The new elites, by themselves- The German case

Being part of the elites - the best and the first from any domain - wasn't never easy. There are always certain family and professional and financial networks you should be part of in order to get a chance to arrive in this exclusivistic club - how to you succeed to keep your membership being another part of the problem, mostly up to yourself and your professional and intellectual capacities.

The idealistic turned into generational nightmares communist "aim" of a society without classes and with equal opportunities for all was in full contradiction with a reality where the party leaders and their heirs - starting from the top of the leadership - see Romania, North Korea or Cuba, as only a couple of examples of inherited power, from a leader to the members of its family. In some cases, the right to apply at university was guaranteed mostly to those with "healthy origins", meaning from a low social background.

In liberal societies, a guarantee for success is still the social origin. And, in a way, it is easy to understand way. You inherited money and the prestige and you are trained to continue the business of your family. The career and future plans are tailored from a generation to another. The democracy guaranteed by Constitutions are counterweighted by the aristocratic system in the economic sphere. In the same time, a public school system, free/state-supported is guaranteeing to the children the minimum education, to be continued further, on the basis of abitilies and knowledge tests.

But, independently of this public system, the members of the elites have the choice, on the basis of their financial resources to follow the private system, from kindergarten to university, allowing - on the basis of curricula, proportionally evaluated in the prices of the scholarhips paid by the parents - the guarantee of a place in the elite system. Your direct environment is 80% made of the people with the same social background - of course, some exceptions are allowed, as the chances of a scholarhip offered for gifted children - with the same set of values and ways to spend the free time - from the favorite brands to the Swiss winter ski resorts and the exclusivistic expensive social networks.

What Julia Friedrichs is presenting, in Gestatten: Elite, auf den Spuren der Mächtigen von morgen is an inside view of this nascent society of youngsters intensively preparing to be the tomorrow's elites. Even the author is limiting at maximum the academic references and current discussions in the political science and sociology regarding elites, the perspective still remains interesting. Once enrolled in this system you close the doors to the outside reality: intensive works, reading, preparation of various tests. Even if you would like to have an eye outside, it is no time and the opportunities are limited. And, with the time, you loose any interest in it. And the danger in itself is the lack of adaptability and limited sociability. Of course, you have many friends sharing the same values. But, when it is about economy or leadership or mainly politics, the key is not to be good for being good, but to be as fit as possible and as flexible as possible to change and find new ideas corresponding to the needs of the reality. So, for a balance, you don't need an internship to a big company, but a couple of months spent in the real world: travelling with the public transportation, living in a poor neighbourhood, doing social work. Otherwise, you will have the theoretical knowledge and the resources, but you will lack the power and wisdom.