Thursday, September 10, 2009

Elitism

The next time I get accused of elitism, I'm going to ask the accuser, "so you want your brain surgery done by a plumber?" Fuck yeah I'm an elitist -- whether it's brain surgery on me or mine, or running new wiring for my iceberg, or whatever, I want someone who knows what the fuck they're doing on the job. That's elitist as all fuck, and you know what? I don't give a shit that it's elitist. When you want brain surgery you call a brain surgeon, not a McDonald's drive-thru clerk. And when it comes to formulating economics policy, fuck yeah I want that being done by people who, well, know economics -- not by some asshole plumber or snowbilly from Wasilly who don't know shit from shinola. Elitist? You betcha!

-- Badtux the Elitist Penguin

4 comments:

  1. yeah, but their like us! the elites are something to fear because they are different like our president.

    how could we get people to donate to our campaigns if simply and quietly, away from the television cameras and radio microphones, did our jobs as elected representatives.

    we thrive and prosper on controversy and discontent.

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  2. Elitist ? Let me try to understand this . You work on your Jeep , is that elitism ? Wouldn't you be more elite to have all the work done at the Dealer ?
    For instance I try to do every thing myself . House wiring , plumbing , roofing , fencing , minor pet surgery(cut out an infected grasss seed) cooking and baking , appliance repair , auto repair , gardening for food , etc. I always thought of that as practical not elite .
    Besides nowadays the 'pros' F stuff up so much , how can I do worse and then at least I ddn't pay some dip to screw it up ?
    Ok , I did have arthoscopic surgery on my knee and No way would I have done that , well first time anyway . Now that I have seen it , who knows . Learn something new Every day .
    w3ski

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  3. w3, I'm an engineer. I figure out how stuff works, take it apart, put it back together again in new and better ways. That's what I do for a living. My Jeep is just technology, like any other technology I take apart, figure out how it works, and put back together again in new and better ways. That said, there are most decidedly things on my Jeep that I will *not* do myself. For example, gear setup on Dana axles. I understand how it works, how putting shims between the bearings and the spider gear carrier puts the proper preload on the side bearings (and how this requires a case spreader to do properly), how you move shims from one side to the other to properly place the ring gear left/right in relationship to the pinion, how the crush bushing plus 200+ft/lbs of pressure is used to properly set pinion depth. But actually making it work in practice is something that requires years of work and experience, and I will find someone who can do that, because I'd use up a whole lot of shims and crush bushings getting the pinion pattern on the ring gear set up properly. If you've done it a lot of times, you just know the "feel" of how much more crush it takes to get proper pinion depth if you look at a particular pattern on the gears. If you haven't, you're in for a heap of hurt and hundreds of dollars of bushings and shims.

    So even if you are an expert in a particular area (as I am with technology), there are still places where you'll go to someone even more expert to do some particular task. Elitist? Fuck yeah. I ain't gonna have my brain surgery done by a pediatrician... and I ain't gonna have my axle setup done by some ham-handed penguin mechanic, even if I am that ham-handed penguin mechanic.

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  4. I just saw Joe The Plumber on a "Cash for Gold" commercial. It seems he's finally found his proper level in the universe. I expect to see Sarah palin hawking Sham-Wows by the end of the year.

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