano Mosca & Robert Michels. I suggest checking out the Wikipedia entry for a brief overview.
Rather than provide the sort of canned "Introduction to Elite Theory" you might get in a college course that leans heavily on older theories, we'll focus on some more recent developments in elite theory that have a more direct bearing on the roles of elites today and the conflicts between different elite factions.
In the 1st section, we'll look at the early 20th-century Italian sociologist Vilfredo Pareto's concept of a "circulation of elites" from his book The Mind and Society (1916) and try to combine it with the concept of "elite overproduction" expounded by the Russian-American ecologist-cum-historian Peter Turchin in his recent books Ages of Discord (2016) and End Times (2023). We'll also think about how their ideas apply to today's elites & their role in our political polarization.
In the 2nd section, we'll look at how the focus on a "professional-managerial class" (PMC), i.e. white-collar managers, bureaucrats, technicians, academics, journalists & creative professionals - has reemerged into public discussion, along with some older ideas about the PMC as it was originally formulated by the political theorist James Burnham in The Managerial Revolution (1941) and the social critics John & Barbara Ehrenreich in Between Labor and Capitol (1979). Their ideas have been recently picked up & extended by a variety of left-leaning scholars, including Catherine Liu in Virtue Hoarders (2021), Olúf ẹ́mi O. Táíwò in Elite Capture (2022), and Musa Al-Gharbi in We Have Never Been Woke (2024). They've analyzed the way the PMC has recently embraced identity politics in lieu of class politics, in particular promoting "diverse faces in high places" & more funding for diversity consultants instead of broad-based anti-poverty programs, arguing this isn't an accident but rather due to a self-serving bias among elites.
In the 3rd section, we'll look at how elite theory concepts could be applied to current trends among cultural elites. In particular, we'll discuss the growing conflict between journalists at legacy print & TV media outlets with declining viewership and "new media elites" like podcasters, social media influencers, and independent journalists at online outlets who are finding into new audiences. We'll pay special attention to some current debates about the motives behind some prominent liberal journalists defecting to Substack in 2020 (e.g. Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Matt Yglesias, Jesse Singal), as well as the reasons for the shifting political loyalties of controversial comedians like Joe Rogan, Bill Maher, Dave Chappelle, Jerry Seinfeld, Russell Brand, Tim Dillon, Dave Smith, and Jimmy Dore.
In the 4th section, we'll think about how to apply elite theory to current trends among business elites. In particular, we'll analyze the role of Silicon Valley as an alternative power center vis-a-vis New York & DC that attracts a different sort of elite class, as well as the recent rightward shift of some tech moguls like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Marc Andreessen, Davis Sacks, Brian Armstrong, Bali Srinavasan, and of course the man who started the trend back in 2016 by endorsing Trump - Peter Thiel. As we'll discuss the growing conflicts this so-called "tech right" (or "tech counter-elite") faction has with both liberal media elites and the "natcons" (nationalist-conservatives) on the MAGA right.
RELEVANT MATERIAL FROM PAST MEETUPS:
In May 2022, we had a discussion entitled "Is the Managerial Class Hurting America?" where we discussed how some pundits like Joel Kotkin & Michael Lind had recently revived James Burnham's concept of the "managerial revolution" and Christopher Lasch's "revolt of the elites" and reworked them into a populist critique of the "professional managerial class" (PMC) that runs many of our major corporations, nonprofits & NGOs.
In May 2020, Profs & Pints hosted philosophy professor Olufemi Táíwò for a talk entitled "How the Elite Captured Identity Politics" where he explained how the phenomenon of "elite capture" works.
Back in June of 2019, we had a meetup entitled "Are Coastal Elites Living in a 'Bubble'?" We talked about the residential segregation we'll discuss in Part 1 of this meetup, but we also talked about the economist Tyler Cowen & the sociologist Charles Murray's theories about how the cultural segregation of urban elites has negative social effects. We also looked at arguments related to an alleged ideological bubble around the coastal elites' narrower class of pundits, journalists & academics that creates blind spots in their political views. Specifically we analyzed Paul Krugman's critique of "Very Serious People" and Nicholas Nassim Taleb's critique of "Intellectuals Yet Idiots", as well as Daniel Drezner's critique of "thought leaders".
Way back in February of 2017, we looked at some concepts that may help when analyzing the political influence of elites, such as Bruce Bueno de Mesquita's selectorate theory and "rules for rulers" from The Dictator's Handbook (2011), Daron Acemoglu & James Robinson's institutional theory from Why Nations Fail (2012), the disparity between the political clout of the elites & non-elites Martin Gilens presented in his book Affluence and Influence (2012), as well as the factors driving wealth inequality presented in Joseph Stiglitz's book The Price of Inequality (2012).
DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR OUR DISCUSSION:
The videos & articles you see linked below are intended to give you a basic overview of some of the major debates over the roles of establishment elites & upstart counter-elites in US politics. As usual, I certainly don't expect you to read all the articles prior to attending our discussion. The easiest way to prepare for our discussion is to just watch the numbered videos linked under each section - the videos come to about about 62 minutes total. The articles marked with asterisks are just there to supply additional details. You can browse and look at whichever ones you want, but don't worry - we'll cover the stuff you missed in our discussion.
In terms of the discussion format, my general idea is that we'll address the topics in the order presented here. I've listed some questions under each section to stimulate discussion. We'll do our best to address most of them, as well as whatever other questions our members raise. I figure we'll spend about 30 minutes on each section.
