Snobbery And Reverse Snobbery

A claim frequently made about people with strong backgrounds in literature and arts is that they are snobs. When I was in school, two English teachers got together and started acting in a very snobbish and nasty manner. I think that I understand the reason for this.

Literature and art convey many kinds of realizations. A person who has been exposed to these realizations may then see people who have not been exposed to such realizations as being inferior.

Now here is the big problem. The realizations are not theirs. They are those of the writer or the artist. For them to take credit for these realizations is completely inappropriate. They did not come up with the realizations. They were simply exposed to them. That they read a book and somebody else didn't does not mean that they are better than them.

A related situation concerns any number of people – especially young people – who have talents. They may decide – as did I at one point – that having these talents makes them better than others. Here is the problem. They did not create these talents. They were simply born with them. The credit for these talents do not belong with them and is not theirs to take.

The Bible does claim to have the truth; but it also teaches humility. Some followers of the Bible are vicious or arrogant to people who do not follow the Bible, but they are less known as being snobs. The same attitude should be imparted to people who have knowledge of literature and the arts.

One problem that I have seen is reverse snobbery. Some people are really under the impression that there is something wrong with people who are into such things as literature and the arts. This is wrong as well. Literature and arts are legitimate pursuits and deserve to be respected and cultivated. Civilizations are known largely by their written and artistic output; and people who produce good art and literature are making significant contributions to their civilization. They are not “bums” and many of them are not “snobs.” However it may be understandable to see some such people develop a negative attitude toward people who have such convictions when they are getting in some cases viciously attacked for their interests and their contributions.

So we see some people seeing others as being inferior, and we see other people seeing these people as having nothing worthwhile to contribute or as being wrongly made. This is not a rightful state of affairs. Both sides are in the wrong, and both are doing the wrong thing. The correct solution is for people to see value for things such as arts and literature, and it is for people who have interest or capacity in such things to have a better attitude toward other people. At which point there will be a greater demand for literature and the arts, resulting in more artists and writers being able to make ends meet but, much more importantly, in the civilization cultivating and benefiting from excellent literature and arts.