TKTKTK
Senior Member
Oh man...you have it so wrong. I think it has to do with who you perceive as the "elite". It isn't some dark secret society...it is simply "those most knowledgable or qualified".
No it isn't. The elite is just a power structure, it's separate from both knowledge and qualification. Being most knowledgeable or qualified can just as easily leave you in the mainstream, or as an outlaw.
It's the assumption that the elite is the most knowledgeable and most qualified that consolidates their power, it's not any different than refusing to challenge authority based on a feeling of comparative self-worthlessness. They must be right, you must be wrong.
There's a reason why we only allow dentists to work on our teeth, as opposed to just anybody. There's a reason only pilots can fly an airliner. There's a reason only the best atheletes go to the olympics. There's a reason only certain people are professors. Because they are all the most knowledgeable or qualified in their fields. They are the "elite". I don't feel condescended to because my dentist knows more about my teeth than I do.
That's not the same thing. Dentists, doctors, engineers, and architects, require specialized technical knowledge to ensure public safety. They don't require special aesthetic knowledge, and they're under no real onus to ensure public beauty. You're racing to embrace authority without even properly stopping to ask why.
The professor example is particularly funny. You've never heard the saying "Them that can, do. Them that can't, teach." ?
And it is society in general that creates the elites because that is what we want....and why wouldn't we?
Why would that not apply to art, literature, fashion, architecture?
Of course...it does.
It does if you think your contribution to those 4 forms can only amount to consumption. The elite power structure stands in the way of any alternative voice coming forward. It doesn't create the impossibility of other voices being heard, but it certainly makes the effort to ignore or discredit those that it disagrees with.
I suppose it comes down to two different world views. You're happy having others think and make judgments for you. I prefer to think and make judgments for myself.
I'd make a shitty AD if I didn't believe in my own taste and aesthetic.
Everything from Aristotle to Marshall McLuhan...and too much inbetween. I hope for your sake that wasn't a rhetorical question.
But not Kant?