Many people subscribe to James Davison Hunter's view that cultural change is driven by elites and institutions in the cultural center. That's a generally true statement, but can easily mislead us into thinking that all change must originate with elites. While elite buy-in may be necessary to institutionalize change, the ideas themselves can originate on the margins. I explore this by looking at the views of Eric Hoffer, who puts forth a view almost completely opposite of Hunter, arguing that the new almost always originates with outcasts, misfits, and failures rather than highly successful elites.
Eric Hoffer's The Ordeal of Change: https://www.amazon.com/Ordeal-Change-Eric-Hoffer/dp/1933435100/?&_encoding=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
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