In Defense of Elitism: Why I'm Better Than You and You're Better Than Someone Who Didn't Buy This Book
Written and Narrated By: Joel Stein
Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
Below? Thoughts and a summation. Not stated: Sudden snorts of laughter, coffee spewed everywhere…
I totally had to laugh when I saw a 1-star review of In Defense of Elitism that stated it was Okay, but it failed to adequately convince the audience of author Joel Stein’s theories.
Uhm…
Excuse me, sir, but do you even know who Joel Stein IS?!? The dude’s a goofball extraordinaire, tongue-in-cheekily smug, had a really funny column when he worked with “TIME” magazine for eons, and here he deprecates himself (In a delightfully amusing manner) even as he holds up others and groups for ridicule… but in a niiiiice way…
His offered theory? If you’ve been to college, like, the Ivy League schools: You DESERVE to rule the world. That Stein went to one, see this page, that page, oops ‘nother page, even more pages… where he just happens to kinda sorta drop that he himself graduated from one and is, thus, in just the right position to take over—what IS Populism shrieking about?! Well, that’s a weee bit what this book is all about.
Stein jaunts, travels, interviews, takes loving jabs at various groups, starting with actually getting to know people who overwhelmingly supported Trump in his 2016 victory (Dude! I’m still sooo not over it…). He sits with people who never lock their doors but who all own guns (Hmmm, he wonders: Did they skip a few steps in how to keep safe between Unlocked Doors and AR-15s?!). He eats cheeseburgers with them; he traipses into their Church to steal ice… surely he’s going to get busted for that particular sacrilege…?!
And he finds them to be earnest and likable people. Tho he’s staunchly an Elitist Liberal, he finds common ground and a shared humanity. So even tho’ he takes what appear to be Cheap Shots throughout this book, it’s obvious that this is a guy who just canNOT help but go for the Funny Line, the little End of the Paragraph Quip. It’s Anything for a Laugh, rather than mean-spirited. That they pray for his soul during their services, like, each and EVERY Sunday?! Ahhhh, kinda creepy, but isn’t that thoughtful?
There are sooo many excursions, so many meetings with such a variety of people, it comes off as neat-o and evenhanded, which may not have been the book’s intent at the beginning. But which is appreciated nonetheless. Scott Adams? Nutbag Extraordinaire? Covered. Even tho’ he’s become inCREdibly wretched and vocal about some pretty appalling views, Stein meets with him in his mansion and manages to make him seem only odd and pathetic in a Balding He-Man Who Won’t Shut Up kinda way (Note: Just saw Adams made the news yet again for SUPER inflammatory speech, and his strip is being withdrawn from major papers… tsk tsk).
Stein meets with individuals such as the Mayor of Los Angeles (Whom he shadows, and who makes him suffer… with a full bladder, a very full bladder, a TRULY full bladder!); a guy known for fake news creation who was a supporter of Hillary Clinton, wanted to plant an extreme “story” so that he might Reveal it as false, thereby shaming and embarrassing those who fell for it… but whose plan went awry, whose life’s trajectory was forever changed by it. And Stein helps an underprivileged young man with his College Application Essay, elevating the kid’s writing to include sloppy writing with mediocre humor to BANG! punch up the end of each paragraph! Dude, the kid HAS to be accepted!
There are sections which inspired much groaning: Tucker Carlson; sections which inspired chuckles: Bill Kristol in a cabal… very hush hush and Uber-secret, to the point where Stein is NOT allowed to join for a meeting but must sit at his tiny desk with tiny breakfast foods as he listens to heated arguments.
And it all comes full circle to meeting his conservative Trump-Supporting/Accept Christ As Lord And Savior friends in an upscale cheeseburger joint, complete with truffle fries. His friend? Not out of place in the snooty place as he carries himself with a dignity and a sense that he knows who he is. Stein? Oh jeez, he feels he’s a chameleon, bending and changing to suit the environment. He’s awed by his friend, turned off by the conversion hard sell, touched by the generosity of his friend picking up the check. So in the end?
He leaves us with the offering: Don’t be part of the problem. If you hear contrary views, question, get to know. Be open. No matter where you went to school (And he will NOT name drop his school… uhm, not when it’s already peppered smugly throughout the entirety of the book… HA!), it doesn’t matter. What DOES matter is civil discourse, is self-reflection before knee-jerk reactions.
Okay okay okay. Maybe Stein DOES have a theory out for persuasion: Kindness and Listening. He does it throughout the book; he offers it at the end.
…and JEEZ! what’s wrong with THAT…?!?
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