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In self-defense, let me say that while this article is ten years old this month, it is IMHO at least as relevant as when it was published.

Culture is far more powerful than politics. Political victories are fleeting unless preceded or follow by cultural changes that reinforce them.

It seems pretty obvious that the less ten years have only seen an acceleration of the trends discussed by Professor Gelernter.

Excellent piece.

What do you do, when once everyone rich and poor aspired to be middle class (and believed they were) now everyone aspires to be an intellectual, and believes they are, even the most retarded journalism major believes himself to be a mighty intellect.

And on that basis believe they have the right and responsibility to rule their lessers.

A very pertinent and thought-provoking essay, and thanks for posting it. I should point out that the theory of the New Class is much older than the author implies - it is an application of the consequences of elite rule pointed out by Bakunin (and that got him thrown out of the First International by Karl Marx) and codified by Milovan Djilas in the mid-50's. Communist or otherwise there are commonalities among ruling elites, one of which is a contempt for the ruled that becomes a defining characteristic of the elite, lest "we" become "they."

So the contempt is actually pretty easy to understand, and "intellectual" has far less to do with it than "elite." One other thing that amplifies the effect of this is the advent of mass communications, through which the mutual approbation between elites is transformed into a massive public relations campaign that validates the actions of the rulers. The public has very little real input to this process and that is as intended, the price that the media of communications pay for inclusion into that elite.

That is also the reason that mass grass-roots communications media such as the Internet and talk radio have proven so profoundly threatening to the system. Here the public may not be locked out, misrepresented, selectively quoted, manipulated. If the old ploy of bribery of the keepers of the Internet by inclusion into the New Class does not work (and it does not appear to be doing so at the moment) then we will absolutely see a brute-force attempt to control by legislation, intimidation, and coercion.