Sunday, June 20, 2010
Elitism Self-Indulged
If there is any doubt about the self-endowed elitism of the Left, then Michael De Dora, over at Rationally Speaking, can help eliminate it. De Dora has written a lengthy article there about... himself. And in it he points out the statistics on reaching his own increasing elevation of elitism, the percentage of Americans who get advanced degrees. Check it out and feel free to congratulate him on his acquisition of near elite-hood. He now needs only three more PhD's to catch up to Massimo.
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10 comments:
I'm pretty sure "elite" is never self-applied, let alone "self-endowed." That's really a term uneducated hicks who believe whatever they're told call people who question the status quo... but whatever.
Ginx,
That's an elitist statement if ever I heard one.
You are exuding an arrogance of a position that you assume you have attained, not by virtue of rational labors (which you eschew), but merely by virtue of rebellion. It seems to be a cultural rebellion in your case, against a culture you live in but hate. That is a common elitist problem and response.
This fits quite well with your denial of logic and rationality; your position is emotionally based and rebellious only. Without a rational basis for discussion there is little else to say to you.
The elites are constantly congratulating themselves on their superiority, be it in number of degrees held, or in morality self-derived, or in clarity of vision for mankind; there is no question that they consider themselves above the "uneducated hicks who believe whatever they are told", as they consider the masses, the herd below them, as you so clearly do.
But in reality anyone can rebel mindlessly, without rationality, making up their own rules and thought processes: teenagers do it all the time. Such rebellion is the currency of elitism; actually it is as common and easy as any other type of irrationality.
Irrationality takes no work, no effort, no intellect. But it can and does produce chaos, first in the mind, then the worldview, and finally in the lives of the irrational.
If one is interested in saying things that are true, then one should study truth, what it is, how to attain it. It requires objective logic, unfortunately for the rebels.
Teenagers grow out of rebellion. Elitists do not: they need it in order to maintain their eliteness. Without the rebellion, they would be just intellects, not "Intellectuals".
Ginx, after looking at Mr. de Dora's writing I don't really see how he's 'questioning the status quo' in any real sense.
That said, Stan, I do think you're being somewhat hard on Mr. de Dora. Getting an MA *is* a lot of hard work, I don't think it's unreasonable for someone to bask in it and congratulate themselves some--heck, I made a bunch of celebratory blog posts on my Livejournal when I graduated from college, and that was just for getting a BA.
If I were Mr. de Dora, though, regardless of my accomplishment I'd be most concerned with getting a job, though--a MA, or any other degree for that matter, just won't take you as far as it used to in this economy.
Wandering Internet Commentator,
Perhaps I'm too hard. But still, he is posting the percentile he has reached in the upper strata of the population, on a blog dedicated to the truths "Public Intellectuals" speak to their lessers... Not exactly a display of intellectual humility.
I'm sorry, it's completely impossible for me to not make you feel like the intellectual midget you are. Would you like a mental foot-stool?
Also, I don't think you need a college degree to understand irony... I think they use it on the flashy picture-box thing you people use to watch your "situational comedies."
Profound and incisive critiques, Ginx. I don't know whether the last two comments were aimed at me or our host, but I'm sure both of us are suitably impressed.
Ginx,
I sorry to see you go completely over the edge like you have. Why not take a deep breath and try to articulate your actual issue(s)?
I know you have denied the value of rationality and logic, but I suspect that you really do have a respect for them. At the moment your anger is overcoming that, though. comments like those you made above serve no purpose other than venting, and even venting doesn't really get much of a job done.
So, make a position statement, or critique one here, and we'll discuss it.
Thesis: the right, left, religious, and non-religious camps are equally intellectual.
Supporting evidence: observation of reality.
Closing statement: posting about how one feels others are trying to make them feel stupid strikes me as reminiscent of people who vehemently preach against homosexuality.
Why not do another post about how the Saintly Nation of Israel never did any wrong... besides of course assassinating their own prime minister because he was inching too dangerously close to a peace that did not involve total Israeli control.
Ginx,
Glad to see you back with some ideas.
You said,
"posting about how one feels others are trying to make them feel stupid strikes me as reminiscent of people who vehemently preach against homosexuality."
And this is a valid comparison because....? And it is morally wrong? Or logically wrong? Or maybe not wrong at all? Please clarify.
And you said,
"Why not do another post about how the Saintly Nation of Israel never did any wrong..."
The reason I don't, won't, and haven't done that is that it is totally irrelevant to the issue. The issue is that Israel is a valid, acknowledged state, created under a UN proclamation, recognized as a soveriegn state by the UN and the entire non-Muslim world plus some Muslim states.
Because it is a recognized, sovereign state, it has the rights that are accorded to sovereign states, including the right to defend itself from attack, and the right to determine who to allow into the country.
The Palestinians have refused to recognize any of this. They remain a declared enemy of Israel. Under war time conditions, Israel would be foolish to allow the Gaza Palestinians to arm themselves.
I have never said that the Israelis are perfect, or that they never over-react. I will say this: they wait too long sometimes to interdict their sworn, avowed, armed and attacking enemies. And I will say this: the Left is one of their enemies. Israel is a messy republic; it is a western-type of nation, and that is anathema to both Muslims and Leftists, putting them on the same putative page.
The Left continually sides with those who project totalitarianism. Usually they are more comfortable with Atheists like Castro and any South American dictator, but they are also becoming comfortable with Muslim totalitarians too.
The tools of the Left include "Social Justice", which is the inverse of traditional justice, because it is not person-neutral: it favors one group over another and commits crimes of theft and discrimination against the non-favored group to benefit the favored group. This egalitarian criminal discrimination is called "Social Justice" and is part and parcel of socialist, totalitarian theories.
That is the position taken here, not the perfection of Israel. This has been the case all along. There is no change. So there is no reason to call it differently than what it is.
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