Individual Four: The Social Elitist

I think I've been accused of being this archetype from time to time with some of my ways of thinking. Despite the assumption of an egalitarian society in this country, we are more divisive about power and class than any other nation. The Social Elitist stands as the inside joke to that false presumption about every man as equals mindset...something that we shouldn't be proud of, but nonetheless is seen positively in this country. With the Elitist, moral superiority is both a pervasive and mandatory element to life. I think social elitism is created when we presume we know more than the average man, thus elevating ourselves above others. In the scope of social elitism in this community, we are not talking about potato queens versus sticky rice queens. It is not even the idea that we become a Social Elitist by the mere practice of wanting to be "on top" of society.

Social elitism is caused by the belief that one is not only above the trends of the "common", but the false perception that one is not affected by these same trends like "ordinary people". So, they see themselves as standing outside of the norm and that the normal rules don't apply to them...or that they're the clear exception to the rule. Heh, you can imagine why some people might call me a Social Elitist, because I must admit that some of my own writings purport a rather outsider perspective that needs to be a bit more urbane.

If I use myself as the blueprint for the Social Elitist, the clear flaw of this archetype is the fact that past, parochial experiences produce a rather inaccurate generalization about how the world works. The power of the Social Elitist thus comes from the ability to oversimplify the issues and reducing the complexity to make them more palatable to the masses. Heh, social elitism is mainly a product to be thrown outwardly to the public for consumption...so that we can all feel special. When it comes to the highly-charged nature of sexual politics, I think we all claim a healthy dose of elitism when it comes to our own relationships and interactions with people within and outside of our community...race and ethnicity notwithstanding.

In order to handle the Social Elitist, I think we must come at them with questions. Despite their penchant for conversation, the key is to bring up the inconsistencies in their dogma and deconstructing the pieces that they use to elevate themselves above others. At the same time, I think Social Elitists should also confront those same issues that they feel they are not affected by and we must all question about whether anyone is truly immune to anything that confounds our community.