Reckless Opportunists: Elites at the End of the Establishment

by Aeron Davis

The Summer of 2016 revealed a crisis in Britain's political, economic and media elite. Once successful leaders were dropping everywhere. These multiple crises at the top are no coincidence. The roots go back several years. We have been producing a generation of leaders who, regardless of intent, are short-term, precarious, ignorant, un-rooted and self-serving. This isn't a matter of a few deficient personalities. It's a structural problem that has developed over decades.

The central theme of the book is that: the British elite has lost control. They can earn more than ever before and their decisions have powerful consequences that are widely felt. They are highly skilled when it comes to pursuing their own self-interests. But, they are also rather less able to exert control or predict the consequences of their actions. What is best for them can often be bad for their organisation, their employees or publics. These failings have an increasingly devastating effect on society and the wider public.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Economics

149 pages, Paperback

Published March 13, 2018

Reviews

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reckless Opportunists is my book of 2018. This book demonstrates what happens when 'mediocre elites' (paradox or tautology?) continue to populate the establishment and leadership positions within key institutions.

This book demonstrates why we have entered so many ridiculous wars, why we have made bizarre policy decisions about financial regulation, and why our political leaders are so ... banal, boring, pedestrian, clumsy and foolish.

What I wasn't expecting is that this is a fine book about leadership. Probably some of the most insightful theorization of leadership I have ever read is found in Reckless Opportunists. This book reveals the consequences of leaders insulating themselves with 'like minded people' and kicking the can along the road, rather than innovating and showing imagination.

Stunning. Simply stunning. To quote Meatloaf, read it and weep.

[Jinsie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A printed essay that was sent to me by a friend. I had reservations with the publisher-friendly title and my familiarity with the subject areas in question: concentration of economic, media, financial and military power, the convergence of these interests within British civil and academic institutions, dismantling of the commons for private profit, and the general perpetuation of class war. However this turned out to be a satisfyingly deep and broad summation of the current landscape: the product of many years' research and interviews with establishment figures from across the board.

It very neatly inhabits a nook in political/sociological writing that it shares with the likes of 'Inventing the Future' - short form books dealing with systemic issues for serious 'progressives' of multiple stripes - and as such I have found this one easy to pass on to friends who are less steeped in these issues, even as they live with their consequences on a daily basis.
It's the sort of crash course that you can present to someone alongside a Youtube link to the infamous Chomsky/Marr interview that challenged entrenched BBC establishment press truisms (around the time when 'Manufacturing Consent' was getting some mainstream attention https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjENn...) and hopefully engender some deeper critical thinking.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is a good account, based on experience and in touch academia, on our current leaders, of industry and in the government and in their use of what I personally would call phony cultural capital. If you can master this, you are on your way to a six figure salary. If you want something more truthful, as the book says, you will soon reach your glass ceiling. The idea of flex nets resonated with me with David Brooks Bobos in Paradise, but what the book doesn't cover, is where their glue comes from. Maybe PPE for some politicians but many don't come from that stable, and most with PPE don't go into politics. So it's not a single source of education, or social class as it used to be. But like all good books, it gave some food for thought. Thank you.

[TyLean · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent introduction to the subject that gets to the point and doesn't get overly emotional. My criticism are that it is still trapped in the left-right paradigm, although that only comes through now and again, and it's not oppressive in any way. (Handled much better than most writers). Also, it ends naively, spinning the obsolete ideas that the system can change from the top down or via "public inquiries." It does feel like the ending was tacked on against the writer's will almost. A compulsive necessity to fit a format to appease people and quell the, "this doesn't offer solutions!" complaints that inevitably arise.

[Jawwad Mustafa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked the book but was written in an academic format which didn’t seem to engage me that much. The content seemed a little derivative from other sources, rather than adding a massive amount of detail. Davis does add his own experience nevertheless and adds contemporary twists to the older sources with newer and up-to-date examples. Davis also mentions solutions to how the current establishment can be challenged and that’s interesting to see also.

[Reading Millennial · Rating 4 out of 5]

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