Lind follows Burnham’s basic thesis that a new elite had arisen to replace first the older land-based aristocracy, and then the industry-based oligarchy. The new elite was distinctive for its monopolization of portable skills that allowed them to manage modern firms. Running these organizations required flexibility, mobility, skills in “symbolic analysis,” and a concomitant disconnection from place, culture, and tradition. Those who exhibited such aptitudes were vacuumed from every city, town, and hamlet across the world and into the urban cores. Those lacking such abilities, or unwilling to become sufficiently flexible and mobile, became the Left Behind. This new ruling class saw itself as a “meritocracy.” It believed that its power was earned and deserved, and that those who didn’t succeed deserved their station. Noblesse oblige was replaced by calls for state welfare as adequate compensation for those who lost the meritocratic sweepstakes.
The New Class War: Saving Democracy from the Managerial Elite by Michael Lind
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