The Ignorance of Commoners Reaches New Heights

[H. MacHinery]

The four corners of the world does indeed seem to date back to when people thought the world was flat. It´s one of those things that has just stuck with us in the language, similar to the heart being the seat of emotions.

I think it's always been just a figurative thing, as scholars have known the earth was round since antiquity.

I believe that it came form the four cardinal directions, which lends itself to just such a conceit.

[H. MacHinery]

I have that on the impeccable authority of my neighbor's 13-year-old son, who also informs me that the earth is obviously actually flat, because "people" are always referring to its "four corners." I wish I could say that he was merely trying to be funny... *sigh*

Show the lad a 4-sided die and ask how many corners it has.

[Mr Bellows]

Ok, this little gem occured not 15 minutes ago;
I went to my local petrol station to fill my cars tank & noticed one of the local "Youffs"  (baseball cap, trousers halfway down his legs, hoody, you all know the type) standing at another pump looking at the pump in a frustrated manner talking to one of his cohorts in their car saying "Why won't it work" ??
This alone does not merit a stupidity badge, but the fact that the inbred idiot was standing right next to a 3ft high bill board proclaiming "Pay only at Pump" (which meant he had to follow the writing on the pump) does 

[Lucius Voltaic]

Here's an interesting thought I just had. Looking at the thread title, I thought, Doesn't that sound a bit elitist? But then it came to me: what we're doing, and what I think is an essential part of steampunk, is not the traditional elitist attitude of "we're more fortunate, so we're better", but the much more wholesome attitude of "we have educated ourselves and sought out other educated people; shall we then not joy in our mutual accomplishments? and maybe poke a little fun at those who have been too lazy to better themselves?" It could still be termed "elitist", but that would bring all the connotations of the bad kind--I would term it rather...hmm. I was thinking "philology", but that's taken. Ideas?

[Atterton]

Let´s just call it elitist. If you´re not better than the rabble, you´re not trying hard enough.

[RoseOak]

I agree.
 Its not a case of where or how one was born but how one conducts oneself in private and in the company of others.  
 It costs nothing to educate oneself and the way that you earn a living has nothing to do with manners or taste. You may not be able to afford the best due to  income but if you conduct yourself with decorum and have decent manners then it speaks for itself much more then flashing cash.
 I freely admit that I'm a bit of a snob and yes I do look down on people occasionally but not on people who are unfortunate due to no fault of their own  but  on people who cannot be bothered to improve themselves and have no interest in life outside their own little boxes.

[Utini420]

I look down on the muggles* all the time, and I'm not ashamed of it.  If I couldn't, I'd be ashamed of that.

*using this term as a catch-all for the boring, uncreative, can't be bothered, unskilled, ignorance-as-virtue, effort-avoiding troglodytes that seem to litter this planet, without a single solitary super-power to their name.  Super-powers don't have to be mystical or mutation-based, just something you do that no one else does.

[RoseOak]

  Super-powers don't have to be mystical or mutation-based, just something you do that no one else does.

oh like thinking 

[Utini420]

Sometimes, yes, that counts.

Thinking at those times when no one else does, always counts.

[RoseOak]

Sometimes, yes, that counts.

Thinking at those times when no one else does, always counts.

If you can keep your head when all around you are loosing theirs then you have someone in mind to blame

[Arcturon the hobo]

Sadly, a couple of days ago i had to explain to adult members of my own family that,


"no, Charles Darwin is dead i'm afraid, he didn't invent gravity no, he came up with the theory of evolution which describes how natural selection can change one species gradually into another."

Mary Coughlan, an Irish politician, once referred to "Einstein's theory of Evolution."

[Gentleman-Adventurer]

Sadly, a couple of days ago i had to explain to adult members of my own family that,


"no, Charles Darwin is dead i'm afraid, he didn't invent gravity no, he came up with the theory of evolution which describes how natural selection can change one species gradually into another."

Mary Coughlan, an Irish politician, once referred to "Einstein's theory of Evolution."

It is a proven fact that almost every person in Irish politics who has the name "Mary" is certifiably incompetent.

[Dr. von Trenker]

It is a proven fact that almost every person in Irish politics who has the name "Mary" is certifiably incompetent.

That's a bit dismissive of the distaff side - haven't all Hibernian ladies got "Mary" somewhere in their names?

[greensteam]

I agree.
 Its not a case of where or how one was born but how one conducts oneself in private and in the company of others.  
 It costs nothing to educate oneself and the way that you earn a living has nothing to do with manners or taste. You may not be able to afford the best due to  income but if you conduct yourself with decorum and have decent manners then it speaks for itself much more then flashing cash.
 I freely admit that I'm a bit of a snob and yes I do look down on people occasionally but not on people who are unfortunate due to no fault of their own  but  on people who cannot be bothered to improve themselves and have no interest in life outside their own little boxes.

