Sunday, November 28, 2010

Quote of the Day - Wicked Smaht Bahstid edition

That would be Wolfwalker, in a comment over at Rhymes With Cars And Girls:
The progressive/liberal movement arose in Old Europe 160 years ago as a reaction to the incompetence and corruption of the hereditary aristocracy. Its leaders argued (correctly) that blood was no guarantor of competence or leadership. But they didn’t want to overturn the old order; they just wanted to rearrange it so that they were in charge. So they created a New Aristocracy based on the one criterion that they could define to their advantage: level of intelligence, as demonstrated by level and type of education. Those who actually had to work for a living — businessmen, tradesmen, farmers, doctors — were excluded from the get-go. Only writers, artists, philosophers, and scientists were allowed, and even then only as long as they agreed with the New Aristocracy’s goals.
That right there is a display of smart, as opposed to "Smart".  Maybe Wolfwalker can start up a blog, so we can get a regular dose of this.  Like I said, one Wicked Smaht Bahstid, right there.  The other commenters agree, and amplify his statement in ways that are also smart (not "Smart").

3 comments:

TJP said...

I'm really at a loss with social engineering. It seems pretty obvious to me that the person most competent to do the job is the person currently doing the job competently.

I realize that this precludes the creation of certain job descriptions such as, "dictating how people live their lives", and "using people to create a human ant farm for one's own entertainment", but in defense of my own ideas, I'm not the one who practiced a skill so worthless that people must be forced to pay for it.

SiGraybeard said...

A worthwhile idea that flows out of this discussion is why college has become largely worthless, except for certain majors, as the price of college has skyrocketed. It's not just limited to studies majors, either.

Sounds like a topic to mull on for my own place.

SiGraybeard said...

hmm, there are some words missing there between "limited to" and "studies" I had a phrase in parentheses. Caricatured oppressed minority studies was the phrase.