Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog

By Christopher Harper

If you want to know what’s wrong with America’s elites, read on.

The New York Times asked 17 elite writers to opine on “one piece of culture [that] captures the spirit of our country.”

The answers are startlingly cynical. Maureen Dowd thinks Americans are ‘highly susceptible.” Her suggestion for the piece of culture that captures today’s America is the 1956 motion picture, “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” in which aliens take over the bodies of ordinary people to march in lockstep with the country’s leaders. I always thought the film showed how a few people could fight the majority.

Like F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby,” Ross Douthat argues that Americans are “on the make.” I never really was a Fitzgerald fan during my college days when I majored in English literature. I was more of a John Milton man.

Farhad Manjoo writes that we are “gleefully nihilist” and cites the cartoon “South Park” as representative of today’s America. Fortunately, I’ve never watched the show.  

Nicholas Kristoff complains about “the lie of individual responsibility,” where people can pull themselves up by their bootstraps. As Kristoff puts it: “Why is the United States one of very few wealthy countries to lack mandatory paid family leave, universal health care, child allowances and national pre-K and child care? Why do we tolerate a failed foster care system?” Methinks Nick favors socialism!

Jamelle Bouie describes a country “living with existential fear.” He argues that “the United States is in the midst of a second Gilded Age. For millions of Americans and for many young people in particular, the 2020s have been — thus far — a time of anxiety and dread, marked by social disruption, failing institutions, and a deepening sense of urgency over the ability of humans to survive on this planet without destroying its environment.” Does he really think we are in that bad a shape? I’d put him on suicide watch if he does.

My favorite is Zeynep Tufekci, who was born in Turkey and came to this country for her education. She calls the United States “painfully exception,” meaning, in her words, exceptional in its lack of “universal health care, lots of guns, a violent drug trade, voluminous drug overdose deaths, and middle-class jobs that allow skating by, as long as people don’t get sick.” To her, “Breaking Bad” symbolizes a cultural event that captures America. I would suggest that Ms. Tufekci spend time evaluating her home country.

I have had the opportunity to visit and live in more than 70 countries worldwide, seeing the historical landmarks of the Silk Road of China to the pyramids of Egypt and from the poverty of India to the wealth of Denmark. I’ve reported on celebrations and wars in the Middle East. I’ve even lived near the place where, in 1835, French author Alexis de Tocqueville described “the exceptionalism of the United States.”

I still believe that our country is exceptional–as do many people in the countries I’ve lived in and visited. What’s most likely to change that exceptionalism is the cynicism of our elites.