Source: TW
Younger righters want to enjoy the lifestyles of the decadent WASP class in 1950 without putting in the hard work that made that caste in the 1880s and 1890s. The problem with the “there will always be an elite so why not us?” logic is that it refers to natural laws of history what were actually the results of hours of labor.
The WASP Establishment was born of two groups intermingling:
- industrialists who reshaped the face of human civilization, extending things like electricity, steel, wireless communication, and engines to the ends of the nation.
- Northern well to dos who began their rise either fighting in the Civil War or organizing institutions that supported it, like the Sanitary Commission or the Union Leagues.
In an age before the administrative state they controlled the levers of power in a mass democracy. Any WASP elected between 1880 and 1930 did so through building networks deep into the world of farmers, mechanics, middle class businessmen, and the like. They almost all joined mass membership organizations like The Elks, Rotary, Lions, and so forth, which again gave them a suite of relationships with people from the lower orders. Between the Civil War, WWI, and WWII most WASP men had personal experience leading the same in battle.
The WASP intellectuals of the era were also not secluded—this was an era of lyceums, oratory, and national lecture tours; professors, politicians, and journalists would go from city to city and town to town grandstanding their ideas to the American masses. This was also true of the WASP ecclesiastical leadership, which was central to the entire establishment project, and who was continually involved in things like the Methodist General Conference, which again gave them national reach and forged cross class connections.
So that is the first thing: for most of their history, and certainly not during their rise, the WASPs were not an isolated aristocracy living above American life, only to look down on in with patriarchal benevolence when some crisis demanded. That just was not where political power came from in the 1880s! Rather, the early WASP politicos and intellectuals were deeply involved in democratic life. They seen as legitimate stewards of the nation because they had built personal and institutional connections that spanned the nation.
The Nouveau rich industrialists were a tad different here; as new rich they were more performative, and this exclusionary—but they too were grand institution builders. Most obviously, they built the corporate vehicles that ushered in the greatest material change of human civilization. But they also took their earnings and did things with it—neither Groton nor Harvard would have had their mid 20th century cachet without these 1880s investments.
There is that old John Adams line about studying politics and war so his grand kids could study pottery. The same concept applies here. If you want to build a new ruling class that embraces responsibility instead of shirks it…. Then you need to be building schools and businesses, you need to be traveling the country and meeting all of those “deplorables” in person today. And if you do that, then maybe, just maybe, your grandchildren might be able to enjoy the decadent fruits of your labors. But realize where you are on the timeline. Your responsible caste does not exist yet—this is the 1870s, not the ‘40s or ‘50s.