genuine, honest people differ not so much in their tastes as in their economic ability to indulge those tastes
- - - - - - - - -
Well, no - the problem for the elites is that mass production has so improved the standard of living that an increasingly refined taste is necessary to mark oneself.

In world in which H&M knocks off runway styles within 2 weeks - and everyone has fancy sunglasses - how do you signal your status?

Of course, the fact that more and more of us can live quite well makes the whole project of elitist striving ever lamer.

C S Lewis wrote about what he called charientocracy: rule by the "refined." One of his points in that adopting a veneer of culture in order to obtain social status tends to kill the *genuine* ability to appreciate art, music, etc.

So, the elites are revolting. Ok, tell something we didn't know.

What?

It strikes me that this is related to the "tiger mom" issue.

Is the affinity for piano, violin, etc really about love for these instruments and for classical music, or is it more typically about social signaling?

I think the answer is pretty obvious.

It's about signaling, David. Suzuki lessons are prohibitively expensive, and that's what the rich put their kids in. Whether they like it or not.

While there's some merit here, I find it obnoxious when "real Americans" prattle on about what the rest of us should think is important.

If I happen to like the Guggenheim and a glass of good white wine instead of a Bud and a football game, then I must be putting on airs. (BTW, the first couple of rounds of the Guggenheim are really good. I had enough around the time I hit the pictures of the girl cutting herself.)

The idea that what the average person likes is somehow more genuine than what snobs like is a snobbery all its own.

Monica...I also like wine better than beer, and I like sailing better than NASCAR or even the unlimited hydrdoplane races. But I view these preferences as matters of taste rather than assertions of class superiority. But there seem to be a lot of people who view all aspects of life, from sports preferences to grocery shopping, as nothing more than arenas for status competition.

I agree that many of these preferences amount to signaling, and I don't care. What I do resent is that so much of the content of their culture is dedicated to belittling the rest of us.

Every class uses its entertainment to define itself. And every class can be pretty insufferable about it.

I think there's a fine line between genuinely enjoying something and liking something because it's the "in" thing to do (with whatever group you want to be associated with).

There's something to be said for trying to grapple with more challenging things outside your own comfort zone, whether its Opera or Nascar. What I don't like is when people feel like they need to judge someone because their tastes are different. This goes for "elitists" and the often equally judgmental "non-elites."

There's plenty of room for all of these things and judging them before you've given anything a fair shake is stupid.

This article isn't actually very good, it's just a long winded rehash of ideas from sociology that were developed back in the 60's.

and then it jumps the tracks. Did you realize that Sarah Palin is someone who..

..despise(s) the knowledge that things could be better, that they themselves could be better. Meanwhile [she] secure(s) the ruin of our country by insisting on its perfection.

Does that statement make any sense?

I like watching TV and I like grappling with challenging books. I realized I was secure with myself when I didn't have to say I hated TV because you're supposed to hate TV. I love TV. Especially, as of late, "House," which is on tonight. I'll be reading The Things We Do: Using the Lessons of Bernard and Darwin to Understand the What, How, and Why of Our Behavior until it comes on.

-Upon making their money, real Americans are furthermore honest enough to spend it on those things that evolution or God have programmed humans to sincerely enjoy. In winter recreation, this might be snowmobiling -- genuine petroleum-burning fun! -- as opposed to cross-country skiing, a tedious trial of aerobic virtue.-

Oh, blech. I love snotty-assed idiots telling me what real Americans do, while complaining about elitism.

"Every class uses its entertainment to define itself."

I think not. I like what I like. I don't care enough about anyone else's approval to fake it, certainly not for some imaginary credential.

The big difference between our contemporary Elite and the old WASP Elite, is that the WASPs, for whatever their faults, believed in democracy and civil rights. They may not have liked the rabble, but they still thought that they were entitled to freedom of assembly, and fair trial, and that sort of thing. Our contemporary Elites don't believe in any of these things, except for themselves. We're just a bunch of meat puppets to be coerced and humiliated for their entertainment. If the Al Gores of the world get their way, the result will be genocide.

Any time that someone writes the phrase "real Americans" you can be certain that they're full of the same sort of snotty resentments they accuse the elitists of.

Do what you enjoy, experiment a bit from time to time so you don't get bored, and don't sweat the fact that there will be plenty of others – decent upstanding people, for the most part – who don't get pleasure from the same things as you. And that's fine.

I like the visual of ˆsnotty-assedˆ. Made me laugh. Disgusting.

Don't be around when they sneeze, Abersouth!

Oh it isn't just the rich. You guys have never been a homeschooling convention. I would rather eat glass then go back to the "homeschooling moms group". You should have seen their faces when I told them how I taught my kids map skills and got them wanting to learn to read.. Here's a hint, it involved Legend of Zelda and Fallout 3. Video games are evil.. Except every well paid nerd hubby and I know were serious gamers as children.. This fact isn't mentioned in homeschool circles and playing games during the week just isn't done.. If you don't have a shelf full of board games and all wood toys you are failing according to them.. Not that we don't have learning toys but I will use anything at my disposal to teach the kiddos.. They are dyslexic and one or 2 may have autism so I have to be creative..

