Elitism

This topic of elitism popped up over hi-tea with Bloss one fine day.

Bloss said we are elites. That is why we are not able to understand or tolerate certain idiotic things which simply drive us nuts.

By elites, we mean we are from reputable schools – starting from secondary schools to junior colleges to finally university.

Granted, we are not Harvard nor Stanford graduates but only a lowly humble NTU and NIE graduates. Sounds ironic… but anyway..

She’s from Nanyang Girls. I’m from River Valley. And she is glad that her life partner is from Chinese High. All from special stream.

Because we are from similar qualifications and educational background, the frequency is more similar. We are able to connect better.

And she pointed out that this might be the reason why I always only honestly enjoy only those few people’s company, but always seem to dread the rest.

Which brings her to another point – she does not understand why I still waste time entertaining such people who are totally out of the league and make myself so busy and unhappy…

There was this evening recently when I kinda gatecrashed Bloss and her hubby-to-be’s clique of friends dinner and beer session.

I truly enjoyed myself that evening.

With the kind of things they were blah-ing about, the unsuspectingly-witty jokes they made and the kind of intellectual connection we all made.

And yes, they are all from reputable schools.

I brought this topic up with Nan on another occasion and to my surprise, she, too, agreed.

We are elites.

No, not that we are arrogant. But our train of thoughts and the way we are brought up and taught are just different.

That – I agreed. The difference is rather obvious in university when you get to mix with people from other junior colleges (apart from those top few) or polytechnics. Less so when you are working, but there IS a difference.

Not sure how to put it into words – but it is just different.

That said, Nan said that somehow, she fails to find the sense of “elitism-pride” in me these days. I seem to be OK to make friends out of “our league”.

But I defended myself in saying that everyone has some positive traits or characteristics that you can learn from.

Even some of the richest millionaires you see on papers these days claim they are drop-outs from school.

Yes – but they are the minority. And that is because they are already born with the brains and they have the tenacity. Nan argued. How many of these drop outs actually make it big?

Bird of the same feathers flock together.

Look at the kind of people you recently attract and hang out with (apart from the few of us), and you should know by now you are mixing with the wrong company.

I guess I understand where my friends are coming from. 

Because when you mix with the "wrong" company, you need to bring yourself lower to their level, and if this continues for some time, the (low) level would become norm for me.   Which is unacceptable.  People only move up.  They don't and shouldn't move down.

Fair enough.

This somehow reminded me of what J used to chide me, when he said he could not understand why a Hwa Chongian could hang out with people from Jurong JC. And that he used to tell me to mix only with the “right” people.

And look at the few of us. We are all established in our career now, in one way or another. Do you think you have achieved that?  If the answer is no, you just need to find that competitive streak that you used to have back in you. Fast.  Nan reminded. In fact, you always have it.  But I don't know why you seem to suppress it...

Hmmm... I think it would be easy to find back that competitive streak. But I would also like to find back my sense of “elitism-pride”, and mix with the “right” people... ...

Hmmm... some food for thoughts for me...