The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium

by Martin Gurri

It’s integrity in life and work. A healthy society is one in which such exemplary types draw the public toward them purely by the force of their example.

The top-down political style, a relic of the last century, today appears false and fraudulent even when it is sincere.

we can replace a failed elite class with another that is worthier of our aspirations.

Modern government’s original sin is pride. It was erected on a boast—that it can solve any “problem,” even to fixing the human condition—and it endures on a sickly diet of utopian expectations. We now know better.

The qualities I would look for among elites to get politics off this treadmill are honesty and humility:

The reformers of democracy must learn to say, out loud for all to hear, “This is a process of trial and error,” and, “We are uncertain of the consequences,” and even, “I was wrong.”

Humility means that the top of the pyramid looks to the public as a home it will return to rather than a carnivorous species from which to hide.

The era of post-truth and the rant may induce a powerful demand for simple honesty and humility.

The crucial move if we are to surmount our predicament isn’t transformation but reorientation, a turn in direction away from top-down control, bureaucratic power, and the high valuation of distance as a reward for political success.

we have lost the right to rant about our rulers. Instead, we must go about the job of selecting their successors.

We can lavish our attention and our energies strictly on politicians who seem unwilling to lie or simplify or distort to advantage. We can identify and raise up those who refuse to climb above us.