/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.4536432]

How do you hide the contempt you hold for the unenlighted masses?

[Anonymous No.4536455]

why would you want to do that?

[Anonymous No.4536454]

By going into academia and realising the ivory tower is so full of cunts that you prefer the masses

[Anonymous No.4536466]

i don't care about them

[Anonymous No.4536484]

>>4536432

ITT: So much privilege.

[Anonymous No.4536490]

>>4536454

Big fish, big fish!

[Anonymous No.4536515]

by being extremely ironical
see: all of philosophy up to the enlightenment

[Anonymous No.4536532]

>>4536454
Yup. I got my hair cut this morning by a cholo ex-convict who was drinking a beer while cutting. Then I went to an English Department symposium. Guess whose company I preferred?

[Anonymous No.4536541]

>>4536490
>watching new Simpsons

[Anonymous No.4536555]

>>4536454
This. I'd rather roam the plebby streets than the patrician hallways.

[Anonymous No.4536573]

>>4536541

> That episode was 10 years ago brah

[Anonymous No.4536577]

>>4536573
>Pliny the Younger? But he's old!

[Anonymous No.4536584]

>>4536541
>season 14

[Anonymous No.4536586]

>>4536454
My nigga. Vox populi, vox dei.

[Anonymous No.4536588]

ITT plebeians defending their pleb plebry.

[Anonymous No.4536594]

>>4536532
The ex convict because you prefer being around people you see yourself as superior to. Psychology 101.

[Anonymous No.4536598]

>>4536532
>>4536555

The reason people in academia are such cunts is they are convinced (like most of /lit/) that knowing a wide variety of esoteric knowledge somehow makes them better than everyone. Plebe this, sheep that, etc etc. Then they get around each other and it becomes even more of a pissing contest to justify their thick egos. I know what I know, and I don't lord it over others. I can read philosophy one hour, and mix with blue collar workers who watch reality TV the next. All these pretentious cunts who think they're so grand, they'll ultimately never understand the human condition outside of some inflated research papers their peers may pat them on the shoulder for; ultimately their fate is to be forgotten.

[Anonymous No.4536599]

>>4536594
this is false because i feel infinitely more superior to academics than normal people and i still prefer being around normal people

[Anonymous No.4536611]

>>4536432

I don't.

[Anonymous No.4536630]

>>4536432
I'm not an antinatalist anon, I don't want them to be enlightened. When I walk around at night thinking deep thoughts, huddled up in my trenchcoat, I like to see the faint glow of reality shows behind the windows of every house. It comforts me. The Truth isn't for everyone.

[Anonymous No.4536732]

I don't. I'm an adamant anti-intellectual.

[Anonymous No.4536746]

>>4536432
Why are you not placing them beneath contempt if that's the road you're going down, OP? In the words of Abraham Lincoln, "Whatever you are, be a good one." Don't let old Honest Abe down, and start putting your back into your work. Become a shining beacon of contempt for these masses, or the stratospheric blanket of contempt that looms above them, but don't hide your light under a bushel, OP. Lincoln would not have it.

[Anonymous No.4536822]

>>4536432
I don't know how I stand the baseless arrogance of the lower caste, or is feeling the need to go on about your intelligence a basis, OP?

[Anonymous No.4536830]

>>4536599
The fact that you refer to them as normal shows you think you're not normal, rather superior.

[Anonymous No.4536843]

>>4536532
>>4536594
>>4536599
>>4536598
the reason you're more comfortable around plebs is because the conversation you carry on with them is much less likely to turn to shit. but even more importantly, it's more pleasant to just simply shoot the shit with someone who's not going to challenge you in conversation, who you don't have to worry about bringing something up that will get you excited, get you passionate. we want to relax, to be calm. we don't want to get worked up--it's an idyllic human desire.

all you losers who are passionate about phil and lit are oblivious to the fact that we are animals, and there's no real positive reason to be so invested in classical lit and phil. it leads nowhere but to cynicism and depression and isolation and this whole attitude that the masses are inferior and it's that which breeds the bullshit that this thread was founded on. pretentious fucks, the lot of you.

you guys suck. sorry. but it's true.

