Nothing spells elitist like changing the world for the better.Precisely.
This rather goes along with my belief that the person we elect should be extraordinary. I work with a lot of "average Americans." I troubleshoot the phones of many "average Americans." I spent many years of my life processing the orders of many small business owners. And I can tell you: the idea of choosing a president based on his "average guy" qualities scares me shitless.Look. There is a reason we call "the average guy" average. Because he's in the middle. Average. When you aim for the White House, to lead the free world, to hold the fate of the Earth in your hands, you shouldn't aspire to average. And this election shouldn't be about average.
Don't get me wrong. Plumbers, when you need them, are more desirable than presidents. I, personally, would be underwater in my home if not for my plumber.
But in politics, we overdo the small picture because we get bored with the big picture. Our eyes glaze over when candidates talk policy. The devil is in the details, but we're not interested in the devil. We'd rather watch, be entertained, be told a story.
It be time for us to muster up once more:Don't ye be lettin' Captain John down, or ye'll soon be regretting it. There be an ocean o' ignorance out there, me hearties. It be our duty to rescue the treasure o' wisdom from their dens o' inanity.The Sixth Carnival of Elitist Bastards is due to sail on October 25th from Port Haystack.
I know that there are a lot of bastards out there who'd like to show up the stupidity, ignorance and dishonesty currently masquerading as "small town values," "common sense" and "teaching the controversy."
Here's your opportunity. Get busy on exposing the so-called "thinking" that deserves to be looked down on and extolling what truly is elite: learning, logic and science.
Send your debunkings and other demolitions to elitistbastardscarnival@gmail.com no later than October 24th (though, in kindness to a certain Ancient Mariner, early entries are preferred). And, if you see some internet article or posting particularly fitting to sail on our voyage, please pass a long the link, as our press gang is always on the lookout for hands to ... er ... volunteer.
EP--The Caribbean Elite, a new luxury liner catering exclusively to the elite, is being prepared for its maiden voyage on September 27th. Captain NP, unavailable for comment, is creating the guest list for the first voyage. She has been meeting with various elitists to discuss the cruise, as well as their qualifications for being admitted to the ship. It has been rumored the guest list will need to be finalized by September 26th for the voyage the next day. The elitists who have met with NP declined to comment on the impending maiden voyage of the controversial luxury liner.Luxury fucking liner, my swarthy crew. We've bloody well earned it, wouldn't you say?
It may be high time for the good captains of the good ship Elitist Bastard to institute press gangs to help man the yardarms.
Nay, indeed! The only thing bigger than himself is his brain, and he be looking for Elitist Bastard submissions to feed that monstrous intellect o' his.
He'll be taking the HMS Elitist Bastard to sea on August 30th. You'd best be on deck and reporting for duty by August 29th, then, me brilliant bastards. Send those submissions, or ye'll be wishing ye did!
I'm hosting the next Carnival of the Elitist Bastards on 26 July, and the submissions are barging in to my mailbox and demanding my attention…but I need more. I want a legion of arrogant SOBs making noise. So send me more links…don't be shy (hah!).A legion he wants and a legion he shall have. There's still time! Dig out a past post if you haven't time to write a new one. You're Elitist Bastards: something you've written in the past will pass muster! Pull an all-nighter, whatever you must do: just answer your captain's call by this Friday!
The HMS Elitist Bastard has arrived home to a hero's welcome from her triumphant first voyage. Wit and wisdom won the day. We celebrate many things: the ascendency of intellect, the beauty of knowledge, and the freedom of inquiry that will leave the world a better place.
This is not an occasional happenstance - the "charge" of elitism always seems to come from a member of some elite. It's hypocrisy writ large - writ large because the stakes are usually big.
Ignorance is not just bliss. It’s all too easy. Learning requires the use of the brain, and the very thought of this particular organ seems to stir terror within the hearts of other kids my age. I justify taking the risk and using this brain power because of my curiosity. I want to know what those funny lights up in the sky at night are. I want to know how the Solar System formed. I want to know how the beautiful and complex forms of life arose on Earth by natural selection. I want to learn vector calculus so that I may someday understand Maxwell’s tantalizing equations.We're here because we want to know, explore, and show others that ignorance is not the only bliss, nor a particularly good one at that.
cey is here to show us that there's nothing to fear from Maxwell's equations. In "The Necessity of Mathematics," he shows us why understanding mathematics is necessary:These are desperate times. Teachers who promote anti-science. Hell, Governors who promote anti-science. It's gotten to the point where debates aren't really even debates anymore. It's hard to have a debate with someone who doesn't even have a commen set of facts or understand the basics of logic and rationality and critical thinking.
