![[Review] The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy (Christopher Lasch) Summarized](https://episodes.castos.com/660078c6833215-59505987/images/2370807/c1a-085k3-0v9q063mak40-sgnufw.jpg)
Show Notes
The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy (Christopher Lasch)
- Amazon USA Store: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393313719?tag=9natree-20
- Amazon Worldwide Store: https://global.buys.trade/The-Revolt-of-the-Elites-and-the-Betrayal-of-Democracy-Christopher-Lasch.html
- eBay: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=The+Revolt+of+the+Elites+and+the+Betrayal+of+Democracy+Christopher+Lasch+&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&siteid=0&campid=5339060787&customid=9natree&toolid=10001&mkevt=1
- Read more: https://english.9natree.com/read/0393313719/
#eliteclass #meritocracy #civiclife #populism #democraticinstitutions #TheRevoltoftheElitesandtheBetrayalofDemocracy
These are takeaways from this book.
Firstly, From people versus elites to elites versus people, Lasch reframes an older American story. Instead of viewing populism as a revolt against entrenched privilege, he suggests that late twentieth century elites increasingly revolted against the people and the constraints of common life. In this account, the professional classes do not primarily defend inherited status; they defend a portable status built from credentials, networks, and the ability to move. That mobility changes what elites expect from society. They become less dependent on local schools, neighborhoods, public services, and even national economic health, because their careers and identities can be sustained across cities and borders. Lasch argues that this independence weakens democratic reciprocity. If those with influence can opt out, they feel fewer reasons to compromise, repair shared institutions, or accept limits imposed by fellow citizens. The resulting cultural tone often includes disdain for ordinary tastes and attachments, paired with moralizing rhetoric about progress and enlightenment. For Lasch, democracy depends on a rough equality of condition and a shared investment in place. When elites can exit, the burdens of social disorder fall heavily on those who remain. This dynamic also changes political debate. Arguments become less about the common good and more about symbolic correctness or technical management, leaving many citizens feeling unheard and politically homeless.
Secondly, Globalization, mobility, and the hollowing out of local life, A central theme is that economic and professional mobility reshapes civic responsibility. Lasch links corporate restructuring, a more global economy, and the rise of the knowledge sector to an elite mindset that treats borders and local obligations as inconveniences. The winners of this system can relocate for jobs, outsource risk, and buffer themselves from failing public goods through private alternatives. Meanwhile, less mobile communities face plant closures, declining wages, and weakened institutions, with fewer levers to influence decisions made far away. Lasch argues that this is not only an economic shift but also a moral and cultural one. When prestige attaches to cosmopolitan sophistication and constant reinvention, rootedness can be portrayed as backward. But democracy, in his view, needs citizens who practice self government where they live, in schools, associations, congregations, and municipal life. The book explores how mobility narrows empathy. If your identity is built on being able to leave, you are less likely to fight for improvements that require patience and shared sacrifice. Lasch also warns that a politics focused on national branding, global competitiveness, and managerial efficiency can obscure the damage done to community continuity and intergenerational stability. The democratic cost is a thinning of local solidarity and a rising sense of abandonment.
Thirdly, Meritocracy and the new class divide, Lasch scrutinizes meritocracy as both a promise and a mechanism of exclusion. In theory, rewarding talent and effort should widen opportunity. In practice, he argues, meritocratic institutions often create a self confident elite that attributes its success to personal virtue while treating those left behind as responsible for their fate. Credentials become a moral badge, not merely a measure of competence. This outlook can intensify class resentment because it turns inequality into a verdict on character. Lasch suggests that meritocracy also narrows the meaning of excellence. It encourages a competitive individualism that prizes resume building and professional advancement over service, craftsmanship, and the dignity of ordinary work. He is critical of how education becomes a sorting system that channels advantages to families who already know how to navigate it. The book links this to a cultural gap in language, tastes, and assumptions about authority. Elite discourse tends to become abstract, therapeutic, and bureaucratic, while everyday experiences are treated as parochial. For Lasch, a healthy democratic culture needs forms of honor and recognition that do not depend entirely on academic or professional status. Without that, civic equality erodes. People stop trusting institutions that appear designed to celebrate winners and manage losers, rather than to build a shared future with reciprocal obligations.