[Anonymous No.4536848]

>>4536843
no, i really prefer in-depth conversations
most academics are too autistic to actually discuss their own subject properly, so i'd rather not bother

[Anonymous No.4536875]

>>4536843
>it leads nowhere but to cynicism and depression and isolation
Someone didn't get past the reefs and the breaking waves.

[Anonymous No.4537619]

>>4536875
so deep man. fucking cheeseball.

[Anonymous No.4537643]

I remember reading, catching a certain part along the lines of "..The more I love humanity as a whole, the less I love my fellow man..."

Might be Dostoevsky, cant remember.

[Anonymous No.4537675]

>>4537643
Yeah, sounds familiar, I think it's from an early chapter of the Brothers Karamazov

[Anonymous No.4537702]

I don't hold any contempt.
The unenlightened masses simply don't have enough free time to read books.
If anything, I feel kind of sorry for them.

[Anonymous No.4537706]

I don't really think of most people as unenlightened. They just know different shit than I do.

[Anonymous No.4537708]

>>4536843
Good job, you have summarized two and a half thousand years of philosophical thought to the mere end of depression and pretentiousness. You have proved to me that philosophy always was and always will be a futile pursuit that does nothing good for the individual or the mankind in general.

Might as well go live in a cave and bang rocks together.

[Anonymous No.4537712]

I come to /lit/ to remember what the enlightened are like. Interacting with the lesser evil becomes easy.

[Anonymous No.4537718]

>>4536843
>it leads nowhere but to cynicism and depression and isolation and this whole attitude that the masses are inferior
Sounds like someone read the wrong philosophy.

[Anonymous No.4537722]

>haven't been to /lit in a while
>i wonder if they're still shitposting 24/7
>see this thread

i've missed you. never change.

[Anonymous No.4537896]

>>4536432
>I've read all of Thus Spake Zarathustra and Ulysses
>That means I am not part of the unenlightened masses

Keep drinking that cum OP.

[Anonymous No.4537910]

>>4536843
Why did you give up?

[Anonymous No.4537916]

What is necessarily the problem with not being intellectually inclined? I never understood this.

[Anonymous No.4537934]

Other people have jobs or study hard shit, I ain't doing nothing but browsing the internet and reading. I don't feel superior.

[Anonymous No.4537955]

>>4537916
Even the enlightened are prey to self delusion, anon.

[Anonymous No.4537967]

>>4536843

İ disagree, İ love competition, even in intellectual matters. İ think main reason of preferring company of peasants is uptightness of hidden peasants they who still peasant in their heart; they think reading one or two book on a subject making them hot shit. This arrogant attitude which coming from phony intellectuality is the reason, not some weak ego stroking or fearing some competition fallen one.

[Anonymous No.4537976]

>>4536432
I don't think there really is an unenlightened mass, just an idea of a group that is supposedly unenlightened, which we can only fill with a couple of extremes, which then automatically elliminates the possibillity of being able to call them the mass. Since there is no qualification for belonging to the unenlightened masses.
I think it's just a buzzword for people who don't posses in depth knowledge of your particular interest. I study history, I don't know shit about biology, physics, maths, etc. So to a mathematician or biologist I'll be part of ''the masses''. To me, a lot of people who are ideological/political/religious fanatics lack knowledge regarding the birth and life of their ideology and how stupid it is (nationalism, for instance) so they are the unenlightened masses to me.
It's just a name to call people who don't know things about your branch of knowledge.

>>4536843
You are one bitter person, you must be a great philosopher by your own post.

[Anonymous No.4538057]

>>4536843

You linked >>4536598 but you really didn't read it at all

[Anonymous No.4538215]

>>4538057
who has time to read?

[Anonymous No.4538230]

>>4536432
I simply smile and wave. There's no reason to waste energy, arguing with the lesser entities.

[Anonymous No.4538235]

I'm a hiki: so if it is outside my room, I'm not concerned about it.

[Anonymous No.4538241]

>>4536848
>academics are too autistic to actually discuss their own subject properly

"Waaaaah it's my teachers fault, that I don't read literature on my subject, he is responsible for my learning"

Kids these days.

