Maligned, so-called elites are not jet-setting, latte-guzzling snobs with little or no regard for their fellow citizens. Quite the opposite. It is hard to think of a nobler ideal than cosmopolitanism.
Cosmopolitanism gets plenty of bad press nowadays. “Cosmopolitan” is often paired with “elites”, as in the cosmopolitan elites who sip cappuccino in the morning and pinot noir at night, jet around to places like Davos, and enjoy big gains from the digital revolution.
Once upon a time, anti-cosmopolitanism was code for anti-Semitism. Nowadays, cosmopolitans are former British prime minister Theresa May’s “citizens of nowhere”: a foil for the noble citizens of somewhere who remain firmly rooted in the communities supposedly under attack by the globalisation promoted by heartless cosmopolitans.
