Elites fear change because it can only threaten their status
Evidence
The highest classes, as everyone knows, are the most conservative, and frequently enough they are even archaic. They dread every motion and change, not because they have an antipathy for the contents or because the latter are injurious to them, but simply because it is change and because they regard every modification of the whole as suspicious and dangerous. No change can bring them additional power, and every change can give them something to fear, but nothing to hope for. The real variability of historical life is therefore vested in the middle classes — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 740
Categorization
- XREF: Supports Julius’s blasé attitude: the upper-class dread of motion parallels how detached observers resist engagement. Also echoes the immobile conservatism Lofland would attribute to established city dwellers. — connects to: Aristocracies fail militarily because they fear mobilizing masses or strong generals — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 671; Media access structurally favors elites against out-groups whose problems get defined for them — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 851; Moneyed interests propagate fear to block even minor gun-law changes — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 107 (+8 more)
Broader Connections
- Power cannot self-realize but depends on societal-structural conditions for legitimacy
#expands(0.75) - Power can be increased only when its own overthrow is institutionalized
#expands(0.72) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 251 - An ultimate power to decide generates its own norms and cannot be trusted
#expands(0.72) - Media access structurally favors elites against out-groups whose problems get defined for them
#expands(0.60) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 851 - Moneyed interests propagate fear to block even minor gun-law changes
#exemplifies(0.60) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 107 - Terrorism fear uniquely suits political manipulation because it resists quick fixes
#expands(0.55) - Moral panics can produce long-lasting changes in society.
#complicates(0.50) — Lynley Hood, A City Possessed, 55