How the Elite Rigged Society (and why it’s falling apart)

2025-06-29 REMOTE SERVICE

David Brooks, book author and political and cultural commentator, reflects on how the educated elite—including figures like himself—helped build a meritocratic system that ultimately rigged society in their favor, destroying equality, moral clarity, and institutional trust along the way. The elite privatized morality, replacing shared values with individual feelings of right and wrong, leading to a loss of meaning and community. Yet, there’s hope in rupture and repair: cultural renewal happens when small groups live in a better, more communal way that others feel drawn to follow. This renewal, he suggests, requires a return to our spiritual roots—recovering a sense of sacred moral order, such as the belief that every person is made in the image of God, as a foundation for dignity, justice, and shared purpose.