8/28/2010

Oikophobia-Striken Liberals In For A Rude Awakening

James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal has come across a term that describes the contempt the ruling elite holds for the average American: Oikophobia.

While xenophopia is fear of the alien, oikophobia is defined as fear of the familiar: "the disposition, in any conflict, to side with 'them' against 'us', and the felt need to denigrate the customs, culture and institutions that are identifiably 'ours.' " I think the term applies. After all the “liberal elite finds Americans revolting”, something that can be taken two ways.

They may see the rest of us as the great unwashed masses, but they are also experiencing our long overdue revolt against their condescending We-Know-Better-Than-You attitudes, particularly about how we live our lives. It's not like they're a shining example of how we should live considering they suffer from the same maladies as everyone else: infidelity, licentiousness, addiction, sloth, greed, larceny, ignorance, jealousy, violence, and yes, murder. I think what makes them worse though is their willful ignorance, choosing to remain ignorant about things the rest of us find important because they affect our every day lives and the lives of those around us. But that is likely just another manifestation of their oikophobia. Yet another? How about this for an example:

If you think it's offensive for a Muslim group to exploit the 9/11 atrocity, you're an anti-Muslim bigot and un-American to boot. It is a claim so bizarre, so twisted, so utterly at odds with common sense that it's hard to believe anyone would assert it except as some sort of dark joke. Yet for the past few weeks, it has been put forward, apparently in all seriousness, by those who fancy themselves America's best and brightest, from the mayor of New York all the way down to Peter Beinart.

So if we do not agree with their view of how the world should be, we are dismissed as barely cognizant troglodytes, incapable of higher thought processes? It figures. But then, that's how they raise their self-esteem. - tearing down those they see as inferior, even when they aren't. It makes them feel special.

Unfortunately special can be defined for them as “snooty, self-appointed anointed...and clueless.”