{"id":810,"date":"2024-08-06T17:03:33","date_gmt":"2024-08-06T22:03:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/outsidevoice.com\/?p=810"},"modified":"2024-08-06T17:03:35","modified_gmt":"2024-08-06T22:03:35","slug":"intellectual-snobbery-burns-my-ass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/outsidevoice.com\/?p=810","title":{"rendered":"Intellectual Snobbery Burns My Ass"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Over the years, I have been repeatedly admonished by the people who are supposed to love me best, as I am, that I am not to speak of certain \u201cfancy\u201d topics in a social setting. Um. Wat? Hellooooo?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My husband told me 17 years ago that I should not reference the reversing, spiraling pattern of an aimless, choked-up Thanksgiving Buffet line as \u201ckinda like an MC Escher drawing, amiright? *LOL, swigs some more mojito from my red Solo cup*.\u201d I wasn\u2019t being some weird smarty-pants snob – I *saw* the image of the \u201cRelativity\u201d print in my head and I spoke of it, in what I thought<\/em> was a friendly and joking manner. He was bothered. He thought I was being high-falutin’ and would make a poor impression on a group I was meeting for the first time in a social setting. No such thing was intended. I visualized a thing, I shared it socially. I was chided<\/em>. I’m still really annoyed about that event. I married him anyway, on the assumption that his intent was positive. However, I am clearly still troubled by what occurred in an otherwise very relaxed, celebratory environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
MC Escher – “Relativity”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


At the bar of our Lodge today, my mother whispered a demand that I stop discussing Ayn Rand and my recommendation of starting with \u201cAnthem,\u201d skipping right past \u201cThe Fountainhead\u201d (not a likable character in that turd), and heading for the delight of \u201cAtlas Shrugged\u201d and going Galt to the gentleman on my left. I think she assumed intellectual snobbery on my part. I really do wish she had considered that adults can have conversations she might not have the full context for instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Start With THIS One! If you go “ooooh! YES,” then do read “Atlas Shrugged” – it will take a while, it’s a very fat novel, filled with serious and highly relatable concepts. You may love it!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The line I am fed on a recurring basis is that I am speaking over others\u2019 heads and they won\u2019t know what I am talking about. I passionately<\/em><\/strong> disagree<\/em><\/strong>. Nearly everybody has seen the image of the funky-ass staircases by Escher, even if they don\u2019t know the artist\u2019s name, nor the title of the artwork. C’mon, now – what do you think the House staircases in the Harry Potter movies were based on? A rather large amount of people have heard of \u201cgoing Galt,\u201d or \u201cAtlas Shrugged.\u201d They may not know Ayn Rand\u2019s name, or have heard of Objectivism, but they are at least lightly aware of the concept of the \u201cdoers\u201d versus the \u201cfeeders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What irks the crap<\/em> outta me is people assuming my buddy at the bar at the Lodge won\u2019t \u201cget\u201d Ayn Rand. So. Guess what? He and I had a really great half-buzzed talk about esoteric literature and he took notes about Rand on his iPhone, and sent me a screen shot of \u201cThe Art of War\u201d by Sun Tzu, a work I was not familiar with. He\u2019s going to read \u201cAnthem,\u201d and I am going to at least scan the Cliff Notes version of \u201cThe Art of War.\u201d Then we will regroup over cocktails and snacks and discuss further. Because even middle-aged drunks can talk about something more than what\u2019s on the local bar\u2019s TV screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I firmly believe that assuming others cannot grasp a concept they have not been exposed to is presumptuous at best and, quite frankly, damned insulting to everybody in the conversation. I prefer not to decide what the intellectual capacity of somebody I am speaking with is out of the gate, and if you do, shame the heck on you, dear Sir or Madam. Shame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Give everybody a chance and offer some context they can grasp before you get judgy, howboutdat?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\/rantover<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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