"The true elitist believes the absolute best things ever painted, written, and composed should be ruthlessly weaponised and lavished to anyone with the faintest interest."
Yes. There's nothing wrong with elitism if you are truly elite; this can be intellectual, artistic, athletic, etc. The problem is two-fold; first, young people today seem to be educated in the belief that anything produced before the 1960s (and maybe even the 21st century) was a bunch of racist, sexist, and homophobic garbage produced by cis-gender white hetero males. Thus, 9 out of ten poets on Substack cite no poet before 1960 as an influence and 90% say Mary Oliver is their favorite.
Secondly, the people above style themselves as "elite," and most normal people see through that equine excrement and don't wish to be associated with them in any way, shape, or form so they push back by being too broadly anti-intellectual.
We need to resuscitate true intellectualism, which is not the sole purvue of Ivy League or Oxford/Cambridge grads, or even the college educated, but includes anyone who can read and is intellectually curious.
Well done Christopher! Beneath all the wit, there’s an important point here that deserves saying: treating intelligence, vocabulary, taste and intellectual curiosity as somehow elitist is itself one of the most patronising ideas imaginable. Culture should be opened up, not dumbed down.
And, as usual, the wit well apparently has no bottom. Bastard.
Stephen Bartlett. "Two glasses of wine ruined my life for 3 days" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 what a lightweight. And how pretentious. I was labouring under the assumption my eldest admired this giant of business and abstemiousness, but no 😂 I'm astonished to discover he can't stand the blighter 😂 Eldest swears he will never drink. Younger son is a chip off. The nanosecond he turns 18, he will be pissed up somewhere. In fact, we found out he'd sneaked some of our shoe gin "after a hard day at school" tbf his biology teacher is a right cow, so we've agreed when he turns 16 in January he can enjoy the odd lager at home. Better to have your first experience somewhere safe ...
We saw julius Caesar at The Minack this year, it was excellent. Highly recommend it, although you have to take your own booze. It's built into a cliff and tbf you do need your wits about you somewhat so its not a good idea to be completely off your head. Although they haven't lost anyone yet.....
"The true elitist believes the absolute best things ever painted, written, and composed should be ruthlessly weaponised and lavished to anyone with the faintest interest."
Yes. There's nothing wrong with elitism if you are truly elite; this can be intellectual, artistic, athletic, etc. The problem is two-fold; first, young people today seem to be educated in the belief that anything produced before the 1960s (and maybe even the 21st century) was a bunch of racist, sexist, and homophobic garbage produced by cis-gender white hetero males. Thus, 9 out of ten poets on Substack cite no poet before 1960 as an influence and 90% say Mary Oliver is their favorite.
Secondly, the people above style themselves as "elite," and most normal people see through that equine excrement and don't wish to be associated with them in any way, shape, or form so they push back by being too broadly anti-intellectual.
We need to resuscitate true intellectualism, which is not the sole purvue of Ivy League or Oxford/Cambridge grads, or even the college educated, but includes anyone who can read and is intellectually curious.
The Lincoln Legend lives...
Well done Christopher! Beneath all the wit, there’s an important point here that deserves saying: treating intelligence, vocabulary, taste and intellectual curiosity as somehow elitist is itself one of the most patronising ideas imaginable. Culture should be opened up, not dumbed down.
And, as usual, the wit well apparently has no bottom. Bastard.
Stephen Bartlett. "Two glasses of wine ruined my life for 3 days" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 what a lightweight. And how pretentious. I was labouring under the assumption my eldest admired this giant of business and abstemiousness, but no 😂 I'm astonished to discover he can't stand the blighter 😂 Eldest swears he will never drink. Younger son is a chip off. The nanosecond he turns 18, he will be pissed up somewhere. In fact, we found out he'd sneaked some of our shoe gin "after a hard day at school" tbf his biology teacher is a right cow, so we've agreed when he turns 16 in January he can enjoy the odd lager at home. Better to have your first experience somewhere safe ...
We saw julius Caesar at The Minack this year, it was excellent. Highly recommend it, although you have to take your own booze. It's built into a cliff and tbf you do need your wits about you somewhat so its not a good idea to be completely off your head. Although they haven't lost anyone yet.....
Thank you for this entertaining post which gave me much amusement - a Saturday evening treat.