Hi Peter and all, I think the meaning of the word elites in the United States is changing quite dramatically, and is possibly an extraordinary example of the diifference between meaning and sense, and the ways in which context, including material context, can change sense. I think the meaning of elite is one of above, controlling, separate from in a disproportionate way is more or less agreed upon. But I think the sense has changed dramatically over the last few decades. It is true that when I was growing up elites had much the same meaning as Peter describes, academics, and east coast liberals who thought they knew better. It was a phrase used primarily by conservatives as part of what here in the United States is known as the culture wars. Perhpas one of the best examples was a very popular show in this country called "All in the Family" in which a blue collar worker lives a life, I don't know how to say it, close to the urban land, and is constantly railing against those who he believes are trying to control him because they think they know better because of their higher education (it is a comedy and a very good one). But perhpas the most important part of that show, looking back, is the main character is actually rather unaware of the world around him and wants to remain that way. He has only a high school diploma but he is able to give his small family a mostly middle class lifestyle in New York City (Queens actually). I almost never see elites used in that "sense" today and it is rarely used by conservatitve. As the income distribution in this country has increased, and people like the character from All in the Family move more or less towards distinction, and as people lose their houses, and as people begin to see gain or material benefits more and more unfair "elites" has taken on a very different sense. It is used these days by Occupy Wall Street and those who are sympathetic to describe bankers and corporatists and what many consider the new oligarchy in the United States. Interesting enough it is now the same conservative who used to use elites as a code word to create a cutlural divide who scream against the use of elites as promoting class warefare. It is I think such an interesting example in that meaning has remained almost exactly the same but the sense - the "sense" I think that Jay was using the word - has flipped 180 degrees. Michael ________________________________ From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu on behalf of Peter Smagorinsky Sent: Tue 5/29/2012 6:11 AM To: ablunden@mira.net; eXtended Mind, Culture,Activity Subject: RE: [xmca] Fwd: The Privilege of Absurdity My apologies for my US-centric references. The Underground Railroad was the escape route for slaves prior to the US Civil War, and they used coded texts to provide directions. "Follow the drinking gourd" was a spiritual that was coded to indicate that when traveling at night, slaves should follow the Little Dipper constellation to make sure they were always headed toward the North Star, which is in the constellation. There was a whole range of symbols embedded in quilts and other homely objects designed to indicate the escape routes and hiding places. The "n-word" is the polite term for "nigger" which has historically served as a hateful term used by Whites on Blacks, more recently appropriated by Blacks for their own usage. My chippy (in the US, meaning aggressive and easily irritated) response concerned Jay's dismissal of his opponents as "elites," which in the US has served as the Conservative term to dismiss academics or anyone else with an informed position that they don't like. It tends to be anti-intellectual in usage, which I regret to say is characteristic of much public opinion in my beloved land. "Elites" are to be distrusted because of their social engineering, their drinking of wine instead of beer, and eating of arugula instead of regular old lettuce, etc. So any time an academic gives an opinion, it's dismissed as "elitist" and Joe the Plumber is consulted for what Real Americans think. And so Barak Obama, who grew up in a single-parent home with little money, was painted as an "elitist" because he taught at a private law school before entering politics full-time; meanwhile, his immensely wealthy opponent (McCain) and dimwit running mate (Palin) were somehow cast as "Real Americans" who could be trusted, unlike the elitist academic, Obama. So, I was quite surprised to see Jay use "elitist" in the same pejorative way to describe policymakers whose beliefs he opposes, since it's the same means by which Jay, you, and I are dismissed by the political Right in the US. It's just a tactic I don't like because it creates a straw person that's easy to blow away because it's based on caricature and overgeneralization. p -----Original Message----- From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Andy Blunden Sent: Sunday, May 27, 2012 11:48 AM To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity Subject: Re: [xmca] Fwd: The Privilege of Absurdity Peter, your