I have despaired of finding this line. Every time I think that something is known by everyone, I find someone who doesn’t know it. Either they’re just dumb, from a different culture, from a family that would never have discussed that subject, or whatever.
You wouldn’t believe the incredibly stupid things 9th graders have said to me. You know those things you read here that people have said, and you just bang your head on the table? I get those every week.
Even with adults, I can’t find the line. A distant relative almost constantly amazes me with not knowing things, especially with pop culture things. She also warned us not to bend the wires too tightly so that the electricity got stopped.
A few years back somebody started tossing around the phrase ‘intellectual elite’ as though it were an insult. I was flabbergasted the first time I heard someone label another as one of the intellectual elite in the same tone of voice you’d use to say ‘puppy rapist.’ When did it become a bad thing to know more than the absolute minimum needed to muddle through your daily life?
None of my grandparents went to college, but even the grandfather who only made it through grade school, thought it a matter of course he would continue his education on his own. It wasn’t even a question whether their children would go to college (or another form of higher learning). You weren’t being a snob, you were realizing your full potential as a human being. It was what you were supposed to do-- it was not knowing, and not wanting to know, that were shamefull.
True, it’s not nice to go out of your way to make someone feel inferior, that would be rude and possibly elitest. However, sheilding everyone from ever feeling as though they might want to know more than they already do, is not doing them any favors and it seems dishonest. It’s tough to say what people should be expected to know, but I think it’s safe to say you should know why 1492 is an important date and whether an entire, not-so-obscure country full of millions of people is an island or not. You are superior, in those very narrow circumstances, than someone who does not know them. That’s not so much elitism, as it is fact, and that’s okay. What seems elitest to me is when someone extrapolates that they are superior in every way because they are superior in one small way.
In 1992 I was dating a man who asked me one day, “Why is there all this Columbus stuff around lately?” (Two movies and a whole bunch of merchandise. After all, it was the 500th anniversary).
I know there are subjects I know more about than most people do. I also know there are even more subjects where that’s not the case.
Where is the line where it becomes elitisim? My suggestion would be that it depends on a person’s position in life, and the strength of the opinions they hold as a result of their knowledge.
E.g., I’m an engineer, and I’ve met managers whose ignorance of subjects they’re in charge of is appalling. I would not hold laypersons to the same standard (that would be elitism).
I also have very little respect for people who hold really string political opinions without correspondingly strong knowledge of the issues. That might be elitism, but if it is, I’m not ashamed of it.
I don’t know- I’m pretty sure in a commercial for that show where they paired up pretty girls with nerds (Beauty and the Geek?), one girl mentioned “1942” as an answer to something and another girl said, “No! 1942 was when Columbus sailed the ocean blue!” :smack: I could be wrong, however, as I’ve never actually seen the show, just the commercial for it.
Preach it, brother. These people really get on my nerves. It was especially bad around the election last year. I definitely feel a sense of elitism when I hear people parrot talking points while having no idea what they are talking about.
Now to elitism…I would have to admit that I am elitist. When I hear someone using horrible grammar or showing ignorance on a subject that by any reasonable standard they should be conversant in, I feel superior to them.
Here are some others I feel superior to:
Those who cannot control their behavior or emotions in public.
Those who have little or no standards for raising children.
Those who are so desperate for attention that they cover themselves with piercings and tattoos. I’m not talking about just a dolphin on the ankle. I’m talking entire extremities. You’ve seen them.
Those who remain willfully ignorant and refuse to educate themselves despite having the opportunity and the raw capability to do so.
Those who choose to live their lives as lawbreakers and choose to prey on others to support themselves.
So as someone who has a fairly large knowledge base, expresses themselves properly in spoken and written form, has a job, helps raise children properly and behaves in public, there are a lot of people I feel superior to.
I don’t consider knowing that Ireland is an Island is any better a piece of knowledge than knowing that Britney’s husband’s name is Justin.
They both have about the same amount of relevance to my life.
And, yes, I think it’s somewhat elitist to think that knowing one is “good” and knowing the other is “base” (or however you want to phrase it).
I don’t know why knowing geography has always had this air of importance. If that coworker knows a better route to the grocery store than the OP, than I’d say her applicable knowledge of geography – and therefore her WISDOM in choosing to retain facts that more closely affect her real life – is superior to the OP’s.
Depends what criteria you’re using to judge “better”. Joyce is a more challenging writer than Hamilton. He may explore deeper themes. But if you or I or just about anyone else but Joyce ever turned in a paper with a sentence like
not only would we flunk English, but we’d probably be sent to the school nurse for drug testing. You need an exegesis to get through Finnegan’s Wake. All you need to get through Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter is a fairly high tolerance for gothically overblown relationship sturm and drang. Her sentence structure is fine.
Well, you don’t. Which is why, after a moment, I began to wonder if my reaction wasn’t inappropriate. Is it fair of me to expect people to be interested in world events? Look, I am interested news and politics. When I am deciding who I want to be a friend, it’s important to me that they are interested in news and politics, because it’s something we could have in common. However, these aren’t my friends, they’re my coworkers, and I really don’t give a fuck what they do after work or what they think about.
You’re right, assuming you interpret “discover” as meaning only the first person to find something. (I’m aware of the solid evidence of brief Viking settlement, and the more tenuous claims made of behalf of Irish monks, various groups of European fishermen, the Chinese, and others. And of course I’m familiar with Native American settlement over the Aleutian land bridge, which apparently took place in at lease two waves, so maybe “Native American” isn’t always accurate.)
But, even so, I think that it’s fair to speak of Columbus’ first voyage as a discovery, because the Americas were unknown to Europe prior. (The Viking settlement had long ago died out, and information about it never spread widely.)
I’ll give you this much, though. If D had responded to our question as you did, I would have been impressed, and cheerfully handed over my nickel.
Well, to answer your first question, I am not an elitist, but I’m guessing you know that since we’ve met in person and I’m sure you can tell I’m not like that. That said, I think you are really smart and you give off that smart vibe, but not an elitist vibe.
If you think you are “superior” than your coworkers, I think that sucks though. Maybe you are smarter, but superior is such a snobby word. Do they volunteer with animals, troubled kids, the blind, disabled? Are they working to take care of their elderly parents? Did they overcome child abuse or rape? I mean, maybe you are smarter than they are, but once you start thinking you are superior to them because of their lack of knowledge about Ireland, that makes you a jerk, IMHO.
Well, I’d kind of like to live in a nation with an informed electorate. These people have exactly the same power that you do: one vote. And if they are wielding that power, one would hope that they are doing so with at least some notion of what’s going on in the world. We don’t have laws that force us to learn certain things before we vote. Indeed, it would be hard to get any group of people to agree what you should know as an informed voter. But we do have peer pressure to inform us, vaguely, what is the consensus on the minimum level of knowledge that’s expected of us. You showed disapproval of her ignorance of geography; her other peer told her it was okay. She decides what message to take home from that, and what she wants to learn as a result. I don’t know that it needs to be labeled elitist vs. anti-intellectual; just two different people with different expectations.
I’m just making the point that knowing geography doesn’t mean shit all.
A more informed electorate because of the power of your ONE VOTE? Ooooooo. Allow me to bow before you in deference of your mighty mighty power.
Knowing that Ireland is an island? Reading James Joyce?
That an 50 cents will get you a cup of coffee. Of course you’ll have to drink your cup of coffee in silence while your coworkers are discussing last night’s American Idol episode.
But, you’ll have a smug sense of superiority. At least there’s that.