Colin McEnroe Show: Living The Snob's Life
Face it, everyone is a snob about something.
Published: Jan 24, 2011
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Mmm...yes! Jolly Good!
Photo:Flickr Creative Commons, El Bibliomata
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Colin McEnroe Show: Living The Snob's Life
I grew up in an environment where it was difficult for me to be a snob even if I wanted to.
I was a scholarship student at a private boys' school and then at Yale. I suppose this gave me the opportunity to have snobbish feelings toward people who didn't get to breathe the air of such places, but I was mainly aware of my low rung on the ladder. There were people who simply belonged there and people who had managed to scratch out a place there, and I was the latter sort.
My son, however, insists that I am a snob even as I profess all kinds of nice liberal Democratic beliefs about the equality of everybody. "You don't like people who don't read and talk about ideas," he says. "You look down on people you don't think are very smart."
Maybe. But is that snobbery or a preference for a certain kind of person who has interests comparable to one's own? Also, go Packers!
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Frankly, I am absolutely
Frankly, I am absolutely appalled by the derogatory use of the "r" word by your guest Gorman. His complete ignorance is insulting enough, however your acceptance of this during your show was even worse and only served to condone the denigration of the mentally handicapped. Please tell me how you would have responded to the use of the "n" word. I was so completely shocked, that I listened to your show again online just to ensure that I wasn't mistaken. As a contributor to WNPR and a daily listener to your broadcast, your public apology is expected.
E-mail from Richard
Colin, snobbery is alive and vibrant amongst us! I am not a snob, but I do recognize that people who disagree with me are wrong. They cannot help being wrong, since they don’t know what is right.
I must admit that I’m a NPR aficionado. Persons who are avid, well-informed NPR listeners are intelligent, receptive, enlightened, and amiable guys like me. Others are biased, closed minded and inbred beings who are doomed to monolithic thinking and, worse yet, are addicted to a unipolar social assemblages. Such is the World. I’m so likely that I’m on the right side. // Richard Ps. I thought today’s Show was great camp, underlain by super intellectual revelations.
E-mail from Wayne
I guess there wasn't time on the snob show to address you being a Packers fan. Have you read Jerry Kramer's account of the '67 season, I think it was called "First and Ten?" I am a Patriots fan, but I will be rooting for the Pack in the Superbowl. I used to have a real cheesehead here, but it got filthy from sitting around uncovered and Marilyn probably threw it away. I have a great Packers joke to share with you if you don't consider jokes too declasse'.
Always enjoy the show when I have time to hear it,
E-mail from Wendy
Ghetto snobbery exists too! Are your Jordans real...from the mall....or flea market knock offs....do u eat the fat on ur pork chops or pick around it like you're healthy or somthing.......is your rentacenter account paid up...or r they taking ur furniture back....is ur weave real hair or synthetic!!!!
E-mail from Sue
Playing devil's advocate here, where is the line between snobbery and competitiveness (as in, "my parenting style is better than hers...")?
And further, where is the line between snobbery and just having personal preferences (as in, liking people who like to talk about ideas, don't follow sports, and who like to read interesting books)?
And I confess, I am indeed an NPR snob, who diminishes my valuation by some degree of any person who does not also listen extensively. I thrill to people who reference quips from "Wait Wait" or Prairie Home Companion or, dare I say, Chion Wolf!
PS... Never seen The Wire, but I've heard it's really good!
E-mail from Merri
Something that popped into my head - the fact that you're a snob need never concern other people if you're a well-mannered person. An ill-mannered person lets others know, subtly or not so subtly, that he/she is superior to them.
E-mail from Ellee
The 'fright' element in Social Network is the music...WE ARE BEING LED. Discordant atonal chords when sustained are scary. I have watched SN 3x. In some scenes, I wondered why the omenous tones when nothing was being communicated verbally to this affect. Honestly, without the 'scariness' of the score, some scenes would fall flaaaat!
I admire and like this film very much, however, even so.
The movie analysis snob....with love
E-mail from Bernie
First of all, the word snob comes from the latin abbreviation s.nob which means "without nobility".
More to the point though is the face that we tend to confuse the value of a human being with their value or productivity in society. So faster stronger smarter richer people are thought to be better. The truth is of course that the value of a person comes from their simply being a human being.
I also think that the true measure of any person should be their compassion even though there is no way to quantify it.
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