The habits of the elite are changing from noisy luxury to quiet luxury, from luxury goods to luxury worship, from financial men to tech bros. Nepo's baby was once striving for her Z-list at Harvard University, but now she dreams of dropping out of Stanford University. Our alma mater stands as the epitome of the modern elite. Palo Alto has always been a city of quiet luxury, with L'Oro Piana and Brunello Cucinelli adjacent to the Stanford Shopping Mall, and his TheRealReal store selling only Birkins on University Avenue. Seemingly ordinary houses and cars that only billionaires can afford.
Gen Z loves to “eat the rich,” but the phrase has been rejuvenated by a recent TikTok trend in which people are embarrassed to be able to afford Spotify Premium. Stanford students are no exception, but they know that it is the wealthy who built the university (estimated cost: $478 million in today's money), paid the financial aid bills, and created the jobs of the future. I forget. The students who are vocal about this are precisely the ones who want to make as much money as possible and are obsessed with starting salaries. But that's a rich thing for them, because those who get into Stanford are already members of the very class they hate.
This anti-elitism is not real. If they can benefit from elitism, they embrace it. Look at identity politics. We have made our status on college campuses more about activism than traditional status symbols. A sorority girl posts her Instagram stories in a timely manner about current events she's not familiar with and sets her pronouns on her Instagram profile. If you don't agree with the tyranny of the minority, you need to “check your privilege” and either adopt politically correct beliefs or join the side of the oppressed. For this minority, going around and blaming people who don't receive financial aid, or making a show of stealing from financial aid offices, is clearly politically correct (and many believe it's unfair). There are a lot of redemptions you can get, like the $600 textbook assignment you're claiming in ).
At Stanford University, even the rich are supporting and cannibalizing this. She zips around her sorority's traditional sorority house and gossips about her parents' net worth. They criticize others for wearing flashy designer clothes, even though they wear their own “quiet luxury” designer clothes (one girl is “scary” because she wears Gucci) ). They complain that they can't afford to go out to dinner, but they basically live in a package center because they have to pick up everything they order from online shopping. They are not ashamed to count the pennies. It's too much of a privilege to not ask someone to charge her $5.82 on her Venmo for the coffee she bought.
Elite organizations are dead. Civil society is in decline. They are being replaced by other exclusive societies elected on the basis of identity politics. Elitism in the traditional sense used to go hand in hand with wealth, but that is no longer the case. Universities used to be a place for the rich to play, but now they're a kind of meritocracy where everyone gets promoted. We are over-rectifying this divide, elevating new elite voices in the process.
What it means to be elite has always changed with each new group climbing the social ladder. Elitism and wealth segregation are also fueled by other factors. Today's tech billionaires do not represent what society values most. Once upon a time, likability, charm, and social intelligence were more important than spending time on Wall Street bets at the right time. Increasingly, it becomes easier to dismiss their rise as a fluke, and we use them as social scapegoats. But unlike the activists clamoring for higher taxes on billionaires, they at least achieved the American Dream. As these activists infiltrate our institutions and actively destroy any status that is gated by wealth, they strive to take over and gain the same position and status in society. However, they contribute little to society and are ruled with fear rather than respect.
Stanford students should accept that we attend an elite institution that turns students into elites. Once you get into Stanford, you'll never be an underdog. Large companies will hire diverse talent from Cal Poly SLO. Stanford graduates are forever stigmatized as privileged. It doesn't matter where you're from. The important thing is that you are now fraternizing with the elite, and you are now an elite. When these people break through the classic notions of elitism from within, they must realize that they have become elites and affirm their privilege.
