Elitism is undervalued.
Having looked at the broadside-swapping going on here I think I'll stand up and say, proudly and loudly, that yes, I actually do believe I'm better than some people.
I might or might not be in fact, but it's something I believe, and I'm pretty damn sure that most other people believe the same thing of themselves. They think they, and their cliques, are nicer, more easygoing, more pleasant and just generally all-around mo' betta' than everyone else.
This isn't something to push as legitimate but it doesn't hurt to acknowledge it, understand it's innate, and learn to deal with it.
That said, I STILL think I'm better than at least some people. Why? Because dammit, I try. I try to learn things I don't know. I try to listen to what others think about things, and even if those things don't necessarily make sense to me I try to acknowledge that they've got a point. Sometimes I even end up having an outlook or idea or mindset changed because of this tendency of mine.
I try to live in a way -- as much as I'm able -- that reduces the burden I place on those around me rather than increasing it. I try to keep my environmental impact low so others can have room as well. I like helping out -- as long as it's helping people to whom I'm already well-disposed (still being frank here) -- and I try to bring good things to others when I have enough for myself.
I bet most people feel they do the same there as well.
I've seen so many accusations of elitism hurled about here that I'm quite happy to say that hell yes, I wince in Wal-Mart sometimes. I see some white trash person damned near abusing his kids and I cringe. I end up sharing an aisle with someone who has no notion whatsoever of hygiene and my eyes water in the palpable haze of stench that wafts my way and I don't like it. I shuffle past people who have the dull, lifeless eyes of those who have been jammed into ignorance and who cannot, will not and never even thought of breaking free. People whose beer guts and burst capillaries speak of a lifetime of living for sixpack weekends. And yes, it makes me shudder. My initial response is contempt, and when I think about it a kind of condescending pity.
Those are not my proudest moments, to be sure, but goddamn it, at least I'm not trying to pretend I don't hold myself as being better than some of my fellow Americans. (These would be those that, if they didn't want me killed outright, at least wouldn't want me to be able to get married should I end up in that kind of relationship. And to show how superior I am to those who would want me dead -- if I were in power, I wouldn't have them killed. Just sterilized. How's THAT for honesty?)
Here's the plus side of elitism. If we hadn't had a bunch of elitist wealthy white men living on land that legally was not theirs some 225+ years ago, a hell of a lot of world history would have been written quite differently.
Elitism is what lets us decide that some people are in fact better qualified to be physicists or engineers or physicians. They are simply better, if you want to look at it that way, than others who do not hold advanced degrees. They worked damned hard for years at something (intellectual pursuit) that is NOT valued highly in this nation by the great, literally unwashed masses and they have by non-god shown themselves to be ascendant and superior.
Do they have a right to feel superior, to revel in their ascendancy?
Hell yes they do.
So why don't we knock off all the BS mudslinging about "superior" attitudes. I am more intelligent, insightful and *aware* than many other adults and I am proud of that. The fact is that all men are NOT created equal, and to attempt to pretend otherwise is to fall into a terrible trap.
-- Warren Ockrassa, Publisher/Editor, nightwares Books http://books.nightwares.com/ Current work in progress "The Seven-Year Mirror" Excerpt at http://www.nightwares.com/books/Flat_Out.pdf
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