What accounts for the lack of accomplishment among modern celebrities?

In a new essay for The New Criterion (and one perfectly in keeping with the mission of that publication), Dalrymple points to the spread of tertiary education, which opened the doors of the academy to “a multitude chafing at the bit of civilized restraint”, one that was all too eager to destroy standards of “aesthetic, intellectual, and spiritual worth” by embracing cultural relativism and non-judgmentalism. At the same time, the common man today makes one very clear judgment: that he is as good as anyone else and that he therefore will not countenance greatness. “People who achieve something far beyond our reach, beyond what we can imagine ourselves being or doing and whose achievements are the result of genius brought to fruition by effort, are not celebrities because they undermine our claim to be the equal of anybody.”

Read the essay here (purchase required)