frankly, what I think we're doing here, is documenting the last gasps of democracy. Updated

[MFrohike]

267. Elitist?

I have to disagree. I don't see how it's elitist in the slightest. Pessimism is the result of experience. If you have any amount of experience dealing with modern business, it's hard to see how you'd call it elitist. There's an organized culture of incompetence and dishonest that has become fully embedded within our business and employment worlds. Products are increasingly shoddy, customer service is usually useless, systems don't work, calls aren't returned, penalties are assessed without compunction, etc. If you go into each dealing expecting good things, you're not being anti-elitist, you are being an idiot. It's wiser to go into these dealings without the expectation of getting the run around, being bullshitted, dealing with functional incompetence, and just plain lies. That's what experience should have taught everyone by this point.

Even though I said all that, it doesn't mean we should give into despair. It's one thing to expect garbage, it's entirely different to think garbage is all that's possible. That is the function of hope, as reflected in your quotation. Pessimism lets you know what's screwed up, hope is what keeps you going in the effort to fix it. I don't see that as being elitist in the slightest. It ain't about rich or poor when it comes to recognizing injustice, incompetence, corruption, or just plain stupidity and not being shocked that it continues when people just talk about it instead of actually doing something about it.