Are you a postmodern elitist?

Cluefon
    By Dan Dudis

Dan, you are such an elitist." A good friend of mine recently began his own personal jihad against what he sees as closeted elitism among many Yalies. He wants us all to come out of hiding.

"But I can't be. I went and saw Varsity Blues last weekend. And laughed at it," I shot back, instinctively wrapping myself in the protective cloak of pop culture. How could I be an elitist? I don't read the New Yorker, and I don't go to gallery openings or watch foreign films. The KC101/WB world of the lowbrow is my province. The Thin Red Line? Please. I'm eagerly awaiting Cruel Intentions, the Sarah Michelle Gellar remake of Dangerous Liaisons.

Yet it struck me, after my friend's accusations of elitism had lost some of their sting, how the meaning of the word "elitism" has changed. I never really supposed that my friend was charging me with being a classist social snob. He knows that I come from the same middle-class background most Yalies share. Our parents have done well, but they are by no means rich. Old Blue is dead, and a more diverse, less class-conscious New Blue lives.

But this does not shield us from accusations of elitism. According to my friend, elitism is all around us at Yale. He cites comments like "I haven't shopped at Gap since high school" as evidence of such an elitist attitude. Occasional derisive snickers at the mention of the Jersey shore and comments on the tackiness of Myrtle Beach do little to erase the impression of snobbery. Discussions of the existentialism of day planners don't help our case either. My friend would include a devotion to Prada, Helmut Lang, Versace, or any other high-end designer as further evidence of our budding elitism.

And much to my chagrin, the advent of postmodernism, with its love of all things self-referential, renders my pop-culture, in-love-with-the-lowbrow defense impotent. Elitists are no longer found only at Lincoln Center and the Met; they can be found before 7 o'clock section eagerly discussing who lost his/her virginity on Dawson's Creek.

So yes, maybe a lot of us Yalies are elitist under this new definition. We are a rather self-aware, tragically hip (albeit with a twist of dorkiness), Jamba-swilling, Entertainment Weekly-reading, Maureen Dowd-following, State-of-the Union-watching bunch. One might ask, is this new elitism a bad thing, the way the old elitism was? Not necessarily. An elite based on tastes and interests is a relatively open one, and is likely to be fairly self-selecting. It is also one that will accord its members few if any significant advantages and do little to disadvantage those who are not members. In these ways, the new elitism is democratic and relatively egalitarian in ways that the old elitism was not.

Yet this new, postmodern elitism is not all pure and good. There is the temptation to become immersed in this world that Kevin Williamson has constructed for us, to forget that more serious matters do indeed exist. So after finally admitting to my friend that I am an elitist under this new definition, I turned the tables on him. Was he a member of an intellectual elite because his cognitive skills are, by any measure, among the top one or two percent? By some combination of genetic good fortune and superior upbringing, we Yalies are among the smartest there are. Yes, I said it. I know it's taboo and it's gauche, but it's true nonetheless.

This is the real question of elitism. While I earlier referred to most Yalies as middle-class, what we commonly think of as the middle class is actually the top 20 percent of the population. And one's economic status is closely linked to one's level of education, which in turn is linked to one's cognitive ability. Is such an unequal society stable, much less fair?

Maybe the old elitism isn't really dead, for the bourgeoisie seems quite capable of perpetuating itself and its position on the economic ladder. Sure, elitism isn't as snobbish or blue-blooded as it used to be, and it rarely expresses itself anymore—except to shudder in disgust when barbarians like Jesse Ventura are elected to high office. But perhaps the old elitism lives on, and our new, postmodern elitism just acts to camouflage this ugly fact. In typically self-aware fashion, Yalies will spend hours dissecting all aspects of postmodern elitism as it relates to them but will become suddenly silent when the more serious and incendiary topic of their superior intelligence comes up. Did anyone see the preview for next week's Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

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