William Deresiewicz on the “Excellent Sheep” of the American Elite
The Good Fight
The Disillusionment of the French Elite
I'm always struck when I speak to members of a French elite because I think you still believe in something and you're willing to stand up for this even when it's unpopular. The extent to which that has proved not to be the case among the American elite in the last 10 or so years is really disheartening, he says. He also thinks students at Harvard are more self conscious about their extracurricular activities than they were as an undergrad there. This sort of instrumentalism accounts for the inability of U.S. elites to actually stand on principle according to him.
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