Opinion: The Frightful Rule of the Elites

The Frightful Rule of the Elites

BY BILL MUEHLENBERG

Many leftist academics have long ago abandoned the notion that ordinary citizens are fit for governing. They in fact believe they are unfit, and only “experts” like themselves should be allowed to call the shots and make the rules. Thus many of our elites have a sneering contempt for ordinary men and women.

So prominent is this unfortunate tendency that one Australian writer penned an entire volume on this. David Flint wrote The Twilight of the Elites back in 2003 (Freedom Publishing), and it is still a timely read. In it he documents how our leftist elites keep trying to subvert the will of the people as they seek to push their progressive policies and agendas.

Fortunately when ordinary Australians are actually allowed to speak – and vote – on these radical proposals, the elites often fail miserably. The 1999 vote on a republic is one major example of this. Flint documents many more such examples.

He offers a bit of history here: “Marx gave the elites their mission. He had written that philosophers had hitherto only interpreted the world: the point now was to change it. And who better qualified to change it – and change it ‘intelligently’ – than the elites.”

He also notes how postmodernist thinking underpins so much of the new elites’ worldview. They argue that truth, morality and culture are all relative. They believe that the “concepts of free speech, democracy and human rights are not inherently superior principles – they are merely the product and specific times and specific places.”

We see this played out all the time in Australia and the West. Simply consider how creeping sharia and stealth jihad are undermining the West from within; all aided and abetted by our leftist elites. The recent case of censorship regarding Andrew Bolt is another clear case in point here.

As Miranda Devine rightly commented: “Make no mistake, the Bolt case and the swarm of Left-wing lawyers who have urged it on, acting pro bono or commenting approvingly from the sidelines, are all part of an illiberal movement in Australia to crush dissent. At a time of extraordinary political disharmony following the ousting of Kevin Rudd, the hung Parliament and the rise of the Greens, there is a concerted attempt to shut down conservative voices.”

You can say that again. And it is not just conservative voices, but any voices which are not those of the secular left elites. Two recent examples make this quite clear. Consider this headline of just a few days ago: “Newspapers shouldn’t print opinion from non-experts: Manne”.

The article continues, “Professor Manne says they should report only the views of a ‘core’ of experts in key debates. At a book-signing in Sydney last night, he also urged the media to embrace greater contributions from controversial left-wing commentators such as US linguistics professor Noam Chomsky and Beirut-based commentator Robert Fisk. Professor Manne is facing fierce criticism over his recently published Quarterly Essay, Bad News, in which he alleges that The Australian plays an ‘overbearing’ and ‘unhealthy’ role in national debates by publishing fringe views on controversial topics.”

Wow. So why don’t these pompous, arrogant, lefty academics just come out

See the rest of this post here: http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2011/10/03/the-frightful-rule-of-the-elites/