ANNE APPLEBAUM on the 'ordinary' elite:

The backlash against graduates of "elite" universities seems particularly odd given that the most elite American universities have in the past two decades made the greatest effort to broaden their student bodies. Because they can offer full scholarships, the wealthier Ivy League schools in particular are far more diverse, racially and economically, than they were a few decades ago.

Unfortunately, they are not more diverse intellectually - and that's the problem.

I suspect the "anti-elite-educationism" that Bell predicted is growing now not despite the rise of meritocracy but because of it.

No, it's a result of the lockstep smugness of these "new elites."