Elitism contains the seeds of conformity, greed and oppression of self & other-selves.
Whenever members of a community are driven by the desire to feel special, they try to establish an elite within the said community.
Wherever there is an elite, you will find conformism because the members of the elite are under high peer pressure. They are forced to sacrifice thought-provoking ideas on the altar of respectability. Over time, this conformism becomes a dogma and infiltrates all the spheres of society.
Wherever there is an elite, you will find greed, because the members of the elite find it easy to justify having privileged access to means & resources over the plebeians: they have a higher purpose, many people depend on them, etc. Over time, these justifications become unnecessary because they are backed by the legal system, traditions, a certain conception of religion, the media, etc.
Wherever there is an elite, you will find oppression of other-selves, because other-selves need to become dependent upon the elite, to be enslaved for their own good. Otherwise, how will we keep order & social cohesion ? How will we ensure everyone’s survival ? How will society keep going in the right direction ?
Wherever there is an elite, you will find oppression of self, because to become & stay a member of the elite, one must become greedy, cunning, manipulative, highly self-serving and heartless.
The spiritual path is not the path to specialness. There is only One, does it make it any sense to divide oneness into special parts and non-special parts ? Does a rose feel it has some higher purpose, some mission that justifies it becoming part of the elite ? A rose is a rose is a rose.
Life can happen only when you are no-body. When you realize that you are nothingness, that there is no-thing, no one. Only then can life flow through you. Only then the flow is total & complete.
When you are special, when you are part of the elite, you become an obstacle to life, it cannot move through you, it will have to soften you first. Life is always on your side, but because you are not on your own side, it will appear as though life is against you.
Stop disturbing the flow, let go.