Human societies have been organized since their oldest beginnings to a greater or lesser extent around the idea of powerful sectors and unprotected sectors.
This dichotomy between those who have more power and luxuries and those who have nothing more than their own workforce has always existed, although in recent times it has been colored by the appearance of the middle classes or sectors that can access certain benefits without getting, in any case, to enjoy a superior quality of life.
The elite in a society: the most powerful and influential social group
In the historical and traditional division of social groups, the elite has always been the most powerful and influential set of people, who set trends, who make decisions, who govern and manage resources, etc. The elite also tend to concentrate the means of culture understood as intellectual, ranging from academic knowledge, science and the arts and that differ from popular knowledge for the simple fact of being considered official.
The knowledge of the elites tends to pass more through institutions such as museums, academies, universities, galleries, while popular knowledge is more easily found in the street. The elites are, finally, those who own the means of production, the wealth and choose what to do with the resources that are understood as belonging to the whole of society.
Elitism is the most direct consequence of the existence of elites
To understand the term "elitism" we must understand that it has to do with and is directly linked to everything generated by the elite. Thus, we can speak of attitudes, knowledge, wealth, elitist powers that by definition belong to a very select and reduced group of the population and leave out the vast majority of society that is understood as a people.
Elitism is, in other words, a way of marking differences and discriminating both positively and negatively against the members of a community between the powerful and the unprotected. A good example of an elitist or elitist attitude is requesting that those attending an evening comply with certain class and dress rules or they will not be allowed to enter it.
Elitism and social conflict
In general, when elitism is noticed and visualized in the behaviors of the social group considered as elite, social conflict is easily exacerbated. This is so because, as mentioned, elitism is a form of discrimination, distinction and differentiation between those who genuinely belong to such a group of people and those who do not or who wish to do so.
Social conflict and displeasure between both parts of society is often mutual, the lower or popular classes themselves despising everything that is considered elitist or exclusive. Elitism does not allow the social gap to be broken nor does it favor the existence of increasingly egalitarian societies.
Photos: iStock - ilbusca / mbbirdy
