This post is split into two parts. A long boring biography of my life that explains where I'm coming from and sets up the end piece, and the end piece itself that explains that the whole ignorance thing is related to the class war. But I realize that a lot of people have short attention spans and/or limited DU browsing time. So I'm leaving the bio here if you want to read it, but if not scroll down until you see "Actual Post" in bold. I would like for everyone to read that part.

The idea that somehow not being an ignorant gullible fool is elitist is what keeps people ignorant. "Ah dunt want to learn nuthin an be a leetist dumass."

Of course it's not like rich educated people help things by actually being elitist dumbasses.

I'm beginning to think that the point of my continuing to breathe is to help people learn - I've worked at Wal-Mart and Arby's and although my job now is pretty damn cushy compared to those I still only make $10.25 an hour. I only have an associate's degree. Maybe I could talk in language that they would understand and they wouldn't get all defensive around me.

I don't know, though - my father built a decent modest house for us and then died without a will and left behind a greedy selfish family that wanted the house, so my mother and I ended up moving out to the 12 acres that we owned and buying a trailer. But when there wasn't an AP or honors course or interesting elective for a time slot and I was forced into things like fashion merchandising and non-honors world geography, people would treat me like I was some exotic princess. I would even get asked if I lived in a big house. I was like, "Umm, no, I live in a trailer." Single-wide, even.

And even in the last few years I get treated as if I'm a member of a higher social class than I am just because I was born with good genes when it comes to brain power. Like I was disgusted when I started posting on a forum for gifted people and someone sent me a PM saying they were surprised that someone like me came from such poor people. I hated that poster for a while - I guess it's evidence that people can change and grow, because she's a regular email friend now.

I don't know where people got this stupid frigging idea that class and intelligence go together and that being smart is "elitist". Class and education, sure. But DNA doesn't care how much money your parents make. It's not like there's some checklist that the code has to check - "Hmm, this being's progenitors only make $30,000 a year; better program for an IQ of 90."

And I get so angry at the gifted literature - you'd assume that the only people who are really intelligent are those whose parents have the opportunity and money and connections for them to be able to do things like go to college at 10 (which I tested at college level at 10). And then when you post and ask about the gifted kids whose parents didn't have all that money, you get "I don't like to think about people who don't have opportunities." I wanted to reply "Fuck you." but well - that wouldn't have been appropriate. And see what I mean about rich educated people actually being elitist dumbasses?

And I worked with a temp agency for a couple of days (I came home and cried a lot and my mother told me I didn't have to go back) and I went to this warehouse place where socks were folded and put in boxes and T-shirts and underwear were ran through some sort of machine that did something to them. During one of the tiny little short breaks (I think we got two 15 minute breaks a day or something?), I was sitting at the table reading Charlotte Bronte's Villette and heard someone whisper "You shouldn't be here if you're smart."

I felt like screaming, "Where the hell else am I supposed to go?!"

My 7th grade SAT scores qualified me for Duke's TIP Program. I got a full need-based scholarship every summer and had the time of my life. Anyway, at the award ceremony there was all this talk about "these kids are our future and will solve our problems, blah blah blah." Not unless you give us the chance, you fucking slave owners. Because guess what, when I am fighting to live through another shift at Arby's without killing myself I don't have any energy or mental health and well-being left over to go home and spend the precious free time between living death and sleep solving the problems that your greed and hatred and fear and total and complete selfishness created. Not that you'd fucking listen to anything I came up with anyway, because I'm just poor white McJob trash despite being on the very far end of the IQ bell curve.

Yeah, it's been over three years since I walked out of Arby's for the last time but it kind of left deep scars - physical as well as psychological. I was actually walking through Harris Teeter a couple of weeks after quitting and saw slicers in the deli department that were just like the slicer at Arby's and had a panic attack.

ACTUAL POST
Anyway, the point of this tl;dr biography (and thank you if you're still here) is that knowledge is a class issue. Pick up Joe Bageant's book Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War. I did, and it's helping me understand a bit.

Life pretty much sucks like hell if you're not rich - oh, and by my personal scale most of the people on this site who call themselves middle class are filthy rich. Anyway, the whole life sucking thing kind of makes us po' folk upset. And very few people have genes like mine - most of them are just average (well duh, average is average for a reason) or maybe bright or perhaps moderately gifted. And our education system also sucks like hell and our culture is full of fluff. I dare you to spend a day just watching TV and listening to commercial radio. See if you learn anything that's actually true and/or worthwhile or if anything catches your imagination or makes you think or makes your soul dance with joy.

So - your job sucks out your soul and any will that you have to live. You can't afford health care or a decent place to live or a decent car. Everyone else constantly makes fun of you and treats you like you're less intelligent than an amoeba just because of where you work. (Fun note: I kicked a hole in the drive-thru wall at Arby's once dealing with customers who were dumber than shit themselves and treated me like I was worse than shit.) It seems like you're pretty much in the world just to get shit on. And then the only voice speaking to you about this is the voice on TV or on radio that says it's the fault of those nancy ass too smart for their own good liberals. Your idea of knowledge and intelligence becomes tied into people lounging around in upscale universities all day, just sitting on their asses and making more money than you will ever see in your lifetime. Perhaps even taking money away from you and using it to do things like study whether or not kids are addicted to caffeine or the mating habits of some weird species halfway across the world that has nothing to do with your life.

I could go on and on but I think I've already written way more than the average attention span can handle.

So I will just conclude - maybe we should try talking to people. Counteract the voice of neocon propaganda with the voice of truth and compassion.

And please, if you're an elitist dumbass just accept it and stop pretending you're not. I was reading a book of Buddhist essays the other day and it was all these people going on month long retreats in foreign countries and you know, just really learning a lot about compassion. Like omg, I might give my housekeeper $5 to buy herself a treat with when I get back to the States.

We don't need that kind of compassion. Fulfilling your noblesse oblige to the peasants won't help anyone and will just make things worse, even if it does help put a drywall patch over the gaping hole in your soul and is a much better and more ethical way of doing that than filling the hole with another 40 inch LCD TV and a new Lexus in the garage. Hmm - actually people do need to be around people who aren't like them to break down the walls of prejudice.

Okay, come on. Just put your pride and ego away and be quiet and receptive and willing to learn and let go of old prejudices and ways of thinking.

Where you find ignorance, instruct it. Where you find pain, comfort it. Where you find burdens that are too heavy to carry, offer to share the load. Do all of this humbly and respectfully with equality in your mind and in your heart, and you may find that the shell of neocon propaganda breaks away and a fully sentient human ready to do battle with you on the frontlines for the future of the species emerges.

And I do believe that there is still a future. It won't look like anything we've known, but if we can pull together we can make it through this and come out the other side. Bruised and bloody and hopefully a hell of a lot wiser, but still here.

It's up to us, though. Like my hero said - we have to be the change we want to see in the world.