Quote:
Originally Posted by tsantsa
"Will eBooks create an elite reading class?"
I am of the opinion that simply READING has become an elitist class.
EDIT: Not that I'm saying readers are elitist in general, but some people see you as a snob if you read heavily. I don't know about you, but I have a dead-end job filled with knuckle-draggers (elitist? me? no! ;> ) and we have conversations throughout the day. I like to talk about my hobbies and likes. My co-workers are much the same, except for the reading part... Sometimes, I do sense a certain degree of "I bet he thinks he's better than us" responses or looks. Although, I bet when some of them are talking about whatever it is they do, I probably have the same attitude sometimes...
But my point is, they seem to view reading itself as elitist. I wonder what they teach their children.
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Yeah, this is really bad in the US. There's just a huge wave against intellectualism period lately.
With the bitter partisan divide between liberals and conservatives, and the rise of people like Palin, Limbaugh, Beck, O'Reilly etc. and this Tea Party movement there's a lot of anti-intellectualism going on.
Especially in rural, conservative states. I grew up in one, and I'm still big fan of my state universities sports teams. But man if you mention reading, or I mention I'm a professor etc. on the off topic boards on such sites, you get shouted down as an elitist snob, and out of touch intellectual, have gay slurs thrown at you and everything else.
It's really disconcerting that it's becoming a bad thing to read, to be an intellectual, to do intellectual work in many segments of society in the US. And you're right, it doesn't give much hope for the future if people have these attitudes and pass them onto their children.