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The writer is so badly (or purposefully) confused it's hard to know where to start. Well, by expanding their admissions to include women and minorities while

The writer is so badly (or purposefully) confused it's hard to know where to start. Well, by expanding their admissions to include women and minorities while keeping standards high. No. Again, no. There are very distinctly two sets of standards, one lower than the other, and it shouldn't require much elaboration as to why that causes legitimate resentment. or why it deviates from any real notion of a meritocracy. The result of that expansion is now with us: Barack Obama Umm, no. It's fairly clear to every non-brainwashed observer that BHO's skin color was a huge part of the elite's attraction to him. That behavior on the part of the (noun) elite, is distinctly not compatible with the maintenance of an (adjective) elite class. Despite pushing aside the old WASP establishment—not a single WASP remains on the Supreme Court—these modern meritocrats are clearly not admired, or at least not for their upward mobility, by many Americans Sigh. Replace "WASP" with anything and I mean any other term, "Black", "Jewish", "Italian" anything in the world and ask yourself, "Why would the blacks/Jews/Italians not admire the other groups pushing them out of power?" Why would that be reasonable? The stupidity is almost overpowering.

anonymous245 16y ago
I'm not sure I agree with you. But upvoted for not censoring yourself.
spamizbad 16y ago
> ... the elite's attraction to him. That behavior on the part of the (noun) elite, is distinctly not compatible with the maintenance of an (adjective) elite class. Please define what "elite" is in this case. I understand it's not the elite (ruling) class. Is that the new dog-whistle term for white-collar, urban, college-educated whites? Or the old dog-whistle term for well-off Jews? Neither? Both?
geebee 16y ago
I agree, this writer seems is generalizing hostility to "ivy league" with hostility to "elites" in general. It frustrates me that Americans still tend to view Harvard (or maybe Yale) as America's most elite university. It is an extraordinary organization, of course, but it is (strangely?) MIA in engineering and many branches of applied science. Consider the US News and World Report's list of "most elite undergraduate colleges": Harvard Princeton Columbia Stanford University of Pennsylvania California Institute of Technology MIT Dartmouth Duke University of Chicago Now look at the top ten research institutions in Engineering overall.. MIT Stanford Berkeley Georgia Tech University of Illinois (Urbana) Carnegie Mellon CIT University of Michigan University of Texas (Austin) Cornell So there's only one ivy here, and it isn't an especially high ranking ivy in the ivy pecking order. I don't think people resent wealth at all in America. People have huge admiration for Andy Grove, Sergey Brin, and Larry Page. They have less love for Zuckerberg, but that's because they see him as a punk kid, not because they hate his product. There's plenty of respect mixed in there too. To me, if you want to say Americans hate people who went to elite institutions, I'd ask: which elite institutions? The elite engineering schools, or the ivy leagues? Ok, maybe some "anti-intellectuals" may brag that they didn't go to Yale (which is stupid, I'll admit). But how many brag that they didn't go to University of Michigan, Illinois, or Texas? I think it comes down to the notion that wealthy people are wealthy because they created wealth. Once an elite is viewed as a parisitic aristocracy, the admiration drops off a cliff. As it should... ... that said, I do think it's unfair to paint the Ivy League completely with this brush. But it is telling that these venerable, elite institutions have been surpassed by such a different (and often publicly supported) group of universities.

anonymous245 16y ago

I'm not sure I agree with you. But upvoted for not censoring yourself.

spamizbad 16y ago

> ... the elite's attraction to him. That behavior on the part of the (noun) elite, is distinctly not compatible with the maintenance of an (adjective) elite class. Please define what "elite" is in this case. I understand it's not the elite (ruling) class. Is that the new dog-whistle term for white-collar, urban, college-educated whites? Or the old dog-whistle term for well-off Jews? Neither? Both?

geebee 16y ago

I agree, this writer seems is generalizing hostility to "ivy league" with hostility to "elites" in general. It frustrates me that Americans still tend to view Harvard (or maybe Yale) as America's most elite university. It is an extraordinary organization, of course, but it is (strangely?) MIA in engineering and many branches of applied science. Consider the US News and World Report's list of "most elite undergraduate colleges": Harvard Princeton Columbia Stanford University of Pennsylvania California Institute of Technology MIT Dartmouth Duke University of Chicago Now look at the top ten research institutions in Engineering overall.. MIT Stanford Berkeley Georgia Tech University of Illinois (Urbana) Carnegie Mellon CIT University of Michigan University of Texas (Austin) Cornell So there's only one ivy here, and it isn't an especially high ranking ivy in the ivy pecking order. I don't think people resent wealth at all in America. People have huge admiration for Andy Grove, Sergey Brin, and Larry Page. They have less love for Zuckerberg, but that's because they see him as a punk kid, not because they hate his product. There's plenty of respect mixed in there too. To me, if you want to say Americans hate people who went to elite institutions, I'd ask: which elite institutions? The elite engineering schools, or the ivy leagues? Ok, maybe some "anti-intellectuals" may brag that they didn't go to Yale (which is stupid, I'll admit). But how many brag that they didn't go to University of Michigan, Illinois, or Texas? I think it comes down to the notion that wealthy people are wealthy because they created wealth. Once an elite is viewed as a parisitic aristocracy, the admiration drops off a cliff. As it should... ... that said, I do think it's unfair to paint the Ivy League completely with this brush. But it is telling that these venerable, elite institutions have been surpassed by such a different (and often publicly supported) group of universities.