THOUGHTS IN RESPONSE TO PEGGY NOONAN: My TechCentralStation column is up.

UPDATE: Reader Don Rylander emails:

Glenn, I think you’re right to be hopeful that the influence of these “elites” is on the wane; I just think it’s wise not to be too sanguine about its inevitability. The attitude Noonan describes in her Ted Kennedy anecdote reminds me of Britain’s Bloomsbury Group of the first part of the 20th century. Steeped in the decadence of their own subculture, lacking both vision and moral courage, they romanticized Britain’s decline as inevitable, and consequently helped bring it about.

The democratization of information brought about by the internet offers hope, but the desuetude of certain elites is no less a threat to civilization.

Yes, we still have to do the necessary work to pick up the slack.