I'm embarassed to go to school with these ppl

by phil on Thursday Mar 11, 2004 11:25 AM
elitism

Cringe as you read David Blatt stroking his ego in the Stanford Review:

Walking along the beach in Santa Cruz today, observing all the overweight, poor, and generally unattractive people, it dawned upon me that I truly am superior to most everyone else. I mean, just look at me. I go to Stanford, I'm extremely intelligent, I'm in good shape, I'm socially apt, and, most importantly, I'm rich. (in One Man in Defense of Elitism)

David certainly makes it easy to get infuriated. However, since one of the Philosophist tenets is to find the truth in everything, even in your enemies, I will dredge up some positive here.

I disagree with embracing elitism, but I do share his disgust with all this "equality" business. This is the disease of self-esteem, politically-correct image-boosting, wherein everybody must feel like there is no better or worse to anything. This issue is a matter of difference between self-esteem and self-acceptance. Self-esteem connotates feeling like one's traits should be esteemed with equal strength compared to others. Self-acceptance, on the other hand, embraces the reality of our relative strengths and weaknesses. Both self-esteem and self-acceptance seek the same goal, to make us feel better about ourselves. However, the latter is more pragmatic, honest, and healthier than the former. Self-esteemism, this business of bringing everybody down to our level by erasing our differences, is insidiously selfish and ultimately annihilates the individual.

Comments

Applejack said on March 14, 2004 11:22 AM:

I am far superior to David Blatt in the primitive sense that I can beat the living shit out of him and take all his stuff; no one will try to help him. Naturally I won't use his stuff, it likely stinks of bad cologne he uses to attract women like a flashing beacon "I'm rich!... I wear expensive clothes!... Smell me... Look at me!..." The package is there and it's complete. It doesn't need to be microwaved and it doesn't require you to add water or any additional scrutiny. He's superficial -- that's an ugly word he's left out of his opinion piece.

This goes for all you pseudo-intellectuals out there that think you're better than everyone else: your intelligence is useless without society. Did the primate evolve because it was stronger than anyone else? -- no. Oh! Right, The primate evolved because it was smarter than anyone else -- wrong again. The primate survived because it was smart enough to form a community and work with its peers. David Blatt is a hypocritical nothing without the 99.999% he's foolishly decided to unzip his Armani pants and piss on with his lukewarm, unimaginative editorial.

He'll do well to quit "contributing" to society with his "insight." His opinion piece is chock full of logical fallacies and inconsistent arguments. I suggest David copy the better traits of Drusilla Campbell, as this author is the next person above David Blatt on his long, long ladder of journalistic and literary ascension.