Tom Tomorrow: The Elitist Menace

[primavera]

Can someone please explain to me where we in this country get this obsession with elitism? Do those who rage about elitism, when diagnosed with a disease, stride into a hospital and demand to be seen by the most incompetent, inept, inbred idiot to ever squeak through medical school? No, they want the best of the best of the best, the chief surgeon in the most elite hospital in the country, who graduated top of their class from the most elite medical school on the planet. Yet to run the country and shape the future of their children and their grandchildren to come, then they want the dullest, stupidest simpleton available? I just don't get this mentality... :shrug:

[Richard Steele]

1. K&R

[izquierdista]

2. One word

Idiocracy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jqa4LpdtOD8

[primavera]

4. Yeah, when I saw it, I thought Idiocracy was a satire...

... little did I realize it was actually a documentary. :scared:

[tularetom]

3. I follow the groucho marx rule of elitism

I wouldn't want to join any club that would have me as a member and

I would not want to "have a beer" with any presidential candidate who would "have a beer" with me.

[RainDog]

5. You know the elitists that really burn me? Krispy Kreme

or is it the other one?

I got increasingly annoyed when I watched tv news a month or so ago with this donut company's commercials. they made fun of "frappe" or whatever as "elitist" in order to sell...... LATTES!

yes, they try to market "lattes" as working class. but if you use any OTHER foreign word to describe a coffee drink, you are an elitist.

And it's not even ironic.

[primavera]

9. Yet another mystery

Who gives a rat's ass what beverages people drink? So one person orders a quad shot half caf venti soy latte and another orders a cup of Folgers. Who cares? How does this have any bearing on anyone's life which would justify using it as a critical rallying cry? No, I'm not totally obtuse, I know it's just a symbol for other things, but it still makes no sense to me. If what critics of elitism are concerned about is a real or perceived injury being done to them, then they should focus on that and stop whining about other people's personal tastes; if no injury is being done them, then what the fuck are they all up in arms about?

[MountainLaurel]

12. Isn't a frappe just a term for a milkshake?

When I was living in New England, everyone from the high-end ice cream shops to the diner down the street called what elsewhere would be a milkshake a frappe. (A milkshake there was more like melted ice cream with some milk thinning it out.)

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Probably from Colonial impressions of rule by Georgian England.

The "elites" then were the nobility and the landed gentry. Americans didn't settle for reacting sensibly to that, they had to overreact, and develop an institutionalized suspicion of anyone who's better educated than they are, since that (at one time) was associated only with members of the upper crust.

The basis for that resentment mostly disappeared, or was greatly attenuated (at least officially) with the American Revolution, but the bitterness and resentment live on.

If you were just ranting ... never mind. ;)

None of this in any way diminishes the hypocrisy on display in the fifth panel, FWIW.

[primavera]

7. Makes sense, but...

... then how do we understand Americans' tendency to run to "elites" whenever they need anything? We have an electrical problem, we want a professional electrician, and the best we can find, by God! We have a legal problem and we brag about how we retained the services of a Harvard Law grad. We need financial advice, we seek out the most elite advisor we can find, with the longest list of impressive sounding degrees and certifications after their name. In virtually every aspect of our day to day life, we want the most skilled, professional talent we can possibly find to help us resolve our problems. Except when it comes to public policy, when we suddenly do an about face and want Gomer Pile. Ours is a very strange country sometimes.

[eppur_se_muova]

8. Oh, that! That's just hypocrisy. :^)

We got that to burn. :)

[izquierdista]

14. Except after Republicans fuck things up

Then they want Harvard educated FDR to come in with his "brain trust" and solve all the problems. Are we at that point again?

[On the Road]

13. You Know, I Was Just About to Post the Same Thought

Probably as the result of seeing "Monarchy with David Starkey" tonight. May be an old idea, but had never occurred to me.

[eppur_se_muova]

10. Related thread, worth a read ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5812007&mesg_id=5812007

[primavera]

11. Interesting and very apropos

Thanks! :hi:

[Califooyah Operative]

15. haha. nice. nt