Redeeming the Elite: Excellence as a Goal
Wednesday April 16, 2008
We’ve all heard the talking heads endlessly pontificating on whether or not Barack Obama is elitist or not. What we have failed to do, however, is ask the simple question: what does it mean to be elite? Well, Webster’s dictionary defines elite as: a group of people considered to be the best in a particular society or category, esp. because of their power, talent, or wealth. Preceding from this definition, if someone has the most power, or talent, or wealth, they are elite. However, what we should be more concerned with is not whether an individual has more of one thing, but whether or not the thing that they possess is used in an way that is in accordance with excellence.
Excellence is defined by Webster’s dictionary as the quality of being outstanding or extremely good. Julie Fischer is a concert violinist who received numerous accolades last year for a Brahms concerto album she performed last year. I would venture to say that she has achieved ‘excellence’ in playing the violin, and has done so to such a degree that she is recognized as being a functionally better violinist than many who play the violin. We don’t seem to have a problem when considering functional excellence. What do we say then when the claim is made that a person is better than another?
In the classical sense, this claim is neither condescending nor inappropriate. If there is a form of being human that is the best, as Aristotle and Socrates believed to be, than someone can indeed be a better person, functionally, than another. They have gained knowledge of the intellectual virtues and have then formulated goals and sought actions which bear themselves out as moral virtues. Consequently, such a person more closely approaches being perfectly human. Mother Theresa was a person who was a reliable and generous person. I doubt anyone would disagree that she is ‘better’ than someone who is greedy and through self-centered actions comes to harm others and benefit their-self. So the question we should ask is whether or not Obama, or any of the other candidates approaches, through virtuous thought an action, being the best human in accordance with what it means to be human.