Have you ever heard of of Branson, Mo? Yes, but is there something I should know about it?ġ8. Would you be caught dead on a cruise ship? I can’t afford to go on a cruise ship.ġ7. Would you be caught dead in an RV? I’ve been caught alive in one.ġ6. What about an exquisite B&B overlooking Boothbay Harbor? Where’s that?ġ5. Do you know a great backpacking spot in the Sierra Nevada? Nope.ġ4. Do you take interesting vacations? I’ll say.ġ3. How about a Harlequin romance? Yes! I have! Start to finish!ġ2.
Have you ever read a “Left Behind” novel? No, but frankly, I’ve never read most of the books I talk about. Can you talk about books endlessly? Sure, that’s why they pay me the big bucks.ġ0. Does the acronym MMA mean nothing to you? Are you serious? Where do you think I am when I’m not on Ricochet?ĩ. Do you know who Jimmie Johnson is? No idea.Ĩ. Mountain biking? I’ve never been near a mountain bike in my life.ħ. How about pilates? No way, that’s boring.Ħ. Can you hold forth animatedly about yoga? Yes.ĥ. Have you watched an Oprah show from beginning to end? Yes.ĥ. Do you know who replaced Bob Barker on “The Price Is Right?” No clue.Ĥ. Can you talk about the “The Sopranos?” In great detail.ģ. So, let’s translate this into a “How Plebe are You?” quiz. They are unlikely to have even visited a factory floor, let alone worked on one. They are unlikely to have spent at least a year with a family income less than twice the poverty line (graduate school doesn’t count) or to have a close friend who is an evangelical Christian. They probably haven’t ever attended a meeting of a Kiwanis Club or Rotary Club, or lived for at least a year in a small town (college doesn’t count) or in an urban neighborhood in which most of their neighbors did not have college degrees (gentrifying neighborhoods don’t count). There so many quintessentially American things that few members of the New Elite have experienced. They take interesting vacations and can tell you all about a great backpacking spot in the Sierra Nevada or an exquisite B&B overlooking Boothbay Harbor, but they wouldn’t be caught dead in an RV or on a cruise ship (unless it was a small one going to the Galapagos). They can talk about books endlessly, but they’ve never read a “Left Behind” novel (65 million copies sold) or a Harlequin romance (part of a genre with a core readership of 29 million Americans). Talk to them about sports, and you may get an animated discussion of yoga, pilates, skiing or mountain biking, but they are unlikely to know who Jimmie Johnson is (the really famous Jimmie Johnson, not the former Dallas Cowboys coach), and the acronym MMA means nothing to them. But they haven’t any idea who replaced Bob Barker on “The Price Is Right.” They know who Oprah is, but they’ve never watched one of her shows from beginning to end. Get into a conversation about television with members of the New Elite, and they can probably talk about a few trendy shows - “Mad Men” now, “The Sopranos” a few years ago. With geographical clustering goes cultural clustering. I was surprised to discover that apparently I’m half-plebe, despite having been sure that if anyone qualified as “elite,” it was me: He describes the new elite in some detail. Charles Murray’s piece in the Washington Post today argues that yes, of course there’s a new elite, and yes, of course they’re totally out-of-touch.