Corporal punishment as discipline — or the threat of such — does not work well. It can stop bad behavior, but doesn’t teach better behavior. Worse, it teaches the wrong things. Even bribes and gold stars don’t work well, because the focus is shifted from what is being done, to what the reward is.
We need to grow up as a society and take a much more informed and worldly view of these things. If we look around us, we'll see that our forebears adopted varied, and sometimes even contradictory, attitudes to sexuality, nudity, and the body, and maybe we can remind ourselves that all of this is our cultural heritage — and legitimate subject matter for artists of all kinds.
Are these cases evidence that Modern Science is failing us, “research is unreliable,” and people shouldn’t put their trust in scientific research? I would argue just the opposite.
Sometimes people get it so right that you have to take your hat off ... even when what they're so right about is why they're wrong.
If someone you were casually chatting with in a coffee shop happened to confess to you her belief in a host of invisible fairies who sprinkled fairy dust on her while she slept to make sure she remembered to pay her utility bills on time, you would presumably think less of her for this exact reason. She can’t possibly have her wits about her, you might think to yourself. Anyone who was the least bit rational would realize that idea was absurd. Change the line to one about bread and wine changing into a man’s (or a god’s) flesh and blood, though, and all of a sudden you have a religious belief that must be respected.
But the U.S. Constitution was in no way construed to be the ultimate be all and end all as we think of it today with the notion that all state Constitutions must not conflict with the minimum rights in the U.S. Constitution. Our legal system is based on English Common Law that preceded the United States by many centuries and that is often at odds with many, if not all, of the amendments.
Knowledge and access to knowledge are the predicate requirements for any democracy to survive. The very natures of democracy and popular sovereignty demand that the people be informed of the facts, so that the people may govern. Despite a modern anti-intellectual and anti-elitist trend, democracy assumes and requires that the people are all elite, all intellectual, and all informed, typically by a responsible media, the Fourth Estate of any republic. The first amendment is typically the vanguard of this requirement - by providing easy access to vigorous debate - but there’s good reason to believe the first amendment has failed us.
What freedom means is that your fate is in your hands. It's your country, but only if you make it your responsibility to stay informed about what's happening in your world. If you leave it to your bigmouthed friends, the cool guys on radio, or even the earnest blogger, you leave your fate in their hands. Which means you really leave your fate in the hands of whoever controls or manipulates them,
people who should never be trusted, because they don't give a damn what happens to you.
America has to wise up. Somehow, we have to convince our fellow citizens to stop treating elections as popularity contests and start treating them as job interviews. The presidency is the most important job in America: it's vital it doesn't go to the dumbest candidate. We need a super-intelligent person in the White House, someone capable of running a complicated, dangerous, and threatened country. We need someone in charge who can think his way out of a brown paper bag.
The term peak oil does not mean that over 50% of all crude has been pumped out of the earth, but that production has peaked. In all the bluster and posturing by both the public and politicians, there are several inescapable facts that have nothing at all to due with Saudi Arabian production.
Elite transportation is muscle - your muscle. To me, philosophically, it’s the purist, most elemental way to get around, whether you use a bike, rollerblades, a skateboard, a scooter, or just plain old shoe leather. For too long we’ve let our cars dictate where we live, what we wear, where we shop, how we handle traffic, even what income we need to have.
Where have the standards gone? Is our culture so far gone that someone will publish anything? (And if that's the case, why haven't I gotten published?) I suppose it speaks to our readers more than our writers and publishers that this is the case. After all, if there wasn't a market for schlock, it wouldn't be published, right?
One often repressed human right is the right to be true to oneself.
One very general human obligation is the obligation to in some way give back to one’s community something good in return for the benefits one has received from it.
If this keeps up, I'm going to have to wallpaper the Cantina with all these beautiful badges. Help yourselves to however many suit your fancy!
