A notice
Dancing on the head of a pin,
As passé as drinking gin,
Who you nailin’ down again?
The elite, they’s not like me,
the elite, why we let them be?
Susan Jacoby, author of The Age of American Unreason, has a thing or two to say about the denigration and the most common misuse in political discourse of the idea of an elite in The New York Times today. You might want to take a look. No apologies for the introductory doggerel. Live with it.
-Stan
1 response so far ↓
1 Jack // May 31, 2008 at 11:00 am
I’m a fan of Susan Jacoby (I read Freethinkers last year), and I agree with her NYT article. When someone uses the word elite you have to look at it in context and from whose mouth or pen the word is coming from. When someone speaks of the Marines as an elite fighting force, they are saying those fighters are the best in combat. There’s no connotation that they are priviledged or snobbish, but rather that they are well trained and very effective in battle.
But when someone uses the word to describe Congress or the ultraliberal left, they usually mean priviledged and arrogant.
Personally, I’m somewhere in the middle of the political spectrum — conservative on some issues and liberal on others. The Enlightenment principles upon which our country was founded are an example of the classical liberalism which I support. The give-the-store-away and tolerate-anything-but-profit-and-self-responsibility attitude of the ultraleft is the liberalism that grates on my nerves.
As for conservatism, I’m definitely not part of the religious right or the blatant bigotry and nationalistic chauvinism of O’reilly or Limbaugh, but I do support fiscal responsibility and self reliance.
Language evolves and right now the word elite is rife with vagueness and ambiguity.
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