A Person Is Not A Democrat Thanks To His Ignorance Of Literature And The Arts, Nor An Elitist Because He Or She Has Cultivated Them. The Possession Of Knowledge Makes For Unjust Power Over Others Only If Used For That Very Purpose: A Physician Or Lawyer Or Clergyman Can Exploit Or Humiliate Others, Or He Can Be A Humanitarian And A Benefactor. In Any Case, It Is Absurd To Conjure Up Behind Anybody Who Exploits His Educated Status The Existence Of An "elite" Scheming To Oppress The Rest Of Us.

-Jacques Barzun

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A Person Is Not A Democrat Thanks

Jacques Barzun

A Person Is Not A Democrat Thanks To His Ignorance Of Literature And The Arts, Nor An Elitist Because He Or She Has Cultivated Them. The Possession Of Knowledge Makes For Unjust Power Over Others Only If Used For That Very Purpose: A Physician Or Lawyer Or Clergyman Can Exploit Or Humiliate Others, Or He Can Be A Humanitarian And A Benefactor. In Any Case, It Is Absurd To Conjure Up Behind Anybody Who Exploits His Educated Status The Existence Of An "elite" Scheming To Oppress The Rest Of Us.

Topic

Art

Ignorance

Physicians

Seeing Clearly Within Himself And Always Able To Dodge Around The Ends Of Any Position, Including His Own, Shaw Assumed From The Start The Dual Role Of Prophet And Gadfly. To His Contemporaries It Appeared Frivolous And Contradictory To Perform As Both Superman And Socialist, Sceptic And Believer, Legalist And Heretic, High-brow And Mob-orator. But Feeling The Duty To Teach As Well As To Mirror Mankind, Shaw Did Not Accept Himself As A Contradictory Being.

Mirrors

Feelings

Gadflies