CONFRONT THOSE LIMITATIONS. Consider the possibility that myths of powerful cabals with secret knowledge afford people the opportunity to duck taking responsibility for their own lives, or to sustain their faith in Wise Experts who will take those responsibilities for them.

Certainly the secret knowledge myth has legs. A long time ago in a galaxy far away, the masters struggled for control of the Force. Somewhere in the Rhine is a lump of gold that, if forged into a ring worn by someone who renounces love, confers mastery over the universe. Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code and The Lost Symbol have masters of ancient secrets attempting ... something ... perhaps only letting Mr Brown show off his knowledge of architectural arcana. And Sherlock Holmes has to foil those Sith Rite Masons.

Perhaps, though, the reaction to that David Brooks column on elites and anti-elites is the same myth, in wonkier form. Recognize that no secret cabal of Wise Experts (or Jedi Masters, or Illustrious Potentates) exists, and no simple corpus of Organizing Knowledge exists. Per corollary, those very public Establishment figures lack any such corpus. But they pretend that they do. See Chicago Boyz for an elaboration on that point.