So right. I got an email the other day asking me to provide some data for a survey about people who do the sort of work I do. Being an obliging sort of person I easily answered how old I am but then had to say what social class I am. I was really stumped. In the UK, sociologists and journos talk about socio-economic classes nowadays, recognising that money trumps most things in the class stakes. But this makes it even harder to allocate people. I know people with BBC accents living on the bread line in social housing but whose raggedy kids get bullied at school for being posh. My family probably falls into a less severe form of that syndrome: 2 parents, 2 kids, no car, no TV, small 2 bedroom flat in a not great but not terrible area, earning national average wages. Our kids are at school with children from families astronomically wealthier than us and yet are regarded, even in that lot, as somehow posher. is it our accents alone? Is it that the flat is groaning with books and records? Do our accents make us middle class even though we earn less than most blue collar workers?

I think it is mostly about attitudes, expectations and behaviour.

[Lucius Voltaic]

Let´s just call it elitist. If you´re not better than the rabble, you´re not trying hard enough.

I freely admit that I'm a bit of a snob and yes I do look down on people occasionally but not on people who are unfortunate due to no fault of their own  but  on people who cannot be bothered to improve themselves and have no interest in life outside their own little boxes.

I look down on the muggles* all the time, and I'm not ashamed of it.  If I couldn't, I'd be ashamed of that.

Ha! ha! I knew I would find some like-minded fellows on here! What shall we call ourselves? Perhaps...the Atmocrats? (Greek for steam-rulers.)


P.S. Utini, I like your definition of "muggles". Typical of you, I must say. 

[SteampunkPagan]

I have been exposed to many types of people. What scares me is that people have told me I am smart. This is scary since my performance with Math is about great as a Chimp counting rocks. Choosing not to be ignorant is great thing.

[Clockwerk Wolf]

Ha! ha! I knew I would find some like-minded fellows on here! What shall we call ourselves? Perhaps...the Atmocrats? (Greek for steam-rulers.)


P.S. Utini, I like your definition of "muggles". Typical of you, I must say.  

Or perhaps "Sophiacrats"? (Knowledge rulers? My Greek rather sucks)


As a reenactor I get some disturbing questions such as "Why did they build Fort McHenry so close to the airport?" and "Why did all the battles take place in national parks?".

Then there was that one fellow who was confident George Washington fought in the Civil War in 1942...

[Darkhound]

I think that would be "Sophocrats", wisdom rulers, although "Gnostocrats", knowledge rulers, might be closer to the mark.

To answer the questions you were asked, Fort McHenry is close to the airport for the same reason it is across the mouth of the harbor, i.e. to prevent unwelcome landings. Battles were fought in National Parks to avoid knocking over important buildings and trampling valuable crops. Sad to say, only people who would never ask these questions would enjoy the answers.

George Washington's war began as a Civil War, and I'm sure there were several George Washingtons in service in 1942 (after all, the US Army did have a Sgt. Adolf Hitler at the time), but this sort of thinking is clearly the product of a defective mind or a badly flawed education, perhaps both.

[Lucius Voltaic]

I think that would be "Sophocrats", wisdom rulers, although "Gnostocrats", knowledge rulers, might be closer to the mark.

I'm pretty sure your Greek is correct. (I only know a little of the grammar myself, but I am quite conversant with the bits that get used to make English words.)

And "Gnostocrats" is pretty cool, I must say. I was thinking "Atmocrats" for specifically the steampunk subset, but, for the general sense, "Gnostocrats" would work much better. So! Who wants to be a founding member of the Gnostocratic Society (Atmocratic Chapter)?

To answer the questions you were asked, Fort McHenry is close to the airport for the same reason it is across the mouth of the harbor, i.e. to prevent unwelcome landings. Battles were fought in National Parks to avoid knocking over important buildings and trampling valuable crops. Sad to say, only people who would never ask these questions would enjoy the answers.

And, yes, while those answers would go over the heads of stupid people, there might be smart people present who would get a kick out of it. I say, try it! For science! For the lulz! For the glory of the Gnostocrats!

[Gentleman-Adventurer]

It is a proven fact that almost every person in Irish politics who has the name "Mary" is certifiably incompetent.

That's a bit dismissive of the distaff side - haven't all Hibernian ladies got "Mary" somewhere in their names?

Not as many as you might think. What I said is true, though. Our minister for health, Mary Harney, is clinically obese. What does that tell you?

[darkshines]

I tend to refer to underlings as "proles".

[Clockwerk Wolf]

I tend to refer to underlings as "proles".

It certainly fits to be sure, but then that raises the question: where do you fit into the Party? 

[darkshines]

Inner of course, I work in Miniluv.....

[Clockwerk Wolf]

Remind me to avoid you at all costs. 

[darkshines]

We'll be watching.....