The Rise of Progressivism Among the Educated Elite

To the Editor:

Re “The Sins of the Educated Class,” by David Brooks (column, June 7):

Mr. Brooks’s insightful column omits one problem. Many “elite” parents and students have never really interacted with “real” average Americans. I went to the same university as Mr. Brooks, and I believe that my education about people was greatly enhanced by what I did not learn in class.

Especially important were the facts that I grew up on the South Side of Chicago, spent my summers working in an automobile body shop (where I learned many things, including that you take a shower after, not before, work) and spent time in the Army. All these experiences brought me into regular daily contact with people dealing with survival issues — living paycheck to paycheck, not being able to ever afford decent housing, worried about inflation, etc.

Don’t only blame the students for their attitudes and behaviors; they are built into our societal structure. Current scholars at elite schools are deprived of the great daily lessons and educational opportunities that I had. Possible solutions include required gap years, duty in the military, a required year of national service (good luck getting that through Congress) or interrupting their college careers with a real job for a year.

Those who take advantage of such experiences would benefit greatly, and so would the country.

Jim Webster
Shelter Island, N.Y.

To the Editor:

In his anguished attempt to place the country’s woes at the doorstep of progressives, David Brooks ignores the single greatest creation of inequality in the U.S. today — the tax code. Progressives did not pass the Reagan tax cuts of 1981, nor the Bush tax cuts of 2001, nor the Trump tax cuts of 2017, which have shifted enormous wealth from the middle class to the very wealthy — a shift that shows no signs of abating anytime soon.

The economic divide in this country has not been unwittingly created. The divide is the result of concerted effort by a greedy class, not the educated class. The educated class, though, has been better at navigating the resulting system than the working class, an effect that the wealthy class has used to divide and conquer to insure that the educated and working classes do not finally work together to create a more just society.

John Q. Gale
Hartford, Conn.
The writer is a member of the Hartford City Council.

To the Editor:

I hardly know how to begin to express my deep discomfort with David Brooks’s column. On its surface, it appears to be a reasoned critique of elite wokeness. But underneath it, throughout, there’s a contempt for those at prestigious universities who hold liberal or progressive values — which, to me, translates into a deep empathy for the poor, the underprivileged and the wretched of the earth.

Here’s an example, when he writes: “Imagine you’re a social justice-oriented student or a radical sociologist, but you attend or work at a university with a $50 billion endowment, immense social power and the ability to reject about 95 percent of the people who apply. For years or decades, you worked your tail off to get into the most exclusive aeries in American life, but now you’ve got to prove, to yourself and others, that you’re on the side of the oppressed.”

That’s just so denigrating and unfairly disrespectful of anyone who made it to a first-rate university, and whose excellent education has then led them to identify with and/or really feel the pain of the poor, the marginalized and those crushed by the powerful.

If readers have any doubts that Mr. Brooks is really using his apparent critique of the privileged woke to discredit the recent campus protests, consider this snarky insult: “Student activists stage messy protests on campus but don’t even see the custodial staff who will clean up afterward.” If Mr. Brooks might be compared to an intellectual boxer, I think that counts as a really cheap shot and low blow.

Richard Evers
Brattleboro, Vt.

To the Editor

It would take a letter much longer than David Brooks’s article to describe all my agreements and disagreements with his column. I would only like to make a plea that we drop the word “elite” in reference to colleges and universities, a badge that serves no purpose other than to exalt those who wear the badge and denigrate all of the other fine schools around the country and the students who go to them.

Also, please drop the term “working class,” another meaningless badge that serves only to divide and denigrate. Hopefully, we are all “working class.”

John T. Dillon
West Caldwell, N.J.

To the Editor:

David Brooks is both right and wrong. He’s right that virtue-signaling actions by universities have scant corrective effect by themselves. He’s right about what ought to happen. He fails to recognize that it sometimes does.

At Syracuse University we fly the Haudenosaunee flag beside our own and regularly acknowledge that we are on their land. We also work with Indigenous people to provide dedicated scholarships for them, expand culturally informed support services, and introduce new courses and programs — such as the minor in Native American and Indigenous studies — to educate students about Indigenous history as essential to an understanding of American history.

This requires substantial financial investment and unwavering commitment. It is what we do.

Samuel Gorovitz
Syracuse, N.Y.

To the Editor:

David Brooks may be right that “performative self-validation” as progressive warriors is the reason that students at elite universities have been at the vanguard of social and political activism of late. But that is a surprising and uncharacteristically cynical view for Mr. Brooks.

The other interpretation is that these students feel an extra burden of responsibility to speak out on behalf of the oppressed, precisely because of their elite status in society. But that would require attributing to them a moral compass, a virtue that Mr. Brooks seems reluctant to grant them.

David J. Anderson
Altadena, Calif.
The writer is a professor at Caltech.