Based on a misunderstanding of what the word elitist meant, I decided
I was one. The official definition is that someone believes that
because of their money, status, intellect or social standing they
should be entitled to additional benefits and rights. I never
bothered to look that up and thought that it meant that I thought
smart and charismatic people should be in charge of making the world
a better place for everyone as a responsibility of their talents.
After spending a week with democratically elected students at UASC
who were in general very smart, attractive and nice it was a half
step back to reality to be with students selected by school
officials based on their leadership ability. The mood was much less
friendly and cooperative and sometimes overtly Machiavellian. The
sense I got was that many of these were aggressive type-A(-hole?)
kids who were leaders because people were intimidated by them and the
teachers who selected them thought that was a good thing. In the week
at UASC I never heard any sniping, or even sarcasm and everyone was
always trying to make things go smoothly and that was bizarre to me.
I was used to any group activity having a couple sassers and
poop-pants wearers. At Freedom Academy everyone was also very smart
and talented but with their 'something-to-prove' attitudes made for
some picked fights and some bullying. I was only a few days removed
from Elysium and I wanted back in. Sadly, no man can step into the
same river twice and so I took up telling people that I was an
elitist and obviously to anyone who knew what that meant I sounded a
little arrogant or especially clever in my wry social cometary. It
was not until I was in college debate when an assistant coach started
laughing when I told someone that I was an elitist. He said that was
one of the best jokes he had ever heard in that context. It wasn't a
joke but my misunderstanding was so great that it had come back
around so far as to sound like irony. I looked up what the word meant
and realized I was not actually an elitist.
