I don't get it

[maevele]

when educated people are pig ignorant about lives other than their own. Do they just not know anyone not just like them, or do they just not pay attention? Because I am a dropout. I should have an excuse to be ignorant. and sometimes I am. I don't have formal training in critical thinking, or other's cultures, or any of it. So if I can see how your educated, sophisticated intellectual ass is hanging out, what's your excuse?


I guess it must be either only knowing people like themselves, or not paying attention. If it is the first, how does that happen without *trying* to recuse yourself from the "others?" Are most people's surroundings much more homogenous? Is madison wisconsin some extreme example of melting pot diversity? I'd think just being at college would have given these people a chance to interact with people who are not just like them in all ways.

And if it is the second, how do you get by in life without noticing the lives of other people around you? Do you only ignore those different from you, or everyone? And how do you fit in to the world around you if you ignore so many people?

Is there some complexity here that explains why my alleged "betters" don't get other people?

Comments

[benet.livejournal.com]

My late father, God rest him, was very fond of saying "You've never really met a twit until you've met one with a Ph.D."

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

I know many a Ph.D. who are anything but twits, as well as the ones who are. Can't generalize that way.

Love, C,

[haddayr.livejournal.com]

I don't think benet was saying all people with Ph.D. are twits. I think s/he was saying that if you want to meet a SPECTACULAR twit, meet a twit with a Ph.D.

Am I right?

[benet.livejournal.com]

Yes, thanks. Well, I mean.. that's what Dad was saying, anyway.

[haddayr.livejournal.com]

I will say that I think I agree with your dad. My own experience with Ph.D.'s, of which there has been much, has been that they definitely put a LOT of effort into being twits and do a spectacular job (when they are not being nice, reasonable people who just happen to have Ph.D's, like plenty of academics -- in fairness).

I've met many uneducated twits, too, of course, but they don't have the same appallingly condescending pseudo-intelligent swaggering babble that makes for a really, really delightful twit.

IMHO, of course.

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

"I've met many uneducated twits, too, of course, but they don't have the same appallingly condescending pseudo-intelligent swaggering babble that makes for a really, really delightful twit."


You never met my grandfather or my stepfather then. They are the distillation of blowhards. They also demand you LISTEN to them. And they the demand you ARGUE with them. They went nutz when I refused to engage. They were so stupid I couldn't stand it. My mother really blew it when she divorced my dad to marry somebody just like her own father. Which, cheap psychology, says it all, I guess.

Love, C

[haddayr.livejournal.com]

Actually, from the sounds of it I HAVE met them. Numerous times. :-)

(The 'delightful' was ironic.)

[benet.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah... it wasn't meant as an all-Ph.Ds-are-twits statement, given that Dad had one himself and (as a prof) worked on a daily basis with other people who did. The idea was more that education doesn't save you from being stupid, and also it can sometimes give you the means to be stupid in new and different ways that you weren't previously aware of. :)

[haddayr.livejournal.com]

THIS