Some people say that Barack Obama is an elitist. They say that the presidential hopeful looks down on the rest of the American public, believing that he is better than all of them. He may be trying to present an image of hope for the country, but most folks have a problem with elitism. At the same time, they don’t want some unqualified schmuck to get the office in the White House either and therein lies the quandary of elitism.
Better, But Not Better
When we look to leaders like Barack Obama, we expect them to be better equipped to run things. The same can be said about guys like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates who run some rather successful companies. We want them to be better than us at what they do. We want to be led by someone who is inspired, knowledgeable, and well-skilled.
Ironically, we also want these leaders to be “one of us”, in the sense that we share the same interests, views, and opinions. It’s also admirable when a leader is well-grounded and humble. We want him to be one of the boys. We don’t want someone to look down on us, pushing us off into a corner because we are not worthy of his presence.
In this way, we want the person in charge to be better than us without activating the inferiority complex in all of us. This leader should inspire us to be smarter, faster, and stronger. We want this leader to be better without actually acting like he is any better.
I’m a Victim of Elitism
I’m a pretty competitive person and I work hard at what I do. As a result, I am constantly comparing myself to others. Looking to people who are more successful than I am, I can feel motivated to improve my lot in life. That’s a good thing. However, when you look to people who are less successful, less skillful, or less knowledgeable, there appears to be some innate tendency to look down upon them. They say that it’s lonely at the top, but it’s comforting to look down upon everyone at the bottom.
For this reason, we may be led to believe that society should be governed by the upper echelon of its citizens. We look to people who are especially skilled or well-educated, because they may be better suited to make the right decision for everyone. You wouldn’t want an ignorant person to make all of your decisions, would you? You want solutions that are well-researched and explored, right?
At the same time, you want everyone to have their say. We live in a democratic society and everyone is supposed to be viewed as equals. Elitism is quite the double-edged sword. What’s your take?
I made a long comment but deleted it because I don’t want to make a political statement. There is some real truth to the statement “Everyone is equal, some are just more equal than others” in the way many politicians act and vote.
I think it is fair to point out that many how claim the rich CEO’s need to be taxed more are also senators with 6 figure incomes and million dollar pensions who can’t pass an already unbalanced budget without adding billions to it.
Sorry, it still got political. 🙂
Isn’t it also amazing how those wealthy Congressmen are always eager to give themselves pay raises too? Yeah, “tax the rich” and then vote yourself a nice pay raise to cover your own assets…
We look to people who are especially skilled or well-educated, because they may be better suited to make the right decision for everyone. You wouldn’t want an ignorant person to make all of your decisions, would you? You want solutions that are well-researched and explored, right?
A truly enlightened leader would recognize that he (or she) is not the best person to make the right decisions for everyone. Anyone who thinks he or she is capable of making the right decisions for everyone is actually the ignorant one.
I think the person in the best position to make the right decisions for me is, well, me. I think that “The best government is that which governs least,” which was the motto of The United States Magazine and Democratic Review. Ironically, the magazine promoted Jacksonian Democracy, from which the modern day Democratic Party has its roots.
So, as far as elitism goes, if someone thinks they are better able to make decisions for others than the people can make for themselves, that is exactly the type of person that should never be elected to public office in any capacity. Here in America we’ve long been the champion of self-government, where each person is among the elite and self-rules.
I agree that there can certainly be a bit of a double-edged sword, however, depending on how you look at it, it could be looking at two seperate things.
First is the person’s skills, abilities, etc and the second is their personality.
For example, there could be two highly successful bloggers that have similar traffic stats and incomes from their blogs and post roughtly the same amount. One of these bloggers might reply to emails and comments as well as visit other sites and participate on those sites. The other could write their posts and that’s about it, no responses to comments, no visits to their visitor’s sites, no reponse to emails, etc….
In this hypothetical situation, which of the two would you rather vote for in a “my favorite blogger” contest? It would likely be the one who participates, is reachable, and “one of us” rather than the one who acts better than everyone else, even though they are otherwise equal…..
What is that you said? You need to speak louder, I cannot hear you from way up here. 😉
Obama is a sellout, mclame is a sellout, The only one’s losing in this election are the american people.
You have two different factions of a management team fighting for control of the company “Usa” which is a registered coporation.
America is not a democratic society, nor was it ever intended to be, It is a republic
we cant have 51 percent of the people voting away the right’s of the other49%
It also wasnt meant to be, what it has turned into.
Our founder’s are rolling over in there grave,
The fat lady is singing.
Get ready The fun is just about to begin.
sINCE SH!T roll’s down hill I think you canadian’s will be allright.
Just peer over the fence and say
those crazy fckr’s are at it again.