Some segment of the population will see any attempt to improve the status quo as a threat to the sinecures they’ve carved out for themselves and lob accusations of elitism or gatekeeping. I don’t know how to reach folks with this attitude. Maybe you do. I’d love to hear it.
If you’re involved in change though, make sure they’re not right.
I think the difference lies in your motivation. Are you looking for a cudgel to make yourself more important and keep others down, or are you looking for a way to connect people and lift one another to new heights?
The former is elitism, and the latter is building a culture of excellence.
Elitists will act as a high priest of some secret order, move goalposts, produce screeds of documents that convey no meaning, and belittle those who try to understand. Elitists may genuinely be skilled, but they are scared that anyone else might achieve their level of understanding, and in so doing have their own importance diminished.
If you don’t want to be an elitist, then recognize that if you happen to have more skill in something than someone else, you have the opportunity to serve and elevate. You take no joy in others’ struggles and rejoice in their success. You do the difficult work of slowing down and meeting people where they are. They absolutely need to get to a new location, but you don’t pass by the well and call out, “you should build a ladder!”
You’ll probably adjust your thinking over time because you also haven’t arrived at perfect understanding. New truth isn’t a threat to you, but rather a precious gift more valuable than the proud monarch’s costliest diadem.
If you do your job well, you likely won’t be thanked, and you’ll be forgotten. But that doesn’t matter because it wasn’t accolade that motivated you. Excellence did, and excellence is its own reward.
