Banter 54: Elitism

Topic: Elitism

Date: Saturday, January 25th at 4pm

Chris Holdhusen's house

Becoming interested in the topic of elitism might willfully take us up, down, and under all manner of our habits, tendencies, and limitations with our concepts of social class or groups that we are and aren't a part of; particularly, it seems worth noting, with more and more clarity, our own placement within a social class or various social groups and how that impacts our point of view, behaviors, use of language, and every other aspect of how we see and make our way through interactions, sense of self, and the world.  Some of us will likely be interested in how Trumpsters see liberals as elites, and how this has led to a dismantling of facts, experts, science, academic voices being valued by a large portion of the country and media; others will likely be interested in elitism on smaller scale interactions we have in the aisles of grocery stores or at school drop off/pick up or in other daily social interactions with those in and outside of your social groups/class; and others will be interested in the concept historically, across cultures, philosophically, psychologically, and so on.  Bring all layers of this topic to the table via your contributions below.

Here are some preliminary articles to get started if you want a briefing of how elitism has been used in some of the media lately:  

"Which Force is More Harmful to the Arts: Elitism or Populism?" from the NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/13/books/review/which-force-is-more-harmful-to-the-arts-elitism-or-populism.html

"In Defense of Kenny G" from Jacobin magazine:  https://jacobinmag.com/2020/01/kenny-g-gorelick-jazz-blues-criticism-analysis-music

"Americans are Fast to Judge Social Class" in Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/americans-are-fast-to-judge-social-class1/

Sabine's interest and contribution:

Coming from two sets of grandparents who lived very different quality of lives pre- and post-WWII in Berlin, and later finding myself with one foot in the kitchens of rural Wisconsin dairy farmers (stepmom's family), one foot in the kitchens of my German grandmothers, one hand in the kitchens of the Blackfeet reservation, and one hand in the kitchens that make up a ski town (lofty log mansions to trailers and cabins without enough heat), I have had a sense of how much each set of people are putting their all into the foods they are used to or value or lucked out in having at all.  I've loved being in each one of those kitchens, and have grown my tastebuds on all of it.  

The first time I had a sense of judgment of other people's kitchens it came from my mom distinguishing that we did not eat maple syrup on our pancakes, other people did that; we rolled ours (crepes) in fine sugar. In my mind though, while swallowing my very tasty crepes, I thought of how I very much enjoyed fluffy buttermilk pancakes with loads of Aunt Jemima knock off syrup with my young divorced dad, later with my stepmom's family, at Wisconsin restaurants with my cousins, so I knew that this "we" she was referring to had little to do with what I did eat, but had to do with a group she wanted me to be part of and, conversely, a group she didn't approve of, nor want me to be part of.  

Now, part of this is complicated (as always with human behaviors & rudenesses), as she and my grandparents were grieving a loss of Germany and all things German, and trying to keep hold of that for their families even while integrating into America.  Part of her phrasing had to do with assuring my sense of being German over being American, and part of me is very grateful for that. The other part cringed and planned never to allot people's food preferences as below or above mine.

The second time I came across this off-color sense of judgement in an equally jarring way was at the local Montessori preschool, among mommies who were eliminating sugar for their children, only feeding them organic, requiring it be so also parties, and so on.  I reacted viscerally as though a spoon had gagged me, as well as I felt a flash of anger in defense of all those kitchens I've known whose cooks would not feel anything other than bad about themselves and very snubbed should they be privy to bring an item to such a potluck or preschool bbq or birthday party, only to realize it isn't going to be eaten by this set.  Thankfully these groups rarely cross over, so my rural Wisconsin family or my rez friends haven't been at any Whitefish potlucks or bday parties to experience this elitism.  Yet it is that lack of cross over that is precisely the problem as well.  The lack of weighted, caring awareness of those outside of one's own means, insights, habits, and class is as common among all strata of humans as Wonder Bread and jello wigglers are in rural Wisconsin kitchens.  Marie Antoinette's lack of purview outside of her own context comes to mind as an easy example to clarify what I'm trying to bumble my way through saying:

