Dartblog

In the discussion of Barack Obama, one of the important things that get lost is the difference between being elite and being an elitist, see CNN’s discussion of “Will the ‘elitist’ label stick to Obama.”

I posted a few days ago about Obama’s elitist comments, namely his disparaging remarks towards the faith and exercise of individual rights of others. This is Obama being an elitist, this certainly has no positive correlation with Obama’s level of eliteness or being elite at all.

In my mind the distinction between the two concepts is a sharp one. Being elite is good. Being elitist is bad. Elite is the last 8 teams standing in the NCAA tournament or a BMW 3-series or honor roll students at a local high school. These things are all good. Elitism, or being elitist, are not terms that simply describe the phenomenon of eliteness as an attitude or adjective, they are of an entirely different meaning altogether. Elitist comments, like those of Obama, put oneself on a self-righteous pedestal (for Dartmouth student readers, somewhat like a massive self-call). An elitist will denigrate other people, disparage their views, and depreciate their beliefs, maintaining that they occupy some sort of privileged intellectual position from which they, and they alone, can see the right. But of course this haughty attitude does not make a person any more right or elite.

I have heard commentary to the effect of: well, anyone who runs for president must ipso facto be an elitist because they necessarily believe they can make decisions for 300 million people. It is certainly true that many men who have served as president have been elite in the sense that they have been the most qualified person to hold the position, Washington and Jefferson come to mind, perhaps Kennedy, Reagan, and others. But seeking or occupying this position does not mean a person is an elitist. Indeed the political positions of nearly all parties on some issues and of some parties on all issues, stand for the notion that individuals are better equipped to make decisions for themselves than is the government or anybody else. This is very antithesis of political elitism.

In short, being elite (good) and being an elitist (bad) are two separate, very different phenomena. Persons can certainly be, and usually are, one without the other. Obama’s comments that faith in religion and respect for individual gun rights are necessarily some sort of false consciousness represent the worst type of elitism.