Is an Élite Necessary? [1956]

MUGGERIDGE: I AM terribly sceptical about this whole business of an élite. Of course I think in any sort of society, whatever its nature, you get people who have an enormous desire for power and they will grab power-they will find some means of getting it. If it is a money society, they will get a lot of money, and if it is a Communist society, they will become members of the Communist Party and get power. The thing in them is the desire for power. But I am terribly sceptical about this idea that you can sit down and say, “We want an élite, that is how we’re going to produce it.”