I think it would probably be the same in any click. You have to mimic them or you are ousted.. Well one mom still talks to me but we used to be neighbors and our kids were out together during the day..

Another problem is a good bit of the stuff that is pushed on you is crap. I suspect this is also an issue in any other click. You are required to pretend you like stuff you don't, or that the juicer you bought because everyone else had it is great. I avoid "for kids" books and most textbooks like the plague. I was seriously ridiculed for not using the Seton program.. Id rather die than give money to a couple who recommend in their parenting book for parents to hose down bed wetters.. Besides I have found programs that are less harsh and more interesting..

Anyhow.. I am guessing anybody who gets their head stuck so far up their but they are recycling their own food is going to be miserable. You can't look down on so many people as inferior without becoming lonely. Those who are like this will interpret the loneliness as being because there is just no one else like them but its really because no one else can stand to be around them..

I don't care enough about anyone else's approval to fake it,

I have no problem admitting that I do this. Sometimes I watch football games or movies I hate because I like the people, or because I need to spend time with them for some reason, and that's what they're doing. I don't really enjoy the books my office's book club reads, but it was nice having those connections when I asked for a promotion.

I don't need to turn my entertainment choices into a case of Taking a Stand for My Individuality. It's OK to do something boring to fit in from time to time.

What's the argument here -- "I find it boring so you must be bullshitting and posturing if you say you like it?"

Sorry, that's the argument of someone with a big-ass chip on his shoulder.

Believe it or not, some of us sincerely like things that other people find boring. I've read Thomas Hardy's "Jude the Obscure" fifteen times. I don't talk about it at cocktail parties -- I just think it's a wonderful novel. I can't bear romance novels or America's Funniest Home Videos, but I get that other people like them and I don't have a problem with it. Actually, I get a kick out of watching Bridezillas occasionally and I have no problem admitting that either. Far more of my friends know I like Bridezillas than know I like Hardy.

You like what you like. I find it fucking annoying when someone pretends to like Hardy -- I can spot 'em out in 5 seconds -- but I find it equally annoying when someone declares it's impossible that anyone could like Hardy.

People need to get over feeling insecure about themselves and their tastes.

Some people also genuinely like brussels sprouts and liver. Others hate gummy bears. Why is it so difficult to believe that someone else might actually like something you find unpalatable, or dislike something you think is wonderful?

I hate football. I love Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Love Trollope. Hate James Joyce. Love Harry Potter. Hate John Grisham. Does that mean that people who feel otherwise are faking it? No, it doesn't.

Tastes. Fucking. Differ. Get over feeling threatened and just like what you like. Sheesh.

This article seems like yet another diatribe about how the ignorant masses are too stupid to understand that elite liberals are fighting for them.

Instead, the Great Unwashed has fallen under the sway of populist demagogues who are leading them to their doom and telling them they don't need no education.

It's What's the Matter with Kansas? all over again - anyone who agrees with conservatives is an ignoramus too stupid to understand that liberal egalitarian socio-economic policies are good for him.

It’s educated language and egalitarian ideas that particularly elicit the accusation of elitism today, and particularly in combination.

A truly democratic America, offering (among other things) universal higher education as well as equalized funding for primary and secondary schools, would still possess a cultural elite, but simultaneously a more talented and less resented one than we have — than we ourselves are — today. The resentful right, under the banner — hoisted alike by Beck, Huckabee, and Palin — of common sense, flatters deprivation as wisdom by implying to the uneducated that an education isn’t worth having. The violence this bigoted proposition has done to the talents and capacities of millions of people is incalculable, unforgivable. But of course the resentment of the class character of education thus mobilized is entirely legitimate.

I also get some letters about within-relationship snobbery; usually about a guy's friends.

You should do a column on that, because it's a huge issue. It's sad how common it is for a guy to lose most of his male friends once he gets married. Most of my married friends have to call me away from the house or their wives will start on them. I don't think that it's always snobbery though, sometimes its just her being controlling. You'll notice that she gets to keep all of her friends.

I personally wasn't referring to like things that are popular. If you liked NKOTB way back when fine but I personally hated boy bands and wouldn't have wanted people looking down on me because I didn't conform. Using a thing as a status symbol is the problem.. Whether it is going to the theatre, taking piano lessons, hating video games or drinking wine as long as you don't think your better than everyone who doesn't..

I personally have no problem with someone using a curriculum I personally wouldn't use. We are free to use whatever we have to to get across the lesson to our kids and we as parents know what works. The issue is people declaring you less of a person because you don't use the same thing they do. Doesn't matter what the thing is.

Some people like to use status symbols. It makes them feel special. That's fine with me. They are free to enjoy their imaginary status, and I am free to ignore it.

"You'll notice that she gets to keep all of her friends."

Eight thousand miles puts an end to that. Too bad, I like her friends.

I actually like modernist music. Then again, I also like "Wipeout". Still trying to decide what kind of American that makes me.

Cousin Dave -- It makes you an American with diverse music taste and an interesting iPod playlist (or CD collection).