[Anonymous No.4538265]

>>4536432

I don't think there's a particularly good reason for holding the masses in contempt simply because they have neither the time nor the desire to pursue my specific interests. Modern society is built upon the division of labor, and one could hardly expect that everyone should know and do everything for themselves. With the progress of technology and academic research, we are required more than ever before to be conscious through the knowledge of others as much as we are required to exchange the fruits of our labor for the fruits of the labor of many others.

Isn't it a little bit ridiculous to expect that someone should come home from a long day of work to begin intellectual labor? Is the avoidance of this not the entire point of specialist research and condensed material for mass consumption? Isn't the point of literary criticism, for example, to improve the quality of future literature by teaching aspiring writers the ways and means of past, epoch-making authors? Isn't this at least in part done to improve the quality of a product for an end-user that is not necessarily a literary critic?

For intellectuals to hold the masses in contempt is to absolutely demand that the masses hold intellectuals in contempt. I think we can agree that it is a very bad idea to create antagonism between the masses and their source of their consciousness as citizens of a modern state - non-violent citizens of a modern state.

[Anonymous No.4538399]

>>4537619
I'm serious. There's no reason why literature and philosophy would make you miserable in the long run. Sure, when you first get to thinking shit gets shaken up, but you can get beyond that. Thinking that 'confused teenager' is the endstage of serious though is silly.

[Anonymous No.4538412]

>not fighting the academia and the masses at the same time Nietzsche style

[Anonymous No.4538443]

>>4538265

This nigga knows. I salute you, man.

[Anonymous No.4538447]

>>4536432
>plebs in my english class call their stories "postmodern" when they have like a non-chronological timeline or something
>they haven't read jameson
>they haven't read lyotard
>most of them haven't even heard of heidegger
>their stories are only postmodern insofar as every single piece of art created today is working within the aura of postmodernity

[Anonymous No.4538574]

>>4536454
so much this

[Anonymous No.4538581]

>>4538574
Academics are courtyard tier though, the real tower dwellers are solitary in their height.

[Anonymous No.4538732]

>>4536454
What is academia anyways? I mean, I'd hardly consider the average /lit/ poster or pretentious university grad to be at all enlightened, at the same time i've had great relationships with most of my profs. Is there a point that you need to reach first? Do you become "academic" after your first paper or something? Most self proclaimed "intellectuals" tend to be a drag to talk to and aren't even smart enough to have the slightest amount of self awareness or social skills.

To go further, I've met some really interesting intelligent people who don't really live the "university life" (if they've ever been to university), would a nun or that subways guy who just won that millenium award be "intelectual"? What about someone like Roberto Calasso or Noam Chomsky, who've been published but outside their line of study. Could I be considered an "intellectual" despite being a janitor who reads a lot, or do I have to be one of those faggots crying about "u cant know nuthin" in our science/philo threads to be an intellectual?

[Anonymous No.4538758]

>>4536573
>implying 2004 isnt new simpsons

[Anonymous No.4538816]

>>4538399

Nihilism is an endstage for many.

[Anonymous No.4538822]

>>4536843
>all you losers who are passionate about phil and lit are oblivious to the fact that we are animals

half of the books we like acknowledge this tho

[Anonymous No.4538839]

>>4538732
Academia is a self-perpetuating diploma mill. They set the standards of what constitutes valid research by enforcing mediocrity on everyone, and then be mediocre forever. Professors are nice but they're mostly functionaries, they're just collecting and spinning data endlessly without advancing or creating anything, with an army of lesser known grad student and protege slaves. These people are not intellectuals.

At least scientism creates things that actually change outward society. The liberal arts just keeps compiling newer and newer ways of saying the same shit everyone has already known since the 40s.

[Anonymous No.4538842]

I am the unenlightened masses. You too.

[Anonymous No.4538846]

>>4538842

It's a spectrum, not binary.
Like autism.

[Anonymous No.4538851]

>>4536455
I tried reading this homo recently but he seemed totally boring and insignificant.

[Anonymous No.4538870]

>>4538732
>Could I be considered an "intellectual" despite being a janitor who reads a lot, or do I have to be one of those faggots crying about "u cant know nuthin" in our science/philo threads to be an intellectual?

