Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite

Privilege is not an attempt to construct boundaries around knowledge and protect such knowledge as a resource. The new elite are not an entitled group of boys who rely on family wealth and slide through trustfunded lives. The new elite feel their heritage is not sufficient to guarantee a seat at the top of the social hierarchy, nor should their lives require the exclusion of others. Whereas elites of the past were entitled—building their worlds around the "right" breeding, connections, and culture—new elites develop privilege: a sense of self and a mode of interaction that advantage them. The new elite think of themselves as far more individualized, supposing that their position is a product of what they have done. The old entitled elites constituted a class that worked to construct moats and walls around the resources that advantaged them.