Peggy Noonan on Lack of Wheels on the Elite's Trolleys

In a column on the Opinion Journal of the WSJ, Peggy Noonan writes about the "separate peace" that seems to be extant among the elites. It is well worth the read. The lack of connectedness could be because of the rise of the principal agent problem or could be because we did not stress the social responsibility of elites or could be because of the moral hazards of Blackberrys/Cell Phones, or simply because the acceleration of alternatives has limited our ability to comprehend (because we can doesn't mean we should - or is it the other way around?). Her most telling point is

"Our elites, our educated and successful professionals, are the ones who are supposed to dig us out and lead us. I refer specifically to the elites of journalism and politics, the elites of the Hill and at Foggy Bottom and the agencies, the elites of our state capitals, the rich and accomplished and successful of Washington, and elsewhere. I have a nagging sense, and think I have accurately observed, that many of these people have made a separate peace. That they're living their lives and taking their pleasures and pursuing their agendas; that they're going forward each day with the knowledge, which they hold more securely and with greater reason than nonelites, that the wheels are off the trolley and the trolley's off the tracks, and with a conviction, a certainty, that there is nothing they can do about it."

Stefan Linder, in a very slim volume of a couple of decades ago, called the Poverty of the Leisure Class, wrote that society will evolve after we got the food problem solved, into a quest for detachment. When I read it I thought he was right. But the question may be a bit more elegant - the right level of leisure (detachment from the grind) or the right level of engagement may be the challenge of our age.

Noonan's entire piece is well worth reading and pondering, in between the cellphone and Blackberry maintenance.