Fourthly, The weakening of democratic institutions and public trust, Lasch argues that democracy is not only a set of procedures but a way of life that requires habits of participation, restraint, and mutual accountability. He sees modern governance drifting toward administrative rule by experts, lawyers, and consultants who claim neutrality while embedding their own assumptions into policy. When decisions are justified as technical necessities, ordinary citizens are pushed into the role of spectators. Lasch connects this to the decline of intermediary institutions that once trained people in democratic practice, including unions, neighborhood organizations, local newspapers, and religious or civic associations. As these mediating structures weaken, individuals confront large systems alone, which increases feelings of powerlessness and suspicion. The book also highlights how public debate can become performative. Political language can emphasize symbolic gestures, moral posturing, and management of public opinion instead of real accountability. Lasch worries that elites can speak in the name of democracy while insulating themselves from democratic pressure through professionalized institutions and cultural gatekeeping. The resulting distrust is not simply ignorance or irrational anger, in his view; it is a rational response to diminished voice. Rebuilding trust would require strengthening local governance, increasing transparency, restoring the legitimacy of dissent, and creating institutions that invite participation rather than treating citizens as problems to be managed.
Lastly, Culture, family, and the moral foundations of citizenship, Beyond economics and politics, Lasch places heavy emphasis on culture and the moral education of citizens. He argues that democracy relies on character traits formed in family life and community practice, such as responsibility, self restraint, perseverance, and respect for limits. When cultural elites celebrate constant self creation and personal autonomy as the highest goods, they may undermine the disciplines that make democratic cooperation possible. Lasch is skeptical of a consumer culture that trains people to seek immediate gratification and to treat relationships as optional. He also critiques a therapeutic sensibility that replaces moral language with psychological explanation, shifting attention away from duty and shared standards. In his view, these trends do not liberate people so much as make them more dependent on experts, markets, and institutions that promise validation or relief. The book connects the erosion of informal authority, including parental and community authority, to a broader crisis of legitimacy. If no one is authorized to transmit standards, the public sphere becomes vulnerable to manipulation and cynicism. Lasch does not propose a simple return to the past. Instead, he calls attention to the need for cultural resources that support self government, including respect for work, intergenerational responsibility, and the idea that freedom is meaningful only when attached to obligations that bind citizens to one another.
- Amazon USA Store: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393313719?tag=9natree-20
- Amazon Worldwide Store: https://global.buys.trade/The-Revolt-of-the-Elites-and-the-Betrayal-of-Democracy-Christopher-Lasch.html
- eBay: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=The+Revolt+of+the+Elites+and+the+Betrayal+of+Democracy+Christopher+Lasch+&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&siteid=0&campid=5339060787&customid=9natree&toolid=10001&mkevt=1
- Read more: https://english.9natree.com/read/0393313719/
#eliteclass #meritocracy #civiclife #populism #democraticinstitutions #TheRevoltoftheElitesandtheBetrayalofDemocracy
These are takeaways from this book.
Firstly, From people versus elites to elites versus people, Lasch reframes an older American story. Instead of viewing populism as a revolt against entrenched privilege, he suggests that late twentieth century elites increasingly revolted against the people and the constraints of common life. In this account, the professional classes do not primarily defend inherited status; they defend a portable status built from credentials, networks, and the ability to move. That mobility changes what elites expect from society. They become less dependent on local schools, neighborhoods, public services, and even national economic health, because their careers and identities can be sustained across cities and borders. Lasch argues that this independence weakens democratic reciprocity. If those with influence can opt out, they feel fewer reasons to compromise, repair shared institutions, or accept limits imposed by fellow citizens. The resulting cultural tone often includes disdain for ordinary tastes and attachments, paired with moralizing rhetoric about progress and enlightenment. For Lasch, democracy depends on a rough equality of condition and a shared investment in place. When elites can exit, the burdens of social disorder fall heavily on those who remain. This dynamic also changes political debate. Arguments become less about the common good and more about symbolic correctness or technical management, leaving many citizens feeling unheard and politically homeless.
