The Boomers’ relativist and romantic agendas posed challenges to the culture of the expertise and elites generally, core functions of which are providing guidance, leadership, and the occasional restraint on mass will. The authority of such groups derives from their competence and knowledge and the social trust those abilities should create, especially regarding complicated matters beyond the scope of the average person or too time-consuming for lay study. In a complex world, deference to experts should be rising instead of, as has happened, falling. But in a system where feelings were
...more
