Laudator Temporis Acti

Chester G. Starr, The Aristocratic Temper of Greek Civilization (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 4:

Elites these days are universally scorned even by academic elites.

This is odd. When one examines ancient literature rather than modern surveys, aristocrats are always in the foreground historically, philosophically, and artistically. They at least had no doubt that they were the most important element in society and established its attitudes and values; slaves on the other hand were only occasionally considered. For the sake of clarity I should offer here a preliminary definition of the term "aristocrats" as being those who shared a cultured pattern of life and values consciously conceived and upheld from generation to generation. In all Greek states such groups were limited in numbers but firmly considered themselves the "best"; their claims were normally accepted, even cherished by other, lower classes.

[....]

Modern opinion has so exalted the demand for egalitarianism in recent years that the historical existence of social inequality over centuries is muffled or denied; in consequence the aristocrats of ancient Greece too often have been placed in an unwarrantedly hostile light. Here, as in virtually every aspect of their culture, the Greeks were brutally clear-headed in their acceptance of the fact that not all men and women were equal, though one may feel that they at times carried this acceptance to extremes in exploiting their privileged political, economic, and social status.