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Friday, June 21, 2019

William F. Buckley: 'Who's He: A Review of Snobbery The American Version'

Source:AZ Quotes- "TOP 25 SNOBBERY QUOTES (of 72)."
"Joseph Epstein’s new book about snobbery1 ends up being a book about Joseph Epstein, which is perfectly okay—provided one is Joseph Epstein. Another’s book about snobbery, displaying the author’s biography, his likes and dislikes, suspicions, affections, affectations, crotchets, would not guarantee against a reader’s strayed attention. There isn’t the slightest risk of this happening upon reading Epstein’s book, because he is perhaps the wittiest writer (working in his genre) alive, the funniest since Randall Jarrell."

Read more at The New Criterion

"The existence of snobbery explains why we work so hard and are so worried about our reputations. We are all terrified of humiliation and disrespect...

Source:The School of Life - Sounds like sound advice. 
From The School of Life

"The existence of snobbery explains why we work so hard and are so worried about our reputations. We are all terrified of humiliation and disrespect.  If you like our films, take a look at our shop (we ship worldwide):"i

The thing about snobbery or elitism, is that is not about race, ethnicity, gender, or religion: it's multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-religion, both men and women are involved in it. Snobbery, is about class and social status. ( Even though you could argue that the English created it, both in Britain and in America )

And when I was growing up in the 1980s and early 90s, the snobbery from that time was about highly educated people ( people with college degrees from elite schools ) looking down on people who didn't have college degrees, or didn't have a college degree from an elite Northeastern or West Coast school. White-collar people looking down on blue-collar people who physically work very hard for a living. People who work in their own offices and make 6 or seven figures, looking down on people who work in construction, work on cars, drive trucks for a living, etc. People in big, prosperous cities and metros, with white-collar jobs, who look down on people from small and midsize towns and areas, with blue-collar backgrounds.

But it wasn't just about work status as it was about culture as well: people who drink wine and have servants at their home who prepare all of their meals for them and prepare, fancy and expensive meals for them, looking down at people who have a beer, eat chicken wings, shoot pool, or go bowling after work, prepare their own meals and do their own grocery shopping, as opposed to hanging out at country clubs and playing golf after work.  People who listen to classical music, feeling superior to people who listen to rock music, jazz, R&B, or whatever the non-high class music is supposed to be.

We still have economic snobbery and even social snobbery today, but it's different thanks to the internet, new technology, the explosion of celebrity culture, and social media where the so-called in-crowd, looks down at other people because they don't have whatever the latest phone or current gadget is, compared with someone who believes they can live extremely well in life ( as crazy as this might sound ) even if they don't have whatever the current smartphone is, or are up to date on the latest celebrity scandals or hit reality TV show.

Personally as a Liberal, I believe in live and let live, to each his own, do unto others as you would do to yourself. And if I personally got to write The Ten Commandments, maybe my name was picked out of some hat, or personally sat down and wrote my own personal Ten Commandments, those three commandments would be at the top of my list. So of course I'm not a fan on snobbery, simply because I don't believe someone is a better person that someone else, simply because they make more money, have more education, have more current devices, more followers on whatever the hot social media network, or whatever the standard is.

I'm very pro-choice as an individual ( not just on abortion and sexuality ) and believe people should be able to make their own beds in life and then have to sleep in them. And in today's social media, celebrity culture, new technology culture, my attitude is very old school and probably not fashionable. But popularity has never been my standard when I make decisions for myself and take positions on issues.

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John F. Kennedy Liberal Democrat

John F. Kennedy Liberal Democrat
Source: U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy in 1960