interesting email is so full of (what are to me) esoteric allusions that I can hardly grasp your meaning. But would you agree that in this discussion there seems to be an unwarranted presumption that equality is a universal norm? Granted that the "moral equality" of all human beings is rightfully a universal norm, but we take for granted all kinds of situational inequality. If I buy something in a shop I don't claim equality in determining the price of the goods. In the hospital ED I don't claim equality with the triarge nurse in determining priorities. And we accept that a mother has the right and duty to control the behaviour of their child and not vice versa, etc. Andy Peter Smagorinsky wrote: > Are "elites" (whatever they are) the only ones who manipulate symbols? Consider the underground railroad, in which a whole system of symbolic subterfuge was developed to provide roadmaps to the North (e.g., the song, Follow the Drinking Gourd). Or the current appropriation of "the n-word" to take on a whole new set of meanings. > > -----Original Message----- > From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] > On Behalf Of David H Kirshner > Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2012 12:33 AM > To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity > Subject: RE: [xmca] Fwd: The Privilege of Absurdity > > This is a very interesting question, and I hope others will chime in. > > In the current political climate in the U.S. of manufactured science, spin doctors, and attack ads, it's very hard not to side with Jay that symbols and ideologies are being deliberately manipulated by elites in ways that directly serve their economic interests. Even though these operatives no doubt rationalize their actions in terms of "the greater good," it seems very difficult to argue that these elites are not deliberately deploying cultural ideas, symbols, and rituals with the intent to manipulate the "dupes." > > Where the analysis becomes more difficult to sustain is in the case of "traditional churches and their religions as well as historical and modern ideologies of more secular kinds" which Jay "would emphatically include." First, it is easy to concede that many of these institutions serve the interests of elites. For instance, the Judeo-Christian holy scriptures make frequent reference to eternal obligations of ordinary people to the poor, thereby sanctifying class divisions. And in the Hebrew scriptures, with which I am somewhat better acquainted, there is precise codification of obligations to the Priestly class--definitely self-serving, if one assumes it was exactly that class that wrote/selected the canonical texts. But in the meantime, with the destruction of the Second Temple, there is no longer a Priestly class in Jewish theological practice, so it is not so obvious who the "elites" > perpetrating modern Judaism are, or that their intentions are self-serving. > > David > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] > On Behalf Of Greg Thompson > Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2012 11:27 PM > To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity > Subject: Re: [xmca] Fwd: The Privilege of Absurdity > > Jay, > I, for one, am deeply skeptical of how intentional are the "creations of elites." The elites certainly benefit from these creations, but I think that they are dupes just like the rest of us. The elites just happen to be the "lucky" dupes (depending, of course, on what you mean by "lucky"). > > My sense is that it's dupes all the way down! (or "up," as the case may be). > > -greg > > p.s. Seems better to look at the structure of the system for the key to the problem. > > > On Wed, May 23, 2012 at 11:15 AM, Jay Lemke <jaylemke@umich.edu> wrote: > > >> And not just cultural mediation, but cultural politics. If we strip >> away the rhetoric of sacred and moral values, we find, I think, that >> all such grand causes for which people fight and die, or just slave >> away, are the creations of elites who benefit from the naive trust in >> these ideas, symbols, and rituals by large numbers of other people. I >> think the usual term for such people is, unfortunately but >> accurately, >> > dupes. > >> I do not believe that evolution has endowed our species with any >> special propensity for being duped by false gods. Our herd comfort in >> grand causes and ideals may be real enough, but it is simply the >> political manipulation of the underlying human capacity for mediation >> by symbols (discourses, images, ideologies, etc.) that gives cover to >> the pursuit of their own interests by elites. >> >> The problem is not even so much that all such gods are false. It is >> that they are gods made by other people to serve themselves. And I >> would emphatically include in this analysis the traditional churches >> and their religions as well as historical and modern ideologies of >> more secular kinds. It is customary in polite society to simply >> tolerate these forms of mass deception for the comfort they give to >> those who have little else, but