The elite’s craving for anonymity asserted humanity’s grandeur against great men

Evidence

The elite’s contempt for the genius and its yearning for anonymity was still witness of a spirit which neither the masses nor the mob were in a position to understand, and which, in the words of Robespierre, strove to assert the grandeur of man against the pettiness of the great. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 789

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the elite by its anonymous, anti-genius ethic — the counterpoint that clarifies the mob’s genius-worship.