You Better, You Better, You Bet, by Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise

October 23, 2010 Martha Thomases 14 Comments

This is my favorite joke:

A man was marooned on a desert island for ten years.  Finally, he was rescued.  “How did you manage to survive alone on that island for ten years?” asked his rescuers.

“It was easy,” he said.  “The first thing I did, I built two synagogues.”

“Why did you do that?” he was asked.

“Every morning, when I woke up, I would go to my synagogue and thank God for keeping me alive on this beautiful island.”

“What about the other one?” they said.

He shrugged.  “That one I wouldn’t go near.”

Lately, a lot of people are up in arms about elitism.  My colleague, Mike Gold, who is one of my very favorite people to engage in arguments, decries it here, for example.  He accurately describes the current mass-media view of Democrats, progressives, liberals, etc. as elitists.

I’m here to defend elitism.

First, as I was instructed to do on the debating club at my private boarding school, I’m going to define my terms.  Elitism means preferring the better, or the more rare.  It is not the same as snobbery, although they can overlap.  Snobs tend to define their preferences  in terms that are unobtainable for an average person.  For example, a snob may only wish to associate with people whose ancestors were on the Mayflower.  An elitist is more likely to prefer to associate only with people who have advanced academic degrees.  True, the average person does not have a Ph.D, but is more likely to be able to attain one than to arrange for different ancestors.

Preferring people who only have graduate degrees from an Ivy League school is both.

Many of my favorite things to do are routinely described as elitist.  For example, I enjoy going to the Union Square Greenmarket for groceries.  It’s true that, often, I could buy my fruit, vegetables, fish and meat for less money at a grocery store.  It’s true that organic food has not been proven to be more nutritious than non-organic (not that I only buy organic, but I do when I can).  It’s true that this combination of expense and scarcity could be the reason I like it.

But it’s not.

I like knowing farmers, even if only casually, while living in a city.  I certainly know more than when I lived in Ohio.  I like seeing the seasons go by through the change in the produce, from the first bitter greens of spring to the last potatoes and cabbages of fall.  I feel good supporting small farmers and New York State (and vicinity) small businesses.

In other words, my behavior may look elitist if you don’t talk to me and discover my true motivations.

In general, I think the charge of elitism, in this election cycle, is being used to denigrate competence.  People who complain that, say, Sarah Palin or Christine O’Donnell lack the experience to hold office at a federal level are accused of elitism.

As political discourse, that’s annoying, but understandable.  Elections are all about such crazy talk.  However, it gets dangerous when it goes further than campaign slogans.  For example, there was a recent story about a history textbook being used in Virginia public schools that is factually wrong.  Similarly, there are those (including the afore-mentioned O’Donnell) who think that creationism is legitimate science.  I don’t want my doctor to have taken a biology course like that.

The United States has fallen behind in the ranks of educated nations.  Our schools graduate less-prepared students every year.  We don’t help them by disrespecting eggheads, nerds, or  math club.

And if that makes me an elitist, than I’m proud of it.

Martha Thomases, Media Goddess, has better hand-dyed, hand-spun angora with beads than you do.