Today's provocative thread topic: Do you feel comfortable with intellectual elites...

[Writer]

Do you feel comfortable with intellectual elites running the nation?

DISCUSS!

[NYCGirl]

1. I don't feel comfortable with the phrase "intellectual elites." Do I want someone

smarter than me running the nation? Hell, yes.

[Canuckistanian]

18. The RW has hijacked the word "elite" to connote "arrogance" or "condescension"

It's time the word was re-claimed for it's original meaning - "the choice or best of anything considered collectively, as of a group or class of persons."

[Posteritatis]

29. They've also hijacked the word "intellectual" for similar if not worse connotations. (nt)

[LWolf]

2. If I thought they were, I'd be fine with it. nt

[armyowalgreens]

3. "Intellectual elites"-Do you mean intelligent people?

[Posteritatis]

28. Gotta love some of the code phrases that get taken for granted these days, don't you?

I'm not necessarily accusing the OP of using the term with that in mind, though most of the time I encounter the term "intellectual elites" (or anything along those lines) there's an undertone of "them smart people ain't good like us honest real folk."

Most discussions I've seen about the term itself boil down to whether "the intellectual elite" is a good thing or a bad thing, and seem to miss the fact that a lot of people are lumping everyone who can read at an adult level into the group before tarring them as Evil.

[armyowalgreens]

31. "Intellectual elite" is just another meme used by stupid people to make them feel better...

about the fact that they are stupid.

"We can't trust them because they are smart. And smart people are evil because they say things that I do not understand."

[anonymous171]

4. No. Especially if they are unaccountable to the public.

Like Bernanke.

[XemaSab]

5. Sure, as long as they are able to understand that their decisions

affect real people in meaningful ways. :shrug:

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. yes

Let's make an analogy.

I find I have a bad heart problem. I need open heart surgery. Who am I going to ask to do the operation? A good old boy who talks big but whose grades at the local college were C- at best? Or the fellow from a different area of the country, who doesn't say much because he doesn't have to--his accomplishments, starting at As at a prestigious medical school, speak for themselves?

You're darned tooting I want someone who knows something about the world running the nation.

[Why Syzygy]

7. When we use "elites", we are usually referring to obscene levels of wealth.

A lot of not so smart people have vast wealth.

[anonymous171]

9. How do you gauge intelligence? Many DUers think it should be gauged by education.

So to them, a Harvard Graduate would be preferable to a State College graduate.

[Yehonala]

19. Hollywood Elites

By that measurement Natalie Portman and Claire Danes have more of a right to run the country. It's not always about the degree. Lincoln didn't have a degree and a lot of our best presidents have simply had self discipline. A lot of our elites are sel appointed experts, who are in actuality idiots. Next to none of our politicians fully understand that in order to deal properly with other nations, we need to take a good hard look at their mentalities and work with it, not try to go over there and change everything.

[armyowalgreens]

33. That is anti-higher education rhetoric.

The odds of someone receiving a proper education without completing college is very slim.

Sure, having a degree doesn't mean that someone is educated. But not having one almost guarantees that someone is uneducated.

There are always exceptions to the rule. But the problem is that they are just that, exceptions. The vast majority of non-college educated persons are lacking in education.

[Why Syzygy]

27. Bill Gates, Thomas Edison, Walt Disney ...

did not have degrees. Most of academia is politically correct in the lowest denominator kind of way.
Innovation is not encouraged.

http://people.howstuffworks.com/15-notable-people-who-dropped-out-of-school.htm

[Jeep789]

8. As opposed to idiot elites running it?

I'd prefer just intellectuals with morals.

[anonymous171]

10. I'd settle for someone who just had morals actually. nt

[armyowalgreens]

12. No. We need intelligent good people in power. A kind hearted idiot is still an idiot.

I don't want this country run by idiots.

[anonymous171]

16. Intellectuals are not necessarily intelligent

And if their hearts are not in the right place they can be downright malevolent like Milton Friedman or Henry Kissinger.

[izquierdista]

20. Dogmatism would disqualify them

When one's reasoned approach turns to shit each time it is tried, maybe it's a problem with one's reasoning. As we have found out, having Friedman advise on the economy is like having a creationist advise on the human genome project.

[dmallind]

25. ermm.... yes they are - and the opposite of intelligent is not malevolent

Being particularly intelligent does not make you particularly benign.

[armyowalgreens]

32. A key component to being an intellectual is being intelligent.

Whether or not they are good natured is another point entirely.

[Shell Beau]

11. It is better than the dumbass elites running the country as we

have had before. Why would I want anyone who isn't intellectual to run this country?

[TexasObserver]

13. Intellectual elites do NOT run the country. They work for the people who do.

[polichick]

14. Ya mean smart folks who eat organic greens - yep, I'm comfortable with that. nt

[ipaint]

15. The intellectual elites brought us to this point

so no.

[annabanana]

38. Who? the "intellectual elites" like the bush admin?. . . really?

[ipaint]

43. 30 years of neo-liberals and neo-cons.

Those intellectual elites. Guaranteed when it comes to policy and law the first heads put on the chopping block in the name of bipartisanship by the intellectual elites are those belonging to the slave wage classes, everytime.

[NoPasaran]

17. Sure. When can they start?

[yurbud]

21. I would prefer that to what we do have which is a brain dead financial elite of spoiled trust fund

babies.

[kestrel91316]

22. As someone who almost certainly is ONE OF the intellectual elite, by

virtue of my doctorate, I don't have a problem with it, lol.

I DO have a problem with willful stupidity and gross ignorance being valued more highly than education.

[SharonAnn]

23. Yes. I like smart people.

[dmallind]

24. I wasn't aware they were

There are certainly some eggheads in Obama's group but I don't see them as particularly intellectual or intellectually elite (in either the real or newly-acquired pejorative sense).

[alittlelark]

26. I am surrounded by the'Intellectual Elite' here in Silicon Valley

I would trust 90% much more than I would 'the average joe'.


The difference is primarily in looking ahead - not the next fiscal quarter.


I do know a few that would screw everyone thew could out of their $$$ (including family members). But most are very well educated and looking at the 'BIG PICTURE' instead of whats in it for them in the next few months.

[voc]

30. Do you? nt.

[Hekate]

34. I feel uncomfortable with someone writing one line and then DISCUSS! We're not in your classroom...

... and this isn't the midterm.

I'd feel more "comfortable" (if comfort is what you are aiming for) if you wrote an essay of your own outlining what you think the argument is. For instance, the thrust of your question is that "intellectual elites" are in fact running the nation. That is very one-sided -- and is it even true? Define your terms, outline your thoughts.

Then we have something we can discuss.

Hekate

[tkmorris]

35. Oh you mean, "smart people"?

Yeah. I do.

[TheKentuckian]

36. That would be a huge upgrade over the morans that have the wheel now

[MineralMan]

37. Hmm....no, I'd rather have college dropouts, like Limbaugh,

running the country. That'd be just great.

What is an "intellectual elite?" An intelligent, educated person? How awful!

[YoungAndOutraged]

39. No.

Because they will eventually tell me how to think and how to live.

[Posteritatis]

41. Actions unheard of from non-intellectual groups, I suppose. (nt)

[Javaman]

40. ahhh the classic hit and run post.

in other words, let me pee in the punch bowl and sit over here and see if any one notices. I the mean time, I will be laughing to myself.

sigh.

don't fall for these flamebaiting posts.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

44. May I join you? (n/t)

[Romulox]

42. The idea that being intelligent means having everyone's best interests at heart is itself idiotic.nt

[anonymous171]

45. +1. nt