Secondly, Globalization, mobility, and the hollowing out of local life, A central theme is that economic and professional mobility reshapes civic responsibility. Lasch links corporate restructuring, a more global economy, and the rise of the knowledge sector to an elite mindset that treats borders and local obligations as inconveniences. The winners of this system can relocate for jobs, outsource risk, and buffer themselves from failing public goods through private alternatives. Meanwhile, less mobile communities face plant closures, declining wages, and weakened institutions, with fewer levers to influence decisions made far away. Lasch argues that this is not only an economic shift but also a moral and cultural one. When prestige attaches to cosmopolitan sophistication and constant reinvention, rootedness can be portrayed as backward. But democracy, in his view, needs citizens who practice self government where they live, in schools, associations, congregations, and municipal life. The book explores how mobility narrows empathy. If your identity is built on being able to leave, you are less likely to fight for improvements that require patience and shared sacrifice. Lasch also warns that a politics focused on national branding, global competitiveness, and managerial efficiency can obscure the damage done to community continuity and intergenerational stability. The democratic cost is a thinning of local solidarity and a rising sense of abandonment.
Thirdly, Meritocracy and the new class divide, Lasch scrutinizes meritocracy as both a promise and a mechanism of exclusion. In theory, rewarding talent and effort should widen opportunity. In practice, he argues, meritocratic institutions often create a self confident elite that attributes its success to personal virtue while treating those left behind as responsible for their fate. Credentials become a moral badge, not merely a measure of competence. This outlook can intensify class resentment because it turns inequality into a verdict on character. Lasch suggests that meritocracy also narrows the meaning of excellence. It encourages a competitive individualism that prizes resume building and professional advancement over service, craftsmanship, and the dignity of ordinary work. He is critical of how education becomes a sorting system that channels advantages to families who already know how to navigate it. The book links this to a cultural gap in language, tastes, and assumptions about authority. Elite discourse tends to become abstract, therapeutic, and bureaucratic, while everyday experiences are treated as parochial. For Lasch, a healthy democratic culture needs forms of honor and recognition that do not depend entirely on academic or professional status. Without that, civic equality erodes. People stop trusting institutions that appear designed to celebrate winners and manage losers, rather than to build a shared future with reciprocal obligations.
Fourthly, The weakening of democratic institutions and public trust, Lasch argues that democracy is not only a set of procedures but a way of life that requires habits of participation, restraint, and mutual accountability. He sees modern governance drifting toward administrative rule by experts, lawyers, and consultants who claim neutrality while embedding their own assumptions into policy. When decisions are justified as technical necessities, ordinary citizens are pushed into the role of spectators. Lasch connects this to the decline of intermediary institutions that once trained people in democratic practice, including unions, neighborhood organizations, local newspapers, and religious or civic associations. As these mediating structures weaken, individuals confront large systems alone, which increases feelings of powerlessness and suspicion. The book also highlights how public debate can become performative. Political language can emphasize symbolic gestures, moral posturing, and management of public opinion instead of real accountability. Lasch worries that elites can speak in the name of democracy while insulating themselves from democratic pressure through professionalized institutions and cultural gatekeeping. The resulting distrust is not simply ignorance or irrational anger, in his view; it is a rational response to diminished voice. Rebuilding trust would require strengthening local governance, increasing transparency, restoring the legitimacy of dissent, and creating institutions that invite participation rather than treating citizens as problems to be managed.
Lastly, Culture, family, and the moral foundations of citizenship, Beyond economics and politics, Lasch places heavy emphasis on culture and the moral education of citizens. He argues that democracy relies on character traits formed in family life and community practice, such as responsibility, self restraint, perseverance, and respect for limits. When cultural elites celebrate constant self creation and personal autonomy as the highest goods, they may undermine the disciplines that make democratic cooperation possible. Lasch is skeptical of a consumer culture that trains people to seek immediate gratification and to treat relationships as optional. He also critiques a therapeutic sensibility that replaces moral language with psychological explanation, shifting attention away from duty and shared standards. In his view, these trends do not liberate people so much as make them more dependent on experts, markets, and institutions that promise validation or relief. The book connects the erosion of informal authority, including parental and community authority, to a broader crisis of legitimacy. If no one is authorized to transmit standards, the public sphere becomes vulnerable to manipulation and cynicism. Lasch does not propose a simple return to the past. Instead, he calls attention to the need for cultural resources that support self government, including respect for work, intergenerational responsibility, and the idea that freedom is meaningful only when attached to obligations that bind citizens to one another.
