[fogus]

    But, of course this is not true, there are clubs 
    for which membership shows eliteness. This is 
    not a physical property, it is agreed upon by 
    the relative strata of society.

This is a weak analogy. Elite clubs do not make the members elite; they are "elite" to begin with. These clubs are not admitting the janitor. On the other hand programming languages do not admit members. Anyone can pick one up and learn it, but that alone doesn't make them elite.

[rbanffy]

> Anyone can pick one up and learn it

This is horrible to say, but, in reality, it's not anyone. Not everyone will ace the SAT or have an IQ of 140+ much like not everyone can run 100m in less than 10 seconds. Maybe anyone can learn Java or Haskell or Python, but not everyone will be capable of writing excellent (or even correct) code.

[Jun8]

Yo dou have a point but it goes beyond standard intelligence, I think: A big curiosity towards programming is more like it (although curiosity is a large part of intelligence). Most of the so called "elite" languages are not used in widely in corporations. So, if your goal is to just make money and move up (someday) you better put all your time in Java or C++, rather than learning Haskell or the like.

An analogy could be evolutionary explanation of the peacock's tail: it has no real purpose but shows females that this guy can afford this liability without a purpose. Similarly, when a coder knows, say, Forth (without being required to do so at work), I form immediately form a certain mental picture of him/her: this guy loves programming, definitely needs a further look.

[lurker19]

I think you are agreeing with Jun8, but it is confusing because "elite" has a subtle meaning (not just "99%ile quality") and it is not being defined here.