"Qu'ils mangent de la brioche!” Though to be accurate (and elitist in that need for accuracy and awareness of Antoinette being German and French speaking), she said, upon finding out that the peasants had no bread, "Let them eat brioche!" which was even more out of the peasants' reach than the basic bread they couldn't acquire.  "Let them eat organic, stevia or honey sweetened, dye free, heirloom, local, hormone free foods and have the time, insight, different family traditions to do so, so that my child doesn't have to be exposed to what your family has survived on for at least three generations!"  Getting off my own rude soapbox, this does tie into a decent scholarly article titled " Let Them Eat Cake, Caviar, Organic, and Whole Foods: American Elitism, White Trash Dinner Parties, and Diet" which I'll have to email to the group as I only have a pdf and no way of attaching it here on the blog.  



From Chris / Lynda:  

Brainpickings blog, such as:

https://www.brainpickings.org/2018/12/27/in-praise-of-idleness-bertrand-russell/

or, https://www.brainpickings.org/2019/11/25/the-school-of-life-book/?mc_cid=3342fcd10c&mc_eid=20675c7769

From Isaac: 

"I was looking for something on inequality and civilizational collapse, and found a bunch of stuff suggesting that it was inevitable...but chose to go with this instead.  I listened to the audible version: 


https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/09/02/the-rich-cant-get-richer-forever-can-they?fbclid=IwAR1WGSoPJq95Me90QHBo3_wG8pR0vRmrKQbZ9vzr6dJ2kBXWYV29k5hn_70

Also from the below resource, "Those participants who had spent time thinking about how much better off they were compared to others ended up taking significantly more candy for themselves -- leaving less for the children."

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-wealth-reduces-compassion/?fbclid=IwAR1oJJIoeXNlvcGl7pPjVNJwG_HiGeTjj2HzN-cR0YNgZJwMMm_-NsyzVM4


From Mitch: 


‘Elite’, to my ears, is more often used as a positive word than ‘elitist’, which seems has negative connotations (and hints at pomposity and exclusion).

In my field of work hotshot crews are often described as ‘elite firefighting crews’. To me, this is meant in the sense of being highly specialized, well trained, and experienced for their particular niche of work, but many dictionary definitions of elite include words like ’superior’, ‘best’, ‘most powerful’. Those broad, all-encompassing usages of the word have caused me to bristle.

Not to be pedantic, but I’m wondering if the meaning of the word has changed, over time?  

Elite, to me,  is a descriptive and complimentary word to be used to describe others for being  ’specialized’, ‘expert’, ‘highly trained’.…to use it to describe yourself is, well, elitist.

I saw a short video of Richard Dawkins where he made the point that most people want their doctors and pilots to be elite. I want all specialists to be elite, I don’t want them to be elitist.

The first that I heard the word ‘elite’ being used in politics, and always negatively, was during the Obama administration.

Since that time, the word seems to have become code for those who see intelligent and well-spoken political leaders, teachers, experts, and scientists as suspect. To be sure, a lot of elites are pompous asses and snobs, which doesn’t help but, politically, I see the term being used in a new fashion….a ‘my opinion is as valid as your experience and education’ attitude that seems to be getting worse in our society.

I would be interested in discussing the opposite of elite, as well. Are there any good antonyms for the word? I can’t think of a good single term, but there are two tangential topics from the reverse side of the elite coin that would be fun to discuss.  One is the Dunning-Krueger effect (see image, below) and the other is the Galileo Gambit Fallacy (which asserts that if your ideas are met with ridicule from the establishment, that they must be right).

At the risk of falling into Dunning-Kruger myself (if I haven't already), I will close with a quote from the elitist author and professor, Isaac Asimov (what a snob):

The full context for the above quote is in the short article from 1980 (so, it appears, this whole anti-intellectual thing is not such a new phenomena?