IN DEFENSE of ELITISM: WHY I'M BETTER THAN YOU and YOU'RE BETTER THAN SOMEONE WHO DIDN'T BUY THIS BOOK (audiobook) by Joel Stein



Published in October of 2019 by Grand Central Publishing.
Read by the author, Joel Stein.
Duration: 7 hours, 18 minutes.
Unabridged.

Joel Stein's In Defense of Elitism: Why I'm Better Than You and You're Better Than Someone Who Didn't Buy This Book is an interesting book. The title suggests that it is a tongue-in-cheek look at politics, but it is much more than that. To be sure, there are plenty of jokes, wisecracks, puns and witty observations of varying quality throughout the book. But, there is also a lot of solid political analysis, especially in the last third of the book.

Stein's primary argument is that populism, embodied by both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders for the last 4 years, is a road to nowhere except authoritarianism. Stein, like most elites, is worried more about Trump than Sanders (makes sense - he is President, while Sanders is a Senator).

Trump is well-known for his anti-intellectual tenancies. He discounts expertise and people that might have been called eggheads a few years ago. He As evidence for this, just note the number of things that President Trump has claimed that he knows more about than anyone else: drones (January 2019), technology (December 2018), renewable energy (April 2016), the visa system (March 2016), ISIS (November 2015). In July 2016 he said he even knows more about Senator Cory Booker than Senator Cory Booker does ("I know more about Cory than he knows about himself." )*
The author and narrator, Joel Stein

No one can be an expert on everything. That is where Elites come in, according to Stein. Stein explains this part rather poorly (in the first 10% or so of the book), because he insists on talking about his Elite friends. He name drops a ton of people who seem to be experts on everything - which is exactly what Stein is decrying. I recognized none of them except for Rob Reiner, who is not an expert on anything except making movies. He's very good at that, but I wouldn't go to him for his thoughts on tax policy.

The book gets so much better from this point on. Stein decides to go to a town in the county that voted with the highest percentage for Trump - Miami, Texas. He doesn't know what to expect, which this Hoosier who grew up in rural Indiana finds hilarious. It is a completely different world than his, which he acknowledges is part of the problem. Stein is kind with his descriptions of the people of Miami (pronounced My-am-uh) and seems to enjoy himself while he is there.

Stein also interviews Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert cartoon. Adams has become an anti-expert advocate, which is sort of ironic for the creator of a cartoon that continually makes fun of a boss and a bureaucracy that discounts the engineers (the experts) who are creating the products their company markets and sells. He also interviews Tucker Carlson. I was surprised. Before I heard this book, I would have suspected that I would have enjoyed the Adams interview and been dismayed by the Carlson interview. Instead, it was completely reversed. Tucker Carlson makes a lot of good points (not all, but a lot) and Adams comes off as an opportunistic nut.

Stein's thesis, when he finally gets around to it, is that there are two kinds of elites out there. The first group is the intellectual elites (like Stein and Rob Reiner and, of course, the late William F. Buckley who was the ultimate member of the intellectual elite). They value policy discussions, connections to other elites of all stripes and ideas. He calls the other group "boat elites" because they value possessions over ideas. He goes on to describe them like this: 
"The boat elite are steeped in honor culture. Dignity is their most valuable nonboat possession. If their girlfriend gets insulted, they fight. If their friend gets in a fight, they fight. If their fighting ability is questioned, they fight. When they get cut off, they honk. Then they yell at the other driver to get out of their car and fight. The intellectual elite don't do this because we know that honking and yelling makes it hard to hear NPR stories."

It is actually a pretty sophisticated observation for a guy trying to sneak in funny comments all of the time. It explains why President Trump is trying to prove to everyone that he is an expert on everything. It makes you look bad to ask for help on anything (like most men and asking for directions).

I enjoyed this audiobook. I blew right through it in two days. Not a perfect book, but an interesting book and full of some big ideas presented in an unorthodox way.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: IN DEFENSE of ELITISM: WHY I'M BETTER THAN YOU and YOU'RE BETTER THAN SOMEONE WHO DIDN'T BUY THIS BOOK by Joel Stein.

*Source for all of these claims: Axios.com "Everything Trump Says He "knows more about than anybody"

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