Twilight of the elites
by Christopher L. Hayes · first published 2012
20mentions
5recommended by
7HN commenters
2012–2020first – last mentioned
71% recommend29% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Examines how American institutions and elites lost public trust, framing the failures through meritocracy and inequality; suits readers interested in elite failure and the politics of winner-take-all economics.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Mixing deft political analysis, this timely social commentary describes how society produces leaders who are out of touch with the people they have been trusted to govern leading to a crisis of authority.
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…in how we allow massive intergenerational transfers of wealth. But also, as you point out, the schools a child can attend are very dependent on who their parents are. In Chris Hayes' excellent book, Twilight of the Elites [1], he rejects meritocracy. Not only does he reject it in practice, for reasons like those I presented, but he also rejects it even in theory. He suggests that the idea of showering people with resources…
on “Several Baltimore schools have no students proficient in state tests” ↗Insightful comment. You might be interested in checking out the book Twilight of the Elites by Chris Hayes. It talks a lot about societal inequality and the concept of "elite failure", which I think you've alluded to.
on “Cancer and Startups” ↗…what should be. It is the quintessential naturalistic fallacy. I wish I could upvote this so many more times. It honestly had never occurred to me that meritocracy could be a bad thing until I read Twilight of the Elites by Chris Hayes (yep, the same MSNBC host guy) [1], recommended to me by a friend. But after reading that book, which is one of the best written and edited books on econ/policy I've ever read, I'm fairly…
on “Thoughts on YC's Female Founders Conference” ↗You may really like a book named _Twilight of the Elites_ by Chris Hayes [1]. It touches on much of what you are disappointed with. The short summary on amazon is pretty good: Over the past decade, Americans watched in bafflement and rage as one institution…
on “Our Favorite Cliché: A World Filled with Idiots” ↗If the failures of meritocracy and elitism interest you, I highly recommend reading "Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy" by Chris Hayes, who currently works for MSNBC. Aaron Swartz wrote a wonderful review on CrookedTimber: http://crookedtimber.org/2012/06/18/guest-review-by-aaron-sw...
on “The fall of the meritocracy” ↗If you liked this, you may also like _Twilight of the Elites_ by Chris Hayes. It discusses the disillusionment many of us feel when we discover what our leaders and elites have gotten up to. http://www.amazon.com/Twilight-Elites-America-After-Meritocr...
on “The era of distrust and disloyalty” ↗…Greenwald has ever written. Everyone in (or interested in) media, politics, government, academia, etc. should read it carefully and with a wide open mind. Grappling with this piece, its linked pieces, and Twilight of the Elites should be something that is now done in earnest; this is a chance for elites in other troubled western countries to work on getting ahead of the problem, as they failed to do previously, before it really…
on “Brexit and the Failure of Western Establishment Institutions” ↗…from Pew: http://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/assets/2015/07/fsm-irs-repo... If you want more information, google "social mobility united states", "intergenerational mobility united states", and read "Twilight of the Elites" and "The Son also Rises."
on “The Marriages of Power Couples Reinforce Income Inequality” ↗…it needs to move back towards broadly shared prosperity, rather than the oligarchy we have now. That means higher taxes on the wealthy, better social programs, redistribution, and all the rest. Read "Twilight of the Elites." Few are arguing for zero inequality; even anti-inequality crusaders acknowledge there will always be some inequality. It depends on how much, and what that affords the society. The amount we have now…
on “Economic Inequality” ↗…equalizing political power. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elite_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_oligarchy I especially recommend reading "The original problem of social distance" in "Twilight of the Elites."
on “Economic Inequality” ↗…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_inequality#Effects http://rooseveltinstitute.org/stiglitz-why-inequality-matter... http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21640316-children-ric... Also read "Twilight of the Elites" to learn about how inequality leads to greater "vertical social distance" and how the government now largely reflects the interests of those at the top (http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/is-america-an-oli...)
on “Income inequality today may be higher today than in any other era” ↗> This all fits the claim of the French geographer Christophe Guilluy about his own country in his 2016 book The Twilight of the Elites: Prosperity, the Periphery, and the Future of France. +1 for Christophe Guilluy's book, it's really eye-opening, even more so considering that he wrote/published it even before the "gilets jaunes" movement…
on “Educated Fools” ↗…paragraph, as I have different values, but as far as your first one: this is the essence of 'hypercompetition', and it's bound up with our winner-take-all system / superstar effect. Anyone who hasn't read "Twilight of the Elites" and "Average is Over" should do so. Winner-take-all society: http://prospect.org/article/talent-and-winner-take-all-socie... The superstar effect: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/business/26excerpt.html?_r...…
on “Kindergarten Has Become the New First Grade” ↗I feel pretty similarly. I recommend this book so much that I feel like a shill, but if you haven't read Twilight of the Elites, you'd probably like it even more than I did :) One point it makes that resonates strongly with me is that our society is structured to heap extra resources on those who already have in abundance and…
on “Underestimating the mind-warping potential of fake video” ↗…democracy-enabling. Massive inequality in wealth breeds massive inequality in political power. No amount of mobility or opportunity can fix this one, only inequality reduction itself. 2) As Hayes discusses in "Twilight of the Elites", we've learned that basically everyone in the US has accepted the current notions of meritocracy, social mobility, and equality of opportunity. What is currently not well-accepted is that in order to…
on “Economic Inequality” ↗