Every week or so, depending on the mail, since the snails have to be lashed to perform, The New Yorker pops into the mail box, and I can do a Tony Abbott, which is to say abandon lunk head tech head pretensions, and enjoy - with a nice tea and biscuit - the feel of actual printed paper into which ideas have been infused ...
Yes, it's not just the Wallaces of the world that can enjoy a nice cup of cha. Of course such talk is dangerously elitist, since it implies that some teas might be better than others, or that tea is better than a drop of red ... but after reading Gerard Henderson blathering on in his usual way this morning about inner city elites, it was poignant and piquant to read Hendrik Hertzberg's Zero Grounds (yes you digerati types you can get it for free, but I love reading Hendrik, and cheerfully pay for the pleasure).
Wouldn't you know he opens with talk of elites, and presented in proper orthographical style as élite. Yep, you know you're in the company of New York élitists when due attention is paid to the circumflex. Now I'm going to be naughty and pay homage to Hendrik by publishing his opener at length:
A couple of weeks before the last election, the Republican nominees for President and Vice-President granted a joint interview to Brian Williams, of NBC. “Governor,” he asked, turning to the distaff half of the ticket, “what is an élite? Who is a member of the élite?” Sarah Palin replied, “Anyone who thinks that they are, I guess, better than anyone else—that’s my definition of élitism.” “It’s not geography?” Williams pursued. “Of course not,” she said. The ticket’s other half blinked and smiled a tight smile. John McCain had something to say.
MCCAIN: I know where a lot of them live.
WILLIAMS: Where’s that?
MCCAIN: Well, in our nation’s capital and New York City. I’ve seen it. I’ve lived there.
These élitists, he went on to explain, “think that they can dictate what they believe to America rather than let Americans decide for themselves.”
Hendrik - I like to use the first name with anyone I think could put their slippers under my bed on the basis of their thinking and their literary style, and so as to rub shoulders with other élitists - goes on to shove it up McCain and Palin and the Newt for dictating to New Yorkers what should happen in New York, in relation to the matter of the Islamic prayer centre aka "mosque" near Ground Zero.
Now here at the pond we spend most of our time dissing religion - come on what religion ya got so we can diss it - but the great thing about New York, the greatest city in the world, is that it's a seething, jostling multi-cultural mess that's a celebration of diversity and energy.
My current financial plan includes winning the lottery and retiring to New York. Which I guess means I'll have to settle instead for saying hello to cat food and the local outpatients section of the nearest public hospital.
Hendrik gets off some nice shots:
Where the “Ground Zero mosque” is concerned, opposition is roughly proportional to distance, even in New York. According to a recent poll, Manhattanites are mostly for it, Staten Islanders mostly against.
Now that's tribalism. That beats crossing the Yarra or straying outside the eastern suburbs or taking a view on people who live in Norwood. By golly Staten Islanders, those useless bloody ferry riders, who are not in the holy land of Manhattan, will be cut to the quick.
And because I'm shameless, I just want to spread Hendrik's last capper a little further:
In a famous letter—the one that holds that the United States “gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens”—George Washington offered a benediction:
May the children of the stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants, while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.
Lower Manhattan is a little short on vines and fig trees nowadays, though there are some excellent wine bars. Washington’s point remains. His letter was addressed to the Jews of Newport, Rhode Island. But, as he knew, Muslims are Abraham’s children, too. By the McCain standard, George Washington was a three-time loser: as President, he lived in New York City; the nation’s capital bears his name; and, even by the standards of his time, he was an élitist. Nevertheless: he was right.
The moral of the story, since the fight about the mosque is between New Yorkers, and dumb Americans of the Palin and newt kind?
Whenever you read a columnist scribbling about élites and élitists, you know you're in the company of wankers always ready to talk about élites as a way of whipping up fear and loathing, and getting themselves crowned as ... élites.
As The Who should have sung, pray we don't get fooled again, meet the new élites, same as the old élites ...
Intelligentsia, élitist, academic, educated are the common currency of abuse in certain quarters, as if there's a problem with somebody being intelligent, capable, educated, and competent.
It's the tall poppy syndrome writ large by boofheads, who themselves constantly display an inability to live and let live, no matter how absurd (such as religion) the things are that we need to let live ...
And it goes against one of the main benefits of living in a big city, which I celebrate each time I wander amongst the tatts, and the goths, and the students and the rabble mingling in the inner city streets, and which Bloomberg, who supported the prayer centre, nailed in one:
“We may not always agree with every one of our neighbors,” he said. "That’s life. And it’s part of living in such a diverse and dense city. But we also recognize that part of being a New Yorker is living with your neighbors in mutual respect and tolerance. It was exactly that spirit of openness and acceptance that was attacked on 9/11".
I swear to the dear long absent lord the next time I read Gerard Henderson, Janet Albrechtsen and the like rabbiting on about élites, élitists, and élitism, I'm going to print out their column simply for the pleasure of flushing their words down the toilet ...
Where there's a lack of respect and tolerance and in its place blather, then the bathroom is the last refuge for the true élitist.
Meanwhile, if you want to hear Imam Abdul Rauf, you can find him here talking to Rachael Kohn in streaming or download form ...
Okay, okay, it means you have to display tolerance and a spirt of openness and acceptance towards Rachael Kohn, but push yourself ...
Now how did you guess I was going to finish off with a Jon Stewart clip?
God bless New Yorkers, and some of America as well ...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments older than two days are moderated and there will be a delay in publishing them.