{"id":1468,"date":"2009-09-14T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-15T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2009\/09\/14\/populism-fails\/"},"modified":"2009-09-14T22:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-09-15T06:00:00","slug":"populism-fails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2009\/09\/14\/populism-fails\/","title":{"rendered":"populism fails!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The popular crowd is missing the point about elitism! Maybe Bauder is right, after all. See the discussion at SI regarding Bauder\u2019s article #4. You have to start about here<\/a> for the pertinent discussion.<\/p>\n

And in the discussion from my revised article<\/a>, it appears that at least one of my readers is missing the point also. (I am going to use some material from one of my comments on that post for the content of this one.)<\/p>\n

What is NOT elitism?<\/p>\n

Elitism isn\u2019t about the possession of fine art, fine clothes, fine cars, fine educations, or even a fine vocabulary. Elitism isn\u2019t about having expertise. Elitism isn\u2019t about one\u2019s opinions carrying extra weight in an area where you have expertise.<\/p>\n

OF COURSE someone who is an expert has more authority in the area he has gained expertise! A doctor simply knows more about medicine, a trained musician simply knows more about music, a theologian (in theory) simply knows more about theology. That knowledge tends to carry weight, and it should.<\/p>\n

I am not arguing against differences in authority, expertise, taste, what have you, when I am arguing against elitism.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Elitism is an attitude of the heart.<\/p>\n

\n

e\u00b7lit\u00b7ism or \u00e9\u00b7lit\u00b7ism n. ((The American Heritage\u00ae Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright \u00a9 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. ))<\/p>\n

1. The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources.<\/p>\n

2.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The sense of entitlement enjoyed by such a group or class.<\/li>\n
  2. Control, rule, or domination by such a group or class.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    Do you see the spiritual problems here? Do you see the ATTITUDES?<\/p>\n

      \n
    • \u201ccertain persons \u2026 DESERVE favored treatment\u201d<\/li>\n
    • \u201csense of entitlement\u201d<\/li>\n
    • \u201ccontrol, rule, or domination\u2026\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Instead of this, the popular discussion over at SI is whether or not someone with expertise has something more to say about a particular subject, or whether the issue is the education of believers or not. It seems to be following a rabbit trail that is, for the most part, missing everything.<\/p>\n

      One poster did highlight this paragraph from Bauder\u2019s essay which I also highlighted in my comments on the thread linked above.<\/p>\n

      \n

      People like to pride themselves upon being able to make their own choices and develop their own opinions. The fact is, though, that not everyone is equally qualified to make every choice or to hold every opinion. <\/strong>When unqualified people are asked to develop opinions and to make choices, they invariably look for leadership\u2014often, the kind of leadership that will lead them to believe that they are acting on their own, while manipulating or stampeding them into doing its will. That kind of demagoguery has come to typify some branches of Fundamentalism.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

      This paragraph, while not fully developing its ideas, does lend itself to the view that the common people can\u2019t be trusted. It is the key part of the essay which gives rise to questions about elitism and strength of support for congregational rule.<\/p>\n

      Note especially the sentence I emphasized in bold. Note the words \u201cnot everyone is equally qualified to make every choice\u201d.<\/p>\n

      The concept of the Christian church is that every member of the body is filled with the Holy Spirit and is entrusted with the decision making process of the local church (while delegating certain individuals with day to day administrative and spiritual leadership responsibilities). When it comes to decision making, Biblical churches seek the will of God through the consensus of the congregation.<\/p>\n

      Perhaps some clarification will come regarding Bauder\u2019s views, but the idea that the people of the church aren\u2019t qualified to make every choice would seem to be an elitist attitude.<\/p>\n

      Bauder appears to be aiming at the manipulative efforts of \u201cdemagogic\u201d leaders in inveighing against Fundamentalism. It is true that such leaders have existed in every branch of the church.<\/p>\n

      But with respect to what elitism is, it does seem that many are arguing past the point about something that is irrelevant.<\/p>\n

        \n
      • Elitism is the attitude of the manipulative demagogue.<\/li>\n
      • Elitism is the \u201cjust trust me\u201d attitude of the expert.<\/li>\n
      • Elitism is the scorn of the \u201clittle people\u201d.<\/li>\n
      • Elitism assumes that only \u201cthose in the know\u201d should get to decide.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        It is ironic how easily the populace is swayed off the point in this discussion. Popular opinion betraying its primary failing? Perhaps.<\/p>\n

        \"don_sig2\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        The popular crowd is missing the point about elitism! Maybe Bauder is right, after all. See the discussion at SI regarding Bauder\u2019s article #4. You have to start about here for the pertinent discussion. And in the discussion from my revised article, it appears that at least one of my readers is missing the point […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2fYWj-nG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}