Rick McGinnis writes:
Douthat paints a vision of a liberal elite pulling up the ladders after retreating into their own moated and high-walled keep, leaving the peasants outside to the depredations of invading barbarians and – even worse – themselves. He doesn’t dare suggest that it’s a conspiracy – he doesn’t doubt the elite liberal conviction that their worldview would make the one we all share a better one – but finds it hard to ignore the peculiar effects of holding their own children and others to different standards. (…)
For most people reading this, I’m preaching to the converted. It’s been a long time since the mainstream products of both the entertainment and media industries catered to our convictions and standards, and parental restrictions on TV use and library reading were a dry run for those on internet and gadget time years before our kids had heard of Pinterest or Snapchat.
But most of us don’t have the luxury of withdrawing into gated communities or private schools or the echo chamber of ideologically homogenous work environments. We live with the growing majority of people who’ve embraced the message they’ve been sold for over a generation, and our children spend their daylight hours with them in schools that have come to echo that message. Seeing how people living with the highest incomes and the easiest access to power and prestige have covertly endorsed our own choices isn’t a sign of either truce or progress, and it definitely isn’t an excuse to feel smug.
