ideas: from people
Plumber’s crack out of line for elite
I’m coming out. Loud and proud. My people have been hiding in the shadows for too long, silent, anonymous, cowering from decades of persecution and bigotry. Well, I will hide no more. I will not stay silent.
My name is Jason Whittaker, and I am an elite.
I am not poor but privileged. I am educated and intelligent and free-thinking. I have the world at my feet and I will rule at least a very small part of it.
Frankly, I don’t care for you non-elites. You’re always asking for money. You’re quite unworldly, what with not leaving your small towns and all. Some very funny ideas on the world, indeed. In fact, you’re a little dim, if we’re being honest. And you kind of smell.
If you think that was a little unkind, it’s nothing compared to what is leveled at us. The abuse is downright cruel. Well I, for one, will no longer stand for it.
When did ‘elite’ became such a dirty word? Let’s go to the Oxford English Dictionary:
elite / ileet • noun 1: a group of people regarded as the best in a particular society or organization.
The best of society? Ouch. Them’s fighting words.
The attacks on the so-called ruling class come from people who take pride in being average. They are not educated and they have no desire to further their world view. Difference is ridiculed. Intelligence is mocked.
Joe the Plumber hates us elites. He fought the good fight against those lily-livered Democrats last year. And now he’s in Israel to report what the ‘liberal elite media’ won’t tell you – that those Israelis are just misunderstood. And thank god, because the journalists over there really have no idea. Tell ‘em, Joe:
“I’ll be honest with you. I don’t think journalists should be anywhere allowed [near?] war. I mean, you guys report where our troops are at. You report what’s happening day to day. You make a big deal out of it. I think it’s asinine. You know, I liked back in World War I and World War II when you’d go to the theater and you’d see your troops on, you know, the screen and everyone would be real excited and happy for ‘em. Now everyone’s got an opinion and wants to downer, ah, down soldiers. You know, American soldiers or Israeli soldiers.”
Finally – someone who tells it like it is. And with such eloquence. What’s that, Joe? All the journos should be sent home?
“I think media should be abolished from, uh, you know, reporting.”
Errr…sorry?
“You know, war is hell. And if you’re gonna sit there and say, ‘well look at this atrocity’, well you don’t know the whole story behind it half the time, so I think the media should have no business in it.”
The quotes are real – you can view the video below. If Israel and Hamas can agree on anything, surely – surely – it is to aim the rocket launchers at Joe.
Joe, of course, was Sarah Palin’s kind of bloke. The hilarious vice-presidential candidate hates those liberal elite journalists more than anyone. Particularly, as she declared just this week, those “bored, anonymous, pathetic bloggers who lie”. They dug up her past and made fun of her present because, naturally, she is not part of the Washington establishment. Us elites are very protective of our turf, you understand.
“I’ve learned quickly, these past few days, that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone.”
Just some, Sarah? And just in the media?
“We believe that the best of America is not all in Washington, D.C. We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation.”
So you city-slickers, you educated types, those whose persistence and perspiration saw them rise to the ranks of the rulers, you’ve got nothing on us small-town folk. Elites are unpatriotic, according to Palin. UnAmerican.
As Palin criss-crossed the country for John McCain (who, incidentally, was as ‘elite’ by Palin’s definition as anyone else in the race), speaking in cornfields and landlocked, one-pub towns, rallying the red states and the conservative base, my anger grew. And I’m not even an American.
The charge is implicit: smart doesn’t count. Educated doesn’t matter. The best and brightest have had too much power for too long. It’s time to take back America, Palin declared, for us Average Joes.
I have a strange theory when it comes to public office, above the usual ideological debates of left verses right. I reckon we should go and find the smartest person in any room and elect them. Crazy, I know. But when big decisions need to be made, I’d back the smart guy/girl. Every time.
As unpalatable as it may be to some, let’s start calling Joe/Jenny Average what they really are: the people in society who are not particularly intelligent. Yes, Sarah, they have been largely locked out of Washington. And rightly so.
Clearly the political establishment does not have a mortgage on good ideas. But neither is there any place at the table for the willfully ignorant.
Politics plays to the lowest common denominator. Barack Obama was guilty of dumbing-down his message in a number of policy areas. In Australia, John Howard’s ‘battlers’ forever held a special place in his heart. Kevin Rudd has his ‘working families’ to pander to. And apparently Malcolm Turnbull – an elite if you ever saw one – will never be elected by the Australian people. Nobody likes the smartest kid in the class. Mostly because it reminds them they’re far from it.
But the Joes and Sarahs of the world have crossed the line. The anti-elitist attacks have become deeply insulting. Smart DOES count. Education IS something to strive for. Being ‘elite’ should be everyone’s goal.
It’s time to take back the word for our cause. Who’s with me? We ARE elite, we’re proud of it, and long may we rule. We’re out, and we’re not going back in. Get used to it.
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5 comments for “Plumber’s crack out of line for elite”
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This is a wonderfully impassioned speech and I appreciate the sentiment.
As a call to arms though, I have a couple of issues with this approach as a strategy.
The main problem with calling yourself elite is shows a lack of modesty and a degree of arrogance. I’m pretty sure that it’s the perception of arrogance that drives people like Palin and the Plumber to do their thang rather than ‘being the best’ in and of itself.
Secondly, what exactly is the meaning of elite? Do you have to be an elite something? Can you actually just come out as “an elite” – a group of people regarded as the best in a particular society or organization?
Before we get into a debate over semantics, it may be worth noting that the word ‘elite’ originates from the French word ‘élire’, meaning elect.
This comes back to the point about modesty. The elite are marked out as such, ‘elected’ by others. You don’t get to nominate yourself as being better than the rest of society or claim to speak for it without royally pissing off the rest of society.
I would argue the best way to deal with folks like Joe and Palin is simply to give them enough rope.
But you’re right. Smart does count and the continued implications that to be elite is a bad thing need to be challenged whenever they occur. But as the old saying goes – “Never argue with idiots. They’ll just bring you down to their level and then beat you with experience.”
A better way to deal with it is to be what they are not. Show what it means to have intelligence, capability and integrity. Do what Bartlett did when he debated Ritchie in the West Wing.
Being part of the elite is a great honour and something to be aspired to. Elitism, less so.
Calling yourself an elite certainly shows a lack of modesty and a degree of arrogance. No question. And of course I speak largely in jest of the Average Joes.
(And I certainly struggle with the grammar of it, too. I’m not sure you can be ‘an elite’ as a singular entity. But the evolution/abuse of language makes it so.)
But my point was simply if this charge is going to be leveled at people who strive to be the best they can be, why not embrace it? Average Joes revel in their averageness. It’s a badge of honour. So what better defense against this charge of elitism than to wear the tag proudly? Take back the word. Two can play the game. Let’s be ‘elite’. Whatever that means. Take the sting out of the attack.
“You’re part of the liberal elite!!”
“Yes, actually, I am.”
“Oooh….”
The Palins of the world are more than capable of hanging themselves, for sure. But they overstep the mark when they perpetuate this idea that intelligence and education makes you unable to understand people and their problems or makes you unqualified to lead. It’s insulting and offensive and we should NOT let it slide. Embrace the tag and demonstrate why the so-called elite are EMINENTLY qualified, the MOST qualified, to lead
I love the debate and appreciate the feedback, Danu.
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