Proletarianization of the Elites and the Sarah Palin Phenomenon

Jonah Goldberg, Editor at Large at the conservative National Review Online (NRO), has an interesting piece on Reality TV and the decay of American culture. I actually find myself largely agreeing with Goldberg on the point, but then, again, I am what Goldberg and many other conservatives would probably call an effete liberal intellectual -- no matter that I come from a very working-class, blue collar family. What I find interesting about Goldberg's piece is that it serves as a very critical commentary precisely on the Sarah Palin phenomenon, even though I don't think Goldberg himself is aware of this critique. Take this critical passage from Goldberg's piece:

British historian Arnold Toynbee argued that civilizations thrive when the lower classes aspire to be like the upper classes, and they decay when the upper classes try to be like the lower classes. Looked at through this prism, it’s hard not to see America in a prolonged period of decay.

It’s not all bad news, to be sure. The elite minority’s general acceptance of racial and sexual equality as important values has been a moral triumph. But not without costs. As part of this transformation, society has embraced what social scientist Charles Murray calls “ecumenical niceness.” A core tenet of ecumenical niceness is that harsh judgments of the underclass — or people with underclass values — are forbidden. A corollary: People with old-fashioned notions of decency are fair game.

Long before the rise of reality shows, ecumenical niceness created a moral vacuum. Out-of-wedlock birth was once a great shame; now it’s something of a happy lifestyle choice. The cavalier use of profanity was once crude; now it’s increasingly conversational. Self-discipline was once a virtue; now self-expression is king.

Reality-show culture has thrived in that moral vacuum, accelerating the decay and helping to create a society in which celebrity is the new nobility.

I'm pretty sure that many Palinite conservatives would see Palin herself and the Palin phenomenon as one that represents the corollary fallout to what he calls "ecumenical niceness": Palin and Palinite conservatism represents "old fashion notions of decency" that are now fair game for a vicious assault. But anyone who looks more expansively at what underlies Sarah Palin's popularity and the Palinite movement would notice that it is really one that seeks to make "harsh judments of the underclass - or people with underclass values" verboten. In other words, any criticism of the cultivated anti-intellectualism, the utter lack of curiosity about the world, and the overall ignorance of "real Americans" is nothing more than elite snobbery. The Palinite movement is one where wearing one's ignorance on one's sleeve is a badge of honor.

How can one not look at the GOP's embrace of Joe-the-Plumber this past Presidential campaign season as a direct representation of the conservative upper-class trying to be like the lower-class? Of course, the conservative upper-class elites fool themselves into thinking that what they really are embracing is the fundamental goodness of "real America." But what I see are the conservative elites (i.e. witness just about any Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity show) cynically and intentionally stoking the lower-classes and romanticizing their lower-class values such that the conservative lower-classes actually look with disdain on things like a university level-education, a white collar job, articulate public speaking, etc. And yet it appears that Goldberg himself agrees with Toynbee that such a phenomenon indicates a society in decay.

And there is no better manifestation of this than Sarah Palin. Listen to how her supporters describe her appeal. They say she's a "real" person. She connects with the "common" person (which is shorthand for the non-elites). They tend to either dismiss as irrelevant, or actually glory in the fact, that Sarah Palin doesn't read newspapers or travels abroad or barely got a college degree. And though the whole "out-of-wedlock" birth with Bristol Palin is presented by Sarah Palin as an unfortunate occurrence that will make life harder for Bristol and her son, there is no "shame" reflected here. Maybe disappointment. But not shame.

Jonah Goldberg puts forward the idea that a society where celebrity is the new nobility is a sign of that society's moral decay. I ask: How does the Palin phenomenon not serve as a perfect example of this? And it's the Palinite conservative movement that is actively promoting this as a value. Worse, though, is the fact that it is the conservative upper-class elites, which Goldberg clearly represents, who are nurturing and even glorifying the Palin phenomenon. In essence, if we make the connection Goldberg would have us make, it is the conservative upper-class elites themselves who are both celebrating and hastening along, through their embrace of the Palin phenomenon and their encouragement of the Palinite movement, that which contributes to the moral decay of our society: the proletarianization of the elites. And it's not just the reality shows that are encouraging this, but also, I'd say, the Fox News talking heads shows led by the likes of Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity as well as the histrionics of the National Review Online that Jonah Goldberg himself oversees.