--- ## Highlights Inspired by reading Coming Apart, in this piece we’ll discuss a non-obvious way elites have abandoned their responsibility to the masses: they have stopped celebrating the habits and structures that they abide by in order to be successful, and have indirectly encouraged the opposite. new elites are in denial that they’re elite think aristocracy is evil and that they personally are fighting for the little people. Lions are proud, forceful aristocrats who explicitly own their position as leaders. Foxes, however, are humble servants who will forever deny that they’re in charge. While lions want to run the world, foxes want to save the world. old elites used to share a sense of common responsibility and noblesse oblige — not just to give back, but to expect the masses to act in a way that would let them rise up as well While it may have good intentions, the people you pity are not the people you respect. And unfortunately, that’s exactly what new elites are doing today: they’re implicitly encouraging people to take little responsibility for their outcomes while taking maximum responsibility in their own lives. They’re criticizing the same accountability structures that they themselves use to rise up.