I think we know that this is not the >> > path to a better world for all. > >> JAY. >> >> On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 5:25 PM, mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> >>> I have a suspicion that cultural mediation may play a role here. >>> What do you think? >>> mike >>> >>> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- >>> From: Scott Atran <satran@umich.edu> >>> Date: Tue, May 22, 2012 at 12:36 PM >>> Subject: The Privilege of Absurdity >>> To: COG-SCI-REL-L@jiscmail.ac.uk >>> >>> >>> Science and Religion Today >>> >>> >>> >>> >> http://www.scienceandreligiontoday.com/2012/05/22/how-can-a-better-un >> d erstanding-of-sacred-values-help-us-resolve-intergroup-conflicts/ >> >>> Humans define the groups to which they belong in abstract terms. >>> Often >>> >> they >> >>> strive for lasting intellectual and emotional bonding with anonymous >>> > > >>> others, and make their greatest exertions in killing and dying not >>> to preserve their own lives or to defend their families and friends, >>> > > >>> but for the sake of an idea-the transcendent moral conception they >>> form of themselves, of "who we are." This is the "the privilege of >>> absurdity; to which no living creature is subject, but man only'" of >>> > > >>> which Hobbes wrote in *Leviathan*. In*The Descent of Man*, Darwin >>> cast it as the virtue of "morality ... the spirit of patriotism, >>> fidelity, obedience, courage, and sympathy" with which winning >>> groups are better endowed in history's spiraling competition for >>> survival and dominance. Across cultures, >>> >> primary >> >>> group identity is bounded by sacred values, often in the form of >>> >> religious >> >>> beliefs or transcendental ideologies, which lead some groups to >>> triumph over others because of non-rational commitment from at least >>> > > >>> some of its members to actions that drive success independent, or >>> all out of proportion, from expected rational outcomes. >>> >>> For Darwin himself, moral virtue was most clearly associated not >>> with intuitions, beliefs, and behaviors about fairness and >>> reciprocity, emotionally supported by empathy and consolation-which >>> constitute nearly the entire subject matter of recent work in the >>> philosophy, psychology, >>> >> and >> >>> neuroscience of morality-but with a propensity to what we nowadays >>> call "parochial altruism": especially extreme self-sacrifice in war >>> and other intense forms of human conflict, where likely prospects >>> for individual >>> >> and >> >>> even group survival had very low initial probability. Heroism, >>> martyrdom, and other forms of self-sacrifice for the group appear to >>> > > >>> go beyond the mutualistic principles of fairness and reciprocity.... >>> >>> >>> >>> >> http://www.scienceandreligiontoday.com/2012/05/22/how-can-a-better-un >> d erstanding-of-sacred-values-help-us-resolve-intergroup-conflicts/ >> >>> __________________________________________ >>> _____ >>> xmca mailing list >>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu >>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca >>> >>> >> >> -- >> Jay Lemke >> Senior Research Scientist >> Laboratory for Comparative Human Cognition Adjunct Full Professor, >> Department of Communication University of California - San Diego >> 9500 Gilman Drive >> La Jolla, California 92093-0506 >> >> New Website: www.jaylemke.com >> >> Professor (Adjunct status 2011-2012) >> School of Education >> University of Michigan >> Ann Arbor, MI 48109 >> >> Professor Emeritus >> City University of New York >> __________________________________________ >> _____ >> xmca mailing list >> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu >> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca >> >> > > > > -- > Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D. > Sanford I. Berman Post-Doctoral Scholar Laboratory of Comparative > Human Cognition Department of Communication University of California, > San Diego http://ucsd.academia.edu/GregoryThompson > __________________________________________ > _____ > xmca mailing list > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca > __________________________________________ > _____ > xmca mailing list > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca > > > __________________________________________ > _____ > xmca mailing list > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca > > > -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Andy Blunden* Joint Editor MCA: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hmca20/18/1 Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/ Book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1608461459/ __________________________________________ _____ xmca mailing list xmca@weber.ucsd.edu http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca __________________________________________ _____ xmca mailing list xmca@weber.ucsd.edu http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
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