7 John Ralston Saul Quotes on Elites

John Ralston Saul quotes on elites

3. Elites quite naturally define as the most important and admired qualities for a citizen those on which they themselves have concentrated.

12. The rational elites, obsessed by structure, have become increasingly authoritarian in a modern, administrative way. The citizens feel insulted and isolated. They look for someone to throw stones on their behalf. And old stone will do. The cruder the better to crush the self-assurance of the obscure men and their obscure methods. The New Right, with its parody of democratic values, has been a crude but devastating stone with which to punish the modern elites. The New Left, which will eventually succeed it, could easily turn out to be equally crude.

40. It is the considered opinion of most members of our rational elites that, in any given difference of opinion with reality, reality is wrong.

50. [O]ur elite is primarily and increasingly managerial. A managerial elite manages. A crisis, unfortunately, requires thought. Thought is not a management function.

62. This is a citizenry which is annoyed, confused, insulted, and uncertain of how to protect the structures of the public good they struggled so long to put in place. Abruptly the national elites seem to prefer playing another game in which the public good is subjected to what they say are larger truths. All of these turn out to be either pedantically utilitarian or highly romantic. The utilitarian involves the reduction of society to self-interest. The romantic involves the selling of economic mythology as a new universal religion.

65. I am struck by the curious reflection that if everything is inevitable, as our elites tell us, well then we don't really need them. After all, this is the biggest and most expensive elite in history. Either they should do their job or make way.

74. What I am describing is not only a society dominated by corporatist structures, but by the received wisdom of a corporatist atmosphere: one in which the elites are interest-driven, whatever their jobs. And so the society is gradually being redrawn to suit this ethic-free system.