Knowing Too Much a Political Sin?

I was reading Politico.Com today and a particular article I was reading entitled, "Obama: The know-too-much candidate" sparked some thoughts. I touches upon the issue of elitism in American society and politics and how this is seeming to work to the detriment of the Obama campaign. From there I thought about what it means to be considered "elitist". To me, there are two kinds of elitism that we need to talk about: economic and intellectual. They often oppose each other, but at times can work together because as we know, or are taught to believe, knowledge is power and power is money, therefore, knowledge is money. However, they do diverge and there are actually intellectuals out there who aren't focused purely on money, but rather on changing society and uplifting minds.

Unfortunately, economic elitism reigns supreme and often impacts the hearts and minds of those in every economic strata of society. This pains me because this is how we have Presidents like George W. Bush. He tells people, "I think like you", "I feel your pain", or just plain "We're the same people" because he speaks plainly, off the cuff, and often in painful vernacular. However, underneath he is not like the average middle class, or working class American. The guy is filthy rich, came from a privileged family, and doesn't know the kind of struggle that the rest of America generally has to endure to get ahead. America is very often duped by rhetoric instead of paying attention to the substance. Appearance if everything since whether personally culpable or not, individuals don't search for deeper information on the issues. We read our NY Times and watch our CNN and that is it. But, as much as I like these news sources, I realize that even these institutions feed into establishment thought which takes an omniscient and often presumptuous tone; And maybe that is to be expected, after all you're relating news, you want to sounds like you know what you're talking about, but this leads people to believe one news source is enough to provide themselves with the necessary perspective to have an accurate opinion.

What this means is that a large segment of the American population disregards economic elitism, the result being the widespread belief that there is no class war in America. America is middle class right? So there is no class war because there is no class in America - WRONG. Then Americana, particularly those at the lower levels of the economic strata, loath what they regard as intellectual elitism; the elitism that we generally speak of when the word is invoked. They don't like being told what to do, they don't' like being told what is right or wrong, and they certainly don't like being told that they don't know what they are talking about. More often than not they are just perceiving things this way, though I will admit there are some pretentious, arrogant, intellectuals out there.

What is more dangerous to society, economic or intellectual elitism? I would have to say economic elitism, since we've elected a President who is an economic elitist, but plays that part of average joe, but behind the scenes he is working to the detriment of every American's interest, except for of course the upper 1% of the population. The above mentioned article touches upon Obama's fault of sounding like he knows what he's talking about, of sounding smart, of knowing too much. This is incredulous. Knowing allows one to have various perspectives and to understand the various kinds of Americans that there are. That is the kind of President I want. Not one like George W. Bush who only knows, rich, white, and southern. Sure Obama might not know what it's like to be layed off and without health care, but at least he attempts to empathize in some way, which is more we than we can say for many other politicians.

I don't know what the answer is. I understand the working class to some extent since I am an outgrowth of it. I still harbor some of the defensiveness and anxiety when you are confronted by somebody who is educated, or who may know more than I, but we all serve to benefit from moving away from this. Knowledge is power, and it allows working class folks on up to not be duped by people like George W. Bush who talk the talk, but walk a different walk that we will never experience. Intellectuals disseminate information thus uplifting all Americans who choose to listen, even if they disagree. We learn from challenging our assumptions, our ideas, and our beliefs. We need a leaders who challenge their own. Most importantly though, we need to become class conscious, shun economic elitism, and absorb more information as individuals so we can fight the way our country is going. Is America a Democracy or a Business? Democracy is about freedom of thought, belief, and understanding, it is about being our own intellectuals. Business is about competition, profit, greed, and riches at whatever cost. Right now it is confusing, but it's up to Americans to stop being duped.


The above opinions are associated with the following article.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9925.html