![Sam Harris on Sarah Palin and Elitism [Newsweek]](http://daxyo1dc06otg.cloudfront.net/30a358257ceef37ec1c35b67553d98a0f733c8a8 "Sam Harris on Sarah Palin and Elitism [Newsweek]") |
September 26 at 6:08 pm
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Jess Lee, Jeff Eddings, Atul Arora and 8 other people liked this
"Ask yourself: how has "elitism" become a bad word in American politics? There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. " - Jennie Lin
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Like x99999999999 - Eric Florenzano
Yes, but we want a leader we can have a beer in a bar with and is dumber than shit. Go figure! Well, we got it! - Paul Denlinger
"Elite" and "elitism" are two different terms, with different meanings. It's not the talent that's being denigrated - it's the arrogance. - Rob Sterling
Rob, that is an interesting point - thanks. Is arrogance from an elite worse than arrogance from someone who is a self-described beer man (or "redneck" ala Levi Johnson)? My sense has been that the latter has been more tolerated in American culture. - Jennie Lin
@Jennie: Lots of people consider themselves to be 'elite' and act in an arrogant fashion as a result. The difference is whether they're actually in a position to do anything about it. For people in gov't and bureaucracy to behave in an elitist fashion - the idea that they're part of a class of enlightened somebodies - is not good. The foundation of Palin's popularity is that she's an exceptional person who maintains enthusiastic membership in (relatively) low-prestige groups: that's humility. - Rob Sterling
good point about the difference between "elite" and "elitism". in a sense, it is harris' fault for mixing the two in the same paragraph. however, remove the lead-off sentence about "elitism", which has links to arrogance, and basically the rest of the paragraph stands on its own. what's worse is that it rings fairly true. IMHO this is a manifestation of the split personality of the US electorate, so our politicians are sort of a compromise between the ivy league and the average joe: not "too good". - Mike Massey