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I. PARETO'S "CIRCULATION OF ELITES" & TURCHIN'S "ELITE OVERPRODUCTION" THEORIES:
1a) Zia Safir, "Circulation of Elites Explained: Power Dynamics and Social Mobility" (video - 6:16 min)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FeuU5ewxUE8
1b) Niall Ferguson w/ Peter Turchin, "Cliodynamics Of End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites And The Path Of Political Disintegration" (video - 14:34 min)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw2PvAaO-kY
- Hugo Drochon, "What does ‘elites’ mean, and why do they always rule?The word 'elite', first coined in 1902, has become a term of abuse. But history is the story of one elite replacing another – as the votes for Trump and Brexit have shown."
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2017/01/what-are-elites-always-rule - Michael J. Ard, "Requiem for the ‘Power Elite?’ Our elites may be out-of-touch, greedy and only semi-competent. But we could do a lot worse"
https://www.discoursemagazine.com/p/requiem-for-the-power-elite - Noah Smith, "The Elite Overproduction Hypothesis: Did America produce too many frustrated college graduates in the 2000s and 2010s?"
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/the-elite-overproduction-hypothesis - Christian Parenti, "Peter Turchin’s False Prophecy: Review of End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration "
https://www.compactmag.com/article/peter-turchin-s-false-prophecy/
II. THE RENEWED CRITIQUE OF THE "PROFESSIONAL-MANAGERIAL CLASS (PMC) AND ITS USE OF IDENTITY POLITICS:
2a) The Hill w/ Catherine Liu, "How The Professional Managerial Class Serves Capitalism While Virtue Signaling Progressivism" (video - 11:19 min, listen to 6:00)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6_fDbNwoFKg
2b) Andrew Sullivan w/ Musa Al-Gharbi, "How elite overproduction fuels wokeness" (video - 5:53 min)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ngQsxaHCk_8
- Olúf ẹ́mi O. Táíwò, "Identity Politics and Elite Capture: The wealthy and powerful will take every opportunity to hijack activist energies for their own ends."
https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/olufemi-o-taiwo-identity-politics-and-elite-capture/ - Jean-Baptiste Oduor, "Did Elites Really Take Over Identity Politics? In his new book, Elite Capture, Olúfémi Táíwò argues that elites have hijacked identity politics — but what if it belonged to them all along?" https://jacobin.com/2022/05/elite-capture-identity-politics-philosophy-olufemi-taiwo
- Musa Al-Gharbi, "Critics Respond to We Have Never Been Woke: A brief sketch of how folks have been reacting to the book plus my thoughts on some common lines of critique." https://musaalgharbi.substack.com/p/critics-respond-to-we-have-never
- Catherine Liu, "The Left won’t let go of woke: So much for the ‘vibe shift’"
https://unherd.com/2025/02/the-left-wont-let-go-of-woke/
III. THE CLASH OF LEGACY MEDIA ELITES WITH NEW MEDIA ELITES (SUBSTACKERS & COMEDIAN-INFLUENCERS):
3a) CNN Panel w/ Coleman Hughes, "Joe Rogan on Democrats: 'They had me. I was on their side'." (video - 9:44 min, listen to 6:50)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uxGehaScurw
3b) David Sacks w/ Matt Taibbi & Glenn Greenwald, "Discussing the new political divide" (video - 38:49 min, listen to 12:37)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cGOHiKo7dFY
- Kathryn Joyce & Jeff Sharlet, "Losing the Plot: The 'Leftists' Who Turn Right"
https://inthesetimes.com/article/former-left-right-fascism-capitalism-horseshoe-theory - Geoff Shullenberger, "I Beg to Differ: The rise of online contrarians on Substack exposes a dysfunctional media ecosystem" https://www.persuasion.community/p/i-beg-to-differ
- Calder McHugh, "What Democrats Don’t Understand About Joe Rogan: The future of American political engagement is barely political at all."
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/11/11/how-trump-won-the-podcast-bros-00188518 - Matt Yglesias, "Dave Chappelle and the still-doomed politics of shunning: You can't pretend widely held views don't exist" https://www.slowboring.com/p/dave-chappelle-and-the-still-doomed
- Oliver Bateman, "Stop calling Jerry Seinfeld Right-wing" https://unherd.com/newsroom/stop-calling-jerry-seinfeld-right-wing/
IV. THE RISE OF THE "TECH RIGHT" & THEIR CLASH WITH LIBERAL ELITES & THE MAGA RIGHT:
4a) WSJ, "Joe Biden's bitter last word [on the 'tech-industrial complex']" (video - 4:50 min)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ejNMe9c5v14
4b) Erik Torenberg / Balaji Srinavasan, "The Tech Counter Elite is Rising" (video - 5:19 min)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMoDo-W3fmg
- John Gray, "The counter-elite gambled on Trump and won: The energy in politics is with the populist right – and the left doesn’t know how to respond."
https://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2024/12/the-counter-elite-gambled-on-trump-and-won - Richard Hanania, "Understanding the Tech Right: The next decade will be shaped by Silicon Valley fully entering our politics"
https://www.richardhanania.com/p/understanding-the-tech-right - Henry Farrell, "Why did Silicon Valley turn right? The 'pounded progressive ally' thesis has limits"
https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/why-did-silicon-valley-turn-right - Adam Thierer, "Can Trump Hold the Tech Right and Populist Right Together? Maybe, but it isn’t going to be easy" https://www.discoursemagazine.com/p/can-trump-hold-the-tech-right-and
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Bi-Weekly Discussion - Elites & Counter-Elites