I've recently heard some things about 'white privilege' and for many years, I've been interested in this notion of private or Grammar Schools being classified as 'elitist'. Some people in the UK feel hard done by because they didn't go to such a school, and they feel the solution is to get rid of them.
Here's an article from 2012 regarding shock or surprise that over 80% of people in the government went to 'elite' schools. And here's an article from this year illustrating a wish for extra burdens on these 'elite' schools, because they seem to be seen as a way for the rich to get richer.
My current thinking is that elitism is essentially about language.
To create an elite group, you need to have a language that only your group understand. This is done in one of two ways:
1) Use complicated language that outsiders can't understand. This is seen in certain churches (using words such as 'transubstantiation', 'substitutionary atonement', and so on) and also in politics, where every sentence has to be carefully dissected to understand what they are really talking about.
2) Use a set of acronyms that outsiders can't understand. Most organisations do this, usually to help speed up communication, but it has the same effect. In my life, I have worked with people who are classified as ADD, ADHD, ASD, MAT, ODD, SLD, and so on. My job descriptions have also included being described as a SLSO, SST, SW, TA, YW and probably more.
Both methods make it difficult for outsiders to become part of the group. More than this, the language can be used to show how far 'in' with the group a person is. People who use the specialised language as part of conversation are clearly 'high up' in the group, and people who struggle to use it are clearly on the outside. It's essentially the cultural barrier of language, but in an environment where the 'ins' and 'outs' are meant to be speaking the same language.
The problem is made worse in the instance when the two groups should be speaking the same language. Because so many words are understood, the problems will make the insider feel frustrated: often resulting in feeling like the outsider is stupid, or, more recently, making the insider tell the outsider to essentially 'get with the times'.
I say 'more recently' because that is exactly what's happening with the current social trend of transgenderism. With 'political correctness' reaching an idiotic level, people subscribing to transgenderism are using the misunderstanding of their elite language to implicate people as bullies or supporters of 'hate crime'.
When written like that, it seems ridiculous. But it's happening.
Whilst on the one hand governments are trying to prevent elitism, society is forming it's own elite group in the form of this supposedly 'trendy' transgenderism... and now the elite group are forcing the hand of governments to make the rest of the population submit to their wishes.
Elitism has not been eradicated. And that means segregation has not been eradicated either. History is repeating itself, it's just that the rules are changing.
Here's an article from 2012 regarding shock or surprise that over 80% of people in the government went to 'elite' schools. And here's an article from this year illustrating a wish for extra burdens on these 'elite' schools, because they seem to be seen as a way for the rich to get richer.
My current thinking is that elitism is essentially about language.
To create an elite group, you need to have a language that only your group understand. This is done in one of two ways:
1) Use complicated language that outsiders can't understand. This is seen in certain churches (using words such as 'transubstantiation', 'substitutionary atonement', and so on) and also in politics, where every sentence has to be carefully dissected to understand what they are really talking about.
2) Use a set of acronyms that outsiders can't understand. Most organisations do this, usually to help speed up communication, but it has the same effect. In my life, I have worked with people who are classified as ADD, ADHD, ASD, MAT, ODD, SLD, and so on. My job descriptions have also included being described as a SLSO, SST, SW, TA, YW and probably more.
Both methods make it difficult for outsiders to become part of the group. More than this, the language can be used to show how far 'in' with the group a person is. People who use the specialised language as part of conversation are clearly 'high up' in the group, and people who struggle to use it are clearly on the outside. It's essentially the cultural barrier of language, but in an environment where the 'ins' and 'outs' are meant to be speaking the same language.
The problem is made worse in the instance when the two groups should be speaking the same language. Because so many words are understood, the problems will make the insider feel frustrated: often resulting in feeling like the outsider is stupid, or, more recently, making the insider tell the outsider to essentially 'get with the times'.
I say 'more recently' because that is exactly what's happening with the current social trend of transgenderism. With 'political correctness' reaching an idiotic level, people subscribing to transgenderism are using the misunderstanding of their elite language to implicate people as bullies or supporters of 'hate crime'.
When written like that, it seems ridiculous. But it's happening.
Whilst on the one hand governments are trying to prevent elitism, society is forming it's own elite group in the form of this supposedly 'trendy' transgenderism... and now the elite group are forcing the hand of governments to make the rest of the population submit to their wishes.
Elitism has not been eradicated. And that means segregation has not been eradicated either. History is repeating itself, it's just that the rules are changing.
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