There were, though, by the 60s the WASPs of that type were already on the way out. But I don’t see why we should grade our new meritocratic Gilded Age of self-seeking on a curve.
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Replying to @michaelbd @BenjySarlin
I think the case is being made-and it’s an old one- that the new elite caste don’t feel their position as a privileged. They feel they earned it and therefore impervious to the moral pressure to serve imposed on WASPs. The point is GHWB did acknowledge his privilege through duty.
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Replying to @michaelbd @BenjySarlin
That is, GHWB’s generation felt or at least claimed to feel the need to justify their position after the fact. A (supposed) meritocratic class finds its justification for continuing to enjoy privilege in already-manufactured merit.
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Replying to @BenjySarlin @michaelbd
But (some) WASPs literally helped invent the modern meritocracy to replace their version of the establishment ...!
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I would change "replace" to "perpetuate" -- it's the same process by which the British ruling class replaced sinecures with exams in 1850s but kept the same sort of people in charge.
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Replying to @SWGoldman @DouthatNYT and
I would have to look up the citation but I remember a German historian showing there was actually more continuity than change after the introduction of exams (in part because exams were geared towards elite schools)
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I did an MA paper on this -- I'll see if I can dig it out!
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