The quotations below are from Thomas Sowell's book The Vision of the Anointed. The numbers in parentheses are page numbers.
Sowell postulates in the book's preface that within individuals and groups labeled, for example, "...liberal, conservative or radical..." there is "...a coherence to their beliefs, based on a particular set of underlying assumptions about the world - a certain vision of reality." (emphasis mine). He identifies "...a relatively small group of articulate people..." whom he characterizes as "...elite intelligentsia.." and calls the "...self-anointed elite...". Throughout the rest of the book this group is referred to as "the Anointed". Those who do not hold to the vision of the Anointed are "the benighted". (3) This differentiation, carried to its extreme, has led in the past to labeling the benighted as "untermenchen", and (again carried to its extreme) the approach of the Anointed would remove the phrases "of the people" and "by the people" from the Gettysburg Address. Not, in my view, a pretty picture.
"The hallmark of the vision of the Anointed is that what the Anointed consider lacking for the kind of social progress they envision is will and power, not knowledge." (114) Because they are "...'wiser and nobler' than others they assume"...(1) they have more knowledge than the average member of the benighted and (2) that this is the relevant comparison." " The real comparison, however, is not between the knowledge possessed by the average member of the educated elite versus the average member of the general public, but rather the total direct knowledge brought to bear through social processes...involving millions of people, versus the secondhand knowledge of generalities possessed by a smaller elite group." (114)
The underlying assumptions of their vision of the Anointed are challenged only by those of the benighted with some considerable courage. "Indeed, empirical evidence itself may be viewed as suspect, insofar as it is inconsistent with that vision." (2) "Discordant evidence may be dismissed as isolated anomalies, or as something tendentiously selected by opponents or it may be explained away ad hoc by a theory having no support whatever - except that this theory....is consistent with the overall vision" (2) Because of the recent emergence of "conservative talk radio" and the broadening of the communication of visions other than those of the Anointed, the Anointed's vision's assumptions are being more frequently and widely challenged. This has led to significant and strident accusations of nefarious collusion (e.g., "a vast right-wing conspiracy") by certain members of the Anointed.
The Anointed differentiate themselves by holding to their vision because it offers "...a special state of grace..." (2) "Those who accept this vision are deemed to be not merely factually correct but morally on a higher plane. (3) "The benighted are to be made 'aware,' to have their 'consciousness raised', and the wistful hope is held out that they will 'grow'." (3) "Should the benighted prove recalcitrant, however, then their 'mean-spiritedness' must be fought and the 'real reasons' behind their arguments and actions exposed." (3)
The Anointed see the Government as a social apparatus of compulsion and coercion and that it exists as an institution to cope with human imperfection from which they do not suffer. They believe that they are obligated to use Government to impose their morality upon those whose world view differs from theirs so that, insofar as it is possible, the whole of humanity can be brought to their level of superiority. They pursue this obligation with a zeal and dedication unsurpassed by the most fanatical of religious evangelists.
My point is simply that "the Anointed" differentiate themselves as being SUPERIOR to those who do not share their vision and, therefore, they do not have any compunction about making up the rules as they go along. "...systemic processes which depend upon the ....revealed preferences of million of human beings...are treated as mere nuisances to be swept aside by public policy when these processes impede the carrying out of the vision of the Anointed. Even formalized and solemnized commitments, such as the Constitution of the United States, are treated as mere obstacles to be circumvented by flexible interpretation."(116) In fact, the foundations of The United States which assume that the Constitution is the law of the land and that the rule of law shall prevail is totally dismissed by the Anointed who demean that notion as irrelevant to and merely a nuisance "speed bump" in the path of their imposing their vision on our society. They find patriotism and love of country characteristics to be suppressed and, if possible, removed so as to make the road to their vision possible. Similarly, they find organized religion in direct conflict with their Vision and use every possible means to denigrate and diminish its existence. The roots of this aversion to fixed, (absolute) beliefs lies in the fact that the Anointed are modern manifestations of those who follow Plato's philosophy of relativism. A classical and famous example of relativism uttered by then president William J. Clinton during hearings related to his alleged perjury was his quote "That depends on what your definition of "is" is"
The single, most fundamental problem the Anointed have with the foundations of our country is that they cannot accept the premise that there are some rights that are not theirs to give or to take away because those rights are given by a higher authority than themselves. In fact, they struggle with the premise that there may exist such a higher authority. Further, they cannot accept the concept that 'rights' they promulgate may not have this same cachet. They also rail against the "tyranny of the majority". I've struggled for some time trying to understand why the Anointed exist. What drives people to behave this way. My theory is on another page in this site.