MORE ON THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT AND NEW-CLASS THEORY: The Rage of the Almost-Elite. “Occupy Wall Street is mostly the lower elite revolting against the upper elite. . . . Orwell’s next passage points out that it is the lower-upper-middle-class who have the most venom towards those below them–precisely because to preserve their status, they have to keep themselves sharply apart from the workers and tradesmen. And I think that that does apply here as well, at least to some extent. One of the interesting things about going back to my business school reunion earlier in the month was simply the absence of the sort of cutting remarks about flyover country that I have grown used to hearing in any large gathering of people.”

Plus, from the comments: “Of course it is the lower elite, against the upper elite. The key word is ‘elite’. That’s the reason OWS gets such respectful treatment, and the Tea Party – expressing much the same discontents – was an object of ridicule.”