- On Our Ivy League Aristocracy

A guest post from: Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid

Before coming to the United States, I have lived several years in Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Spain and the U.K. have some of the oldest Universities in the world. Switzerland takes pride in their education system, which has formed renowned scientists, among them Albert Einstein.

Shortly after arriving, I realized that Americans confer enormous importance to an individual's college pedigree, to an extent I had never witnessed before. For example, a Harvard or Yale graduate will receive a treatment or courtesy by prospective employers that a Northwestern or University of Michigan graduate will never be dispensed. Coming from a family of European nobility, I quickly recognized that pattern.

Aristocracy is a system of domination by which a reduced number of self-selected individuals are presumed certain virtues by birth. For example, a nobleman is supposed to be honorable, truthful, courageous, just, refined, etc. More often than not, these presumptions are unfounded, but to the elite they serve an important purpose: To monopolize the access to power, for no one will give authority to a person who cannot be trusted.

The U.S. Constitution prohibits both the United States government (Article I, Section 9, Clause 8) and the separate States (Article 1, Section 10) from granting titles of nobility. But as we said, nobility is a system of domination, and this can and will adopt any means necessary to its ends. In the case of Europe, it has been through hereditary titles, privileges, prerogatives and, most importantly, prejudice against non-nobles. The Founding Fathers quickly realized how absurd and counter-productive that was for the common good, and consequently ban it in the strongest legal way. But it takes more than the Constitution to change human nature. Nobility is well and alive here in the United states, perhaps more than in Europe.

The deference I'm describing has nothing to do with an individual's ability. It is derived from the fact that a Harvard or Yale graduate belongs, sometimes by birth, to an elite. No matter what he or she later does after her 22nd birthday, that mark is indelible. She will be a candidate to American jobs comparable to those formerly reserved in the U.K. to the son of a Lord, or in Spain the son of an hidalgo. From that perspective, the U.S. society has become in recent years much more Aristocratic and compartmentalized than European societies. The history of those countries show us that this endogamy in social circles usually leads to arrogance, ineptitude, decadence and disaster.

The American people should not elect leaders who despise them.


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Me: The author specifically drafted this piece for this forum. He's a good friend of mine who although he is not an American, knows more about the history of America's founding and the philosophy behind American ideals than many people born in this country. As is apparent, he did not go to Harvard or any other Ivy League University. He shall henceforth be known on this forum as Galvez.

The original Galvez was the Spanish Governor of Louisiana and fought against the British in the American Revolution. The author, like his namesake, is also a first rate pistol shot.