Intellectual Myopia

People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage.  Intellectual myopia, often called stupidity, is no doubt a reason.  But the privileged also feel that their privileges, however egregious they may seem to others, are a solemn, basic, God-given right. 

-- John Kenneth Galbraith (1908 – 2006), Canadian-American economist and author, The Age of Uncertainty, Chapter 1, p. 22 (1977)