The Elitist in Me

Sometimes I don't really like me.

I'm very confident in myself. I believe myself to be friendly, intelligent, responsible, moderately-handome, passably-clever, and an all-around nice guy. But I can also be an elitist; believing myself to be on a level above the 'common man,' I can make snap judgments about people based on where I percieve them to lie -- usually intellectually or socially. I don't like to associate myself with people I can't respect or admire in some way, and every now and again I find myself feeling rather... disdainful of those I feel are below my level.

It's a horrible thing to say, and an even worse thing to feel.

There's a girl here in my program who has come off as my inferior intellectually and socially; she can't grasp concepts and she's awkward in many social situations -- and in neither case does she seem particularly aware of her deficiency, a high crime in my book of elitism. I'm alright with people as they are so long as they recognize it in themselves.

So there's this girl, and she's in a course with me this quarter, and we're supposed to form two- or three-person groups for the labs. And instead of offering to help her out and guide her through some of the tougher concepts, I've found myself actively avoiding her and looking for anyone else to group with, perferably someone I feel can pull their own weight.

I'm in a group with her now, with one other guy who's only auditting the class. But I can't shake this feeling of superiority and disdain, and it makes me feel like such a heel.

Laws, huh, what are they good for?

So a friend of mine just sent out an email to 500 of her closest friends (yours truly included) announcing that Congress is currently set to vote on a bill to ammend the Constitution with 52 words -- called "The Women's Equality Amendment," the fifty two words allegedly read thus: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. The email goes on to encourage us to not "let what happened in 1982 happen again (only 35 states ratified the amendment cause it to fail)!"

Now, if I just came out and said, "I think this is a bad idea," I'm quite certain I'd be stoned, or at the very least glared at and snubbed as a misogynist. But I don't think this is a bad move to make because I hate women; I think it's a bad move to make because I hate government.

Or, at the very least, I don't trust government. Generally speaking, I think that we are best served by a government which meddles with our lives as little as possible and still maintain order. That is, unless there's something broken, I don't think we need to make laws governing it -- or, rather, I think we should not make laws governing it. Particularly national laws, and most especially ammendments to the consitiution! If the state of California makes a law, it applies only to Californians and, if all goes well, reflects what it is Californians value. If I find that California and I don't value the same things, it's not that difficult to move elsewhere, generally speaking. But when the national government makes a law, that law ought to rightly reflect the values that all Americans share in common as it applies to us all and, short of becoming Canadian, there's no way to avoid it. Additionally, it's so much more difficult to establish what Americans value as a whole compared to what Californians value as a whole, since it's a lergher population you're trying to track.

But, you might say, who *doesn't* value women's equality? And actually, that's part of my point. Women already have laws protecting their right to vote, the most fundamental of rights in our system of government, not to mention different laws regulating hiring practices and discrimination in education, so on ad nausium. My complaint is not that this law is wrong, but that it is unnecessary. And as I belueve every law is one more finger the government has in our lives, ever unnecessary law is an offense to me. Nevermind that vague or obscure laws can be tripwires for the unwary -- and I don't trust the government to not try and trip us up, and I certainly don't trust those who move in government not to do so. These fifty two words seem very innocuous, but if they're unneeded, they are unwarrented, and ought not be entered into law.

Now, I'll admit that I am a man and do not see a problem regarding this issue; particularly, I'll admit that I don't pay attention to this issue because (1) I'm a man and (2) I do not see a problem regarding this issue. So it's very possible that I've missed some key injustice suffered on women that requires an Ammendment to fix. In the absense of such an injustice, though, I feel this Ammendment ought not pass.