Why does the British elite despise Britain and democracy?

Behind closed doors, the majority of the British professional classes, such as lawyers, politicians, media people, leading arts 'luvvies' (actors and film makers), academia, diplomats and business leaders will admit some strange things. Here are two examples:

• I asked a former media producer whether I am supposed to watch some TV channels intent on 'dumbing down'.  He replied "Oh no! You are supposed to read a book.  That rubbish is for the masses to keep them 'drugged' on unthinking entertainment, so they keep quiet and do not give us any trouble. It is bread and circuses"
• A former leading lawyer told me that 'oligarchy is the way forward for Britain'  - preferably, I imagine, run by a foreign elite who care not one jot about the British, but with whom the intelligentsia imagine they have more in common than with their own lower classes.  The reason given is "Democracy is too short sighted...."

The rip-off British worker

These speakers are members of the so-called 'liberal' British elite. Among the wealthy, who are not necessarily the best educated or cultured, many share similar opinions about the rights and intelligence of their less wealthy fellow citizens to whom they rarely, if ever, speak. Their entire lifestyle is designed to avoid the lower classes completely - rather like Russian communist leaders who had their own VIP lounges, at airports.  Their most delighted observations are about the honesty and competence of foreigner workers who come to paint their houses or fix the drains who ' actually arrive on time and work hard, then do not over charge - unlike the 'lazy' British workers.

Yet, I have quite the opposite impression of British workers. Our house was recently renovated by British workers. They did not just arrive on time, they worked 14 hours days and did about £7000 more work unpaid out of the goodness of their hearts - to save our house and us, from the scrap heap. To discredit all one's countrymen as lazy 'rip off merchants' is blatant stereotyping.  

Naivete about oligarchies

There is naivete about human nature in both these ideas.  First, there is the naive idea that 'saintly' foreign workers do a better and cheaper job than British workers in their own countries. Second, the notion that one can trust an unelected, unaccountable (foreign) oligarchy to work selflessly for our common good ignores the maxim: "All power corrupts and absolute power corrupts, absolutely".

Lack of loyalty

Some of these elites have top honours, huge houses in London, second houses in the country or abroad. These may well be paid for out of the taxes of their fellow countrymen. Yet they appear to have no loyalty to their countrymen or any regard for them. Why is that?  Is it that they never meet them due to the innate snobbery of many privileged British who even have a separate educational system (the private/public school system) so that the 'haves' should never meet the 'have nots'? The top public school of Prince William, Eton, is just one example.

Lack of familiarity with other countries

On the whole, the British 'liberal' elite actively speaks very few foreign languages. They barely know the inner truth of many other countries, often only seeing them as tourists, cruising through them on luxury boats, or motoring around in hired cars moving from restaurant to restaurant on the 'tourist tick list'. They may call the waiter by his or her Christian name - but they know nothing about their life, worries or income: relationships are likely to be very superficial.  This does not offer the 'inside story of a foreign culture, about its desperation, political malaise and corruption. So why do they 'idealise' about the superiority of either sunnier or 'richer' foreign countries and their political systems? Is it really a dark class hatred of one's own countrymen who are 'so unlike us', judged on accent, educational attainment, inheritance, wealth or status? In other words, is it :  racism and intolerance i.e. bigotry? I mention this as 'nationalism', 'bigotry' and 'racism' are three of the false slurs aimed at those who voted to leave the EU.

Patriotism not nationalism

I approve of mild, not warlike 'love of country': patriotism rather than nationalism about countries which are in the upper listing of the International Corruption Index.  What is patriotism but an informed appreciation of a country which has bred one, which is working hard to be decent, even if still flawed? It comes from an in-depth understanding of one's country's complex and fascinating layers of history, its folk music, great and minor art; from a love of its animals, flowers and summer days; from an appreciation its place names, scenery, villages, churches, graveyards, individual buildings and cultural traditions; of its sad and happy stories, its pillars of continuance and the people who guard those.  If people detach themselves from such rich things, they must either deaden their heart or admit they already have a dead heart, lacking eyes for beauty and truth.

'Citizens of nowhere'

The self-isolated elite have the financial ability to entertain themselves (sometimes at taxpayers' expense) in numerous exotic and faraway places. They seek to develop global travel snobbery which is the art of continually jetting off and looking down on others on the basis of the number of distant airports one has passed through (not on the humility, creativity and wisdom one has brought back with one).  It trumpets: " I am too big a person to stay much here in 'little England' because I can afford to flit everywhere". Travel snobbery is rife among the 'liberal' elite.

The disconnect with native people

A hundred years ago the rich mixed everyday with the working classes, as many were live-in servants. They also met them in churches, in bars, in shops, on building and land projects, in the services. Today, au pairs are foreigners, information, bar and shop staff are often foreign, too. The only British workers, the elite may rub shoulders with are taxi drivers (who can be rather forthright and 'right-wing').

No doubt, the elite still living in the UK love their country in some way - or they would move abroad, entirely but for the lack of services, like private hospital beds - but it is difficult to grasp quite which way this is?  But if you cannot be loyal to your own countrymen, how are you going to be loyal to anyone else, even to your own family and social grouping? My observation is that the majority of the British 'liberal' elite are overweening individualists.

The real elite are 'the authentic'  

The true elite of today - like the Biblical 'elect' '- are never manipulated,  'taken in' by any falsehood or lie. They are those who are true to their true self, a virtue advised to Laertes by his father, Polonius in Hamlet:   "Above all things, to thine own self be true". The true elite know that in being true to themselves, they are being loyal to all things and people - to their own country and to other countries that they love to: to all peoples and to truth and goodness.

The real elite are authentic, feeling, real and loyal. They see, feel, create, love and preserve things using their own vision, mind and heart, not one subliminally formed in them by unseen powers intent on an agenda on which the common people must never be consulted, because its main aim is to usher in an unassailable elite oligarchy.