Today in a conversation with a couple of coworkers, it came up that Ireland is an island. (I know that sounds like a weird discussion point, but it made sense in context.) My coworker expressed amazement over this, and said that she thought Ireland was in Europe. I guess my face expressed what I was thinking (“WTF?!?!”), and my other coworker said, to cheer her up, “Don’t feel bad, I didn’t know that either.”
For a few moments there, I was just incredulous that my two coworkers were that ignorant of geography. Then I felt begin to feel bad about that. I’m not superior to them because I know that Ireland is an island, am I? Somewhere, someone could be mocking my ignorance of quantum physics.* OTOH, knowledge that Ireland is an island is probably a lot more widespread than how quantum physics works. Is there a line?
Anyway, what do you think? Are you an elitist? Am I? Is that okay? Absolve me, okay? I feel kinda bad about how I reacted.
[sub]*This is not, despite how the people on my LJ friends list read a similar post, a plea for recommendations on books on quantum physics. Although if you have any particularly good recommendations, my email’s in my profile.[/sub]