The Elitism debate

[ilsautomotive]

The 'elitism' issue highlighted in Russell's post is a complex piece of psychology that I happen to have a great interest in. The bottom line is that the elitism we sometimes see on this forum is reflected elsewhere in various examples throughout history and around the world. But it is often the most basic examples of elitism that are most absurd, yet fascinating. In the automotive world, a few of the biggest themes are:

1) Elitism passed from one generation to the next: The kid whose Datsun 120Y was indimidated at the lights by a then new XE 351 now has a new XR8 and is rearing to to beat up on everyone below him
2) The view that the world is a hierarchy with the elite rich at the top and the great unwashed below, and that the purpose of life is to climb as high as possible. Thus the VZ Senator driver will sneer at the VR Acclaim driver to reinforce/justify his 'status'. Of course, he will in turn be sneered at when he pulls up next to an AMG E55...
3) The need for a victim: the man who builds up tremendous anger in his stressful daily office grind to pay for his new Boxter will want to take it out on random victims on the road - whom he feels are scum that should get out of his way. He will be further infuriated to see that he is the least happy person around.
4) Justifying one's own by closed-mindedly opposing all other interpretations: this occurs at so many levels that the mind boggles. The biggest is religion, as each faith dismisses the others as evil and thus we invent war. On a small scale, there will be bitter rivalry between gangs in cities, or violent brawls between opposing football supporters. Then, of course, there are different groups on the forums such as A/B series and E series. Do you think it ends there? Within E seies alone, EB II owners have bagged EB I owners; XR6 owners have bagged GLi owners, Fairmont owners have bagged Futura owners, 5.0 owners have bagged 4.0 owners... it never ends.

The reverse operates when people see the ugliness of elitism and deliberately insist on driving something humble. From this high horse they will mock people with prestige cars as being insecure or financially stupid, and thus creating 'extremist anti-elitism'. To my mind it is one of the most amazing psychological feats when a BMW 7 Series and a '76 Corolla driver at the lights will both look down their noses at each other for opposite reasons. It is such a perverse form of perfection and harmony.

Good luck to anyone wanting to completely stamp this out in a hurry - the closest thing will be discouraging elitism among our peers, and knowing who should be ignored. For the precious few who do not suffer from any form of the elitism disease, they can get along totally irrespective of what they drive. The best thing we can do is aspire to being like this, yet accepting that others will approach the same situation from a far more primitive mindset.

Cheers,
Jack