In Defense of Elitism: Why I'm Better Than You and You are Better Than Someone Who Didn't Buy This Book

by Joel Stein

The people in Miami are far more connected to each other than the people I live with. Most of them told me they were going to drive an hour each way to see the high-school football team’s away game, even though the school plays six-man football, a version of the game originally developed for towns decimated by the Great Depression. I, meanwhile, don’t know the name of my local LA high school. I can’t leave my son with all my neighbors because my community is virtual. My friends appear on my phone far more often than on my doorstep. I don’t know everyone who lives on my block by name. One of the first sets of questions on the government of Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness questionnaire is a version of the one the judge asked. It reads, “How many people are so close to you that you can count on them if you: Are sick? Have financial problems? Have emotional problems? Have to attend to important personal events (childbirth, funeral, wedding, etc.)?” Cassandra and I, meanwhile, see a wedding invitation less as “an important personal event” and more as “an obligation to sit down together for a half hour and come up with an excuse for not going.”