The Backlash Against "Elites" Is the Dumbest Movement in History
Here's why you shouldn't join.
The word “Elites” gets thrown around like a rag doll.
It’s popular to trash the elites in every field. Now, when I say “elite,” I’m not talking about billionaires. That’s a topic for another day. And I’m not talking about government or politicians (a topic I don’t cover).
Nope.
I’m talking about people who are the best in the world at what they do. The best at sport. The best at singing. The best at inspiring. The best at online business.
The holiday man who got me fired up
Stoicism expert and author Ryan Holiday got me fired up about this topic.
In a recent article titled “35 Lessons on the Way to 35 Years Old” Ryan went on a tangent about the recent hatred of elites.
He said “This backlash against ‘elites’ is so preposterously dumb.”
I got out of my chair and clapped loudly. My tea spilled on the floor.
Finally someone said what many of us have been thinking. As a proud college dropout Ryan says everything he admires is elite in some way.
He admires the way basketballer Stephen Curry shoots. He admires the way Robert Caro writes. He admires the skills navy seals must learn to become elite soldiers.
The celebration of average people makes the world a worse place
The next part Ryan mentions is the part I love.
He says that an online movement of below-average people want us to celebrate them.
They want us to:
Hate exercise
Stop working hard
Hate morning routines
Not have any side hustles
Let ourselves and our diets and our health go
Aim for ‘good enough’ and participation medals
This makes my blood boil.
The point of admiring the elites isn’t for us to all become them. It’s to learn from the best so that overall the world as a whole can become better.
Ryan says when we celebrate average we make things worse.
Why below average people cancel elites
So what’s the motivation behind this “let’s all be mediocre” movement? Let’s dissect.
Randoms on the internet are trying to cancel the best in the world at what they do – like Tony Robbins, Oprah, Tim Ferriss, female influencers – because there’s an incentive to.
The internet works on clicks.
If you say Oprah is a nasty monster and you heard from a friend of a friend that she once was rude to someone, people will click.
Clicks equal attention.
These below-average movements get started and kept alive by people desperate for attention, probably because their mommies or daddies didn’t love them.
To say influential people are knobheads is cool. You get ‘likes.’ A few people show you some love that you didn’t get as a kid. The problem is it confuses people.
For example, on some social media platforms, if I say the name Tony Robbins or Tim Ferriss I get slammed. Not because they did something wrong or are guilty of anything substantial. Nope.
Just because it’s cool to do it and so the masses follow what’s cool.
The danger is the valuable insights you can learn from elites get lost. The average IQ falls off a cliff. We stop striving to become better than we were yesterday and simply settle for average.
And average leads to a normal life.
Normal is not something to aspire to, it’s something to get away from – Jodie Foster
The elites have some wild ideas which scare us
The below-average movement win the minds of some because it’s logical to do so.
The elites believe that we can push the boundaries of what’s possible, that we can dare to dream. They’re visionaries. It’s easy to attack a visionary’s ideas because most of what they say has never been done before.
They’re seeking to create change, and change is scary AF.
According to Seth Godin, when we’re in denial our default behavior is to become a filthy dirty skeptic. The sense of power we get is greater than admitting we’re just avoiding change because it’s hard.
The elites bring out something inside of us that we don’t like. We attack them because they’re a mirror for our fears. Makes sense.
But avoiding fear and blaming elites isn’t the answer.
Here’s how to overcome the elitism movement and level-up
It’s time to ignore the crazies and stop falling for the lie that elites are evil and seek to take the shirt off your back. Here’s how…
1. Learn from people you dislike
Some elite people you’re not going to like.
Maybe their egos are too full on. Maybe they think they’re great. Maybe they have different racial views than you. Maybe they don’t know the effects privilege had on their lives.
That’s okay.
Your goal should never be to agree with someone 100%. Your goal should be to learn from everyone good or bad.
Even Hitler.
2. See elitism as jealousy
That’s what it really is.
When some flogger throws my name up in a headline and makes up a bunch of stuff about my writing career, I can often see the jealousy pouring out of their eyeballs. My self-talk in these moments is…
“They want what you have.”
You don’t get what the best in the world in their respective fields has by hurling rocks at their faces. No.
You do the work. You learn what they know. You take their example and get inspired.
Next time someone attacks Tim Ferriss, say to yourself “Ahhh they’re jealous. Good for them.”
3. Stop being so outraged. Live your life.
The outrage epidemic is out of control.
Every little thing someone does can be analyzed under a microscope of online speculation.
Most of the analysis is so far removed it’s utterly useless. A fortuneteller could predict what happened better than these below-average critics could.
Instead of worrying about what the elites did, live your life. Focus on you. Because that’s all that matters before you get buried in a wooden box in the ground.
No one’s going to stand up at your future and say “Young Jimmy boy was a good man who always was right about what Oprah had for breakfast.”
Give it up, if that’s you.
4. Quit being an unpaid critic
Critiquing every little thing is exhausting if you do it.
Most of all, you waste precious hours of your life that could be spent with your family or earning a little extra money online that can buy your time back.
Ohhh and this dumb movement has huge risk too.
Slamming elites can easily get you a nice little defamation lawsuit that’ll drain your bank account faster than betting all ya money on red at the casino.
5. Understand success is different for everyone
The point isn’t to exactly copy an elite person. No. It’s to copy and paste what works from elites across many fields. It’s to experiment for yourself and see what works.
6. Turn the mirror towards the elite critics
These dumbass elite naysayers have titles such as “professional critic” like they’re so smart and never set a foot wrong.
For all the mud that’s thrown at elites, we should also take a look at who’s throwing the dirt. I have.
Nine times out of ten these critics live miserable lives and don’t live by the standards they expect the elites to live up to. It’s easy to be a critic. It’s much harder to turn your life inside out and show how you’re any better.
Most of them can’t. That’s why you’re best ignoring their opinions.
Bottom line
I agree with Ryan Holiday.
Celebrating average makes us more average.
Average isn’t going to solve the world's biggest problems, such as financial inequality and climate change.
Don’t learn from crazies. Learn from the best in the world.
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Thanks Tim. As one who is continually striving to be 1% better, I value the insights of those who are “making it”.
However, there are many people who are living happy average lives too. Maybe they want more or maybe they have decided they have enough. Either way, the continuous struggle to always aim higher is exhausting and can leave one depleted and feeling even more like a failure than before.
I am all for self improvement but I don't believe that is should come a cost of believing that you are irrevocably broken in the first place. As long as you are living the life you love and doing the renovations and upgrades to the areas that you are moved to improve, I see that as balanced living.
Just settling is never a good idea but aiming for someone else’s idea of success is not the best move either. The elites can teach a lot to those who want to go there but you definitely have to want to go there. Loving the life you have now even if it does not look like the world’s idea of success doesn’t make you an unmotivated, uninspired, boring average Joe. There is a lot that can be said for contentment and being at peace with your life choices.
If someone is bitter, complaining and critical of everything/everyone around them then they need to get up off their ass and actually do something about it. Either learn, grow, fix or go. Tearing down others who have done the work will never be the solution to their jealousy. Good lessons to remember. Thanks again, Tim.
There is an aphorism that says, "There is a little good in all evil." In other words, look for the good in a situation and you'll find it. Conversely, look for the evil and you'll find that. Whatever you look for, whatever you focus on, that's what you'll have, what you'll find.
It's one thing to despise a person, but never despise them because they've done well in the world.