A History of the Global Elites

It is common nowadays to hear talk of ‘the elites’, especially ‘the global elites’. On the one hand, these phrases seem to refer to Bill Gates, George Soros, Larry Fink, Klaus Schwab and other Bond villains, plus the figures who play Oddjob to Goldfinger – accredited sidekicks and secretaries like Joe Biden, Ursula von der Leyen, Anthony Fauci, Tedros Ghebreyesus and Gary Lineker. One the other hand, they refer to the entire higher educated class of professionals, teachers and administrators, the class of ‘nowheres’ as distinguished from ‘somewheres’ (David Goodhart) or ‘uppers’ as distinguished from ‘downers’ (Ferdinand Mount), or ‘democrats’ as distinguished from ‘deplorables’ (Hillary Clinton). This is confusing, but it makes sense. There are extremely powerful figures operating at a high level of influence. And then there are the enforcers. And then there are the jobsworths.