Was just watching “60 Minutes” (not my choice.)
In a story on the Hong Kong protests, they interviewed a dissident newspaper publisher.
I thought the exchange perfectly exemplified the elitist mindset.
When asked why residents were defying Beijing, he responded “because if we don’t, we stand to lose everything”
“Everything?”
“Yes, our freedom.”
“Freedom is everything?”
“Yes, without freedom, we have nothing.”
“You still have a beautiful city”.
Seriously?
What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God!
P. Henry, 1775
Last edited by RJ; 10-13-2019 at 07:00 PM.
Is it elitism or privilege that produces these mindsets?
I don’t mean to argue if the reporter believes they are elite. I mean, is it because they believe they are superior to others that they have this mindset or are they simply ignorant to their own privilege?
I submit that it is most likely the latter. And it is one reason why I have felt mandatory civil service for ALL individuals ages 18-21, excepting the infirmed or incarcerated, would do a lot for folks. It’s very Heinlein of me, true citizenship requires commitment to society, but it might give folks a much better sense of reality.
In many respects, I believe we’ve invented our own enemies of freedom and fought them, like a shadow boxer fights nothing. And like the same boxer we cannot win nor lose a fight against nothing. We’re fighting the fringes of our own society now, because of the freedoms we enjoy at little to no cost to ourselves have led us to believe that the issues of the minority fringes are more important than anything else. It’s not true and it never has been that the needs or wants of few are greater than the needs of many. But since the needs of many are met readily, we can’t fathom what it’s like for such things to not be.
“Well...you still have a beautiful city.”
What good is a beautiful city if it is merely a white washed prison? Someone needs to go re-read Orwell.
I don't think its elitism. I think its ignorance because most of the modern world lives a very sheltered existence and the idea of nice things and being protected beats actual freedom. For some, myself included, I much rather live in filth and be free than luxury and bow to any master.
That's the negative side of a prosperous society. One can come to believe that the world revolves around them, and that all the property & benefits of that society is owed to them, somehow.
Speaking of RAH:
“Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
This is known as "bad luck.”
"You win 100% of the fights you avoid. If you're not there when it happens, you don't lose." - William Aprill
"I've owned a guitar for 31 years and that sure hasn't made me a musician, let alone an expert. It's made me a guy who owns a guitar."- BBI
Liberty is not a human value. Being taken care of is. Credit goes to Dennis Prager for that nugget of wisdom.
I don’t know what to call it, but it’s telling of the horrible state of our republic when a reporter, whom I submit is elite at least in her profession (given that she’s leading a story on a major world event on “60 Minutes”), cannot comprehend people desiring freedom over safety and material wealth.
I would hope such thinking is the the exception, a result having lived a sheltered existence in affluent communities, Ivy League colleges, and working in places like 30 Rock, unable to imagine why the great unwashed masses wouldn’t want to be them.
Come to think of it, that last paragraph describes a good part of what I regard as the elitist mindset.
Last time I visited Hong Kong I didn't find it particularly beautiful.
We may lose and we may win, but we will never be here again.......
In my experience, it's both an exception and a norm. It's a normal frame of mind for the individuals who have lived that life, but since still roughly half of our society lives at or below the poverty line, it's still an exception in many places.Originally Posted by jtcarm
Wouldn't it be great if in between her sheltered existence as a child and attending her Ivy League college, she had served four years digging ditches or cleaning porta-shitters in rural Nevada? No choice in the matter, merely given a task and told to do it, or held in contempt for failure to do it.
I bet her perspective on Hong Kong would be very different, then.
Admittedly, I never really thought of compulsory civil service as a minimum requirement to vote, ala Heinlein's Terran Federation. Merely as a tool to support the various social programs and infrastructural development we need, to provide opportunity for the underprivileged, perspective for the overprivileged, and trade skill training for many. But successful completion of service being tied to voting rights would be one way to avoid compulsory service and make it voluntary...
A few years back, I was watching some morning yammerhead show when the story was of some celeb or another getting into an automobile accident- not DWI related btw.
The newsreaders were surprised that someone of that celeb level would not have a professional driving them any and everywhere. To them, driving is a boring chore. And if one is rich and living in the nice part of town where public transport is safe, that makes a lot of sense.
It's a whole different world and a whole different way of thinking.
"You win 100% of the fights you avoid. If you're not there when it happens, you don't lose." - William Aprill
"I've owned a guitar for 31 years and that sure hasn't made me a musician, let alone an expert. It's made me a guy who owns a guitar."- BBI
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