“I think support for Bush is about not wanting to be led by East-coast pretensions. It is about not wanting to be led by people who are forever trying to ]force their twisted sense of morality onto us, which is a non-morality.”
And from John Mace:
“It’s not so much a matter of being an intellectual, it’s more a matter of thinking you know better how people should live their lives.”
Now I just have to ask … what rabbit hole have I fallen into where it is the left trying to force their morality on others?
Do they mean like trying to control how much choice a woman has over her own body… or like trying to push a certain religion on the country (world?) with taxpayer money … or like trying to keep a certain part of the population “separate but equal”, complete with a Constitutional Amendment … ??? … all based on ideas from their favorite fairy tale?
Count me proudly among the elitist intellectuals. I refuse to be shamed for thinking. And I refuse to give others a pass for NOT thinking. FUCK stupid people! They ARE inferior. And yes, I realize that means the majority of the people in the country. With an attitude resenting “intellectualism”, this country has just the leader it deserves.
I realize that some 'Pub will come along and say: "See, comments like that is why the right won. You can’t put people down and expect them to come to your side. " I say … keep 'em. I would rather lose time and again among intellectuals, than have knuckle draggers on my team. I do not care enough for my fellow man to try to elevate them.
I think much of your post was spot-on, that certain fields (and advanced degrees in those fields) are more respected because people understand, at a basic level, the value of what those eggheads do/create/study.
Your last paragraph, quoted above, states something that I think it very much in the eye of the beholder. I don’t think marxism and communism is all that common amongst professors, and I don’t think these philosophies are being widely promoted. The University is a safe place to study ideas that are both in and out of the mainstream, and studying these things doesn’t mean people are advocating them. Marxism, too, is not just a system of government, but as I understand it also a paradigm for analysing literature, observed phenomena, and social problems.
Perhaps what your post illustrates is that academics have not done a great job communicating what goes on in their teaching and scholarship, what it contributes to society, and so on. Many people misunderstand what professors in those “softer” fields do. This certainly contributes to their work being undervalued and not respected.
I think it only comes off as snobbish and elitist if you adopt the attitude so popular in conservative / libertarian circles that wealth equates with virtue, superiority and the like. For those of us who don’t hold that view, it comes off as being pretty much the opposite. I.e., supporting policies of cutting taxes on the wealthy comes off as snobbish and elitist.
No, jshore, you don’t have to go nearly as far as that. One could easily believe that a $200k income simply means hard work. An admirable virtue all on its own. One need not believe that wealth confers supiriority at all. One certainly not need to believe that wealth “equates” to it.
For the record, I did not find his comments snobish at all. I took them as more of a political remark. He wanted to identify a couple of “wealthy” people so he could include the “sorry guys” remark. It had far less to do with identifying the audience as less than wealthy.
See, jshore, I can interpret letists statements in a favorable light too.
It must have been a long day today as I have no idea what that means. Kerry looked at the crowd, and decided that there was nobody in the room at his level. It was a flippant remark and it fell flat with me. Mostly, because I am a person that is proud of the living that I have worked hard for. I do not feel that I am superior to anyone because I make good money every year. To think otherwise about me Jshore, you are making the same mistake Kerry did.
