Conversation

Most admired elites in the west: 1940s: decorated military veterans 1950s: spies 1960s: rocket scientists 1970s: brain surgeons* 1980-1987: investors 1988-1997: hackers 1997-2015: entrepreneurs 2015 - now: nobody * when did ‘brain surgery’ replace ‘rocket science’?
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There have been no paradigmatically admired elites for 5 years now. This feels genuinely weird. Not even doctors now after pandemic. Nurses get some idealization but they aren’t elites, and doctors don’t have unmixed admiration for pandemic response.
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I think aside from a brief period in the 80s (movies like Pretty Woman came out of it), investors have usually been the #1 villains. Only Wall Street though. I don’t think the idea of a venture capitalist ever popped enough to be either hero or villain elite.
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Seriously. Can anyone think of *any* class of elites that enjoys broad-based admiration today? Or alternatively, if you wanted generally unqualified positive societal regard, what kind of elite would you try to be?
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