{"id":528148,"date":"2025-06-14T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/?p=528148"},"modified":"2025-12-15T16:11:33","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T15:11:33","slug":"elites-responsibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/en\/company\/elites-responsibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Demanding the best from the elite"},"content":{"rendered":"

To criticize the elites is not to reject them, but rather to believe in their mission. Provided we don't fall into systematic opposition.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Criticism of the elites has become suspect in public debate. It's as if any questioning of those in positions of intellectual, political or cultural authority must be the expression of \u00abanti-system\u00bb resentment, of a dangerous rejection of the democratic order. A kind of taboo has taken hold: we can mock the crowds, mock the masses or denounce popular excesses, but we must kneel before any holder of symbolic power, on the pretext that they embody \u2019expertise\u00ab or \u00bblegitimacy\u00ab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This reflex is not only lazy, but intellectually dishonest. It betrays a degraded conception of democracy and responsibility. To criticize the elites - in the noble and demanding sense of the term - is not to deny their usefulness. To do so within the bounds of good faith and rational debate is, on the contrary, proof that we still believe in their mission. Precisely because we need genuine elites, we must be entitled to hold them to account. Demand that they live up to their responsibilities. And denounce their failure when they go wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n