You are doing the exact same thing, you are blaming "intellectuals" for doing: Blabbering about something you don't know shit about being a janitor you don't have the slightest idea what academic culture is, but pure prejudice and random pieces of incomplete information. No one who is taken serious says "you can't know nuthing'" they are merely pointing out gaps in our knowledge for the possibility of future remedy of said gaps. There is no real science/philosophy dichotomy outside 4chan which is merely shitflinging undergrads, grasping for straws that their own field of expertise is doing gods work, while at the same time knowing most of them will end up at boring dead end jobs. Academic reality is much different and filled with mutual respect between disciplines. Most are aware of intellectuals residing outside academia, there's just not room for that in dick measuring contests around here.

Academia provides much better stimulation from knowledgable peers than public space will ever do, because you concentrate people with similar interests. It's a far better cultivation of intellect than reading books by yourself and talking to randoms will ever provide.

Social skills doesn't matter, it's your ability to think and do that matters. Again, if you really are that clever, you should have learned not to opine about that which you do not know, as all academics learn the hard way.

[Anonymous No.4538881]

>>4538839
Are you seriously making the argument, that the iPhone 4 should have been an teleporter instead of a phone? They are regurgitating the same old technologies we have known since the 1800c

[Anonymous No.4538889]

>>4538870
>Social skills doesn't matter, it's your ability to think and do that matters.

Social skills require thinking too.
You're naive if you think being knowledgeable and talented in doing research is the main determinant in academic success.

[Anonymous No.4538894]

>>4538889
Yes, you need to be apt at flattering and brown-nosing your superiors, that's not different from anything else and doesn't
require thinking.

[Anonymous No.4538923]

ITT:

[Anonymous No.4539144]

i think they are okey i mean if people like to eat shit so be it i might even go and shit there for them
it's what God would have wanted me to do

[Anonymous No.4539201]

>unenlightened

I don't care how intelligent somebody is. Intelligence is not a measure of how interesting a person can be.

I will admit freely that I struggle to deal with people who bore me.

[Anonymous No.4539270]

>>4536830
normal does not mean lower, it means average. you have no way of knowing whether the poster sees himself as average or not

[Anonymous No.4539283]

>>4536843
>all you losers who are passionate about phil and lit are oblivious to the fact that we are animals, and there's no real positive reason to be so invested in classical lit and phil. it leads nowhere but to cynicism and depression and isolation and this whole attitude that the masses are inferior and it's that which breeds the bullshit that this thread was founded on. pretentious fucks, the lot of you.

>Humans are just animals! Stop trying to be more idiots, you'll only get hurt!

Look at you.

Understanding can make a man happy or unhappy, but that's not really the point of it. We try to understand the world both because we want to know the truth and because we desire meaning. We create art, music and poetry because we want to express beauty. We do things that may very well make us unhappy simply because of our ideals. It is our humanity that makes us more than mere animals. Of course you can chose to deny your humanity, but your ability to make that very choice is just another thing that makes you human.

[Anonymous No.4539318]

>>4539270
average people don't consider themselves average, it's false modesty if it occurs.

[Anonymous No.4539320]

I hold no contempt.

I'm from Letcher county, KY. We don't put people below us; if we did, there would have been many winters many of the families here on Pine Mountain would have died. We look after ourselves, but we also look after our kith and kin.

Some of us are conventionally intelligent, some of us are not. I have my MA in medieval British literature; my father dropped out of middle school. Still, i'm lucky to have half the skills he has.

When you step back, you realize that contempt is useless. Take a lesson from Lao Tzu. Let go.

[Anonymous No.4539332]

>>4539318
That fucking argument
>everyone considers themselves above average falsely
>that means you're just average

It's bullshit. Yes, there are people who are above average. Yes, you may be one of them, and even if you aren't you have the potential to become one of them. Why sit in a corner going on about your own mediocrity when you might have the potential to be more?

[Anonymous No.4539330]

The unenlightened masses THEY CANNOT MAKE THE JUDGMENT CALL

[Anonymous No.4539336]

>>4539330
GIVE UP FREE WILL FOREVER

[Anonymous No.4539346]

>>4539336
THEIR VOICES WON'T BE HEARD AT ALL

[Anonymous No.4539351]

I don't know man, I just keep to myself. I hate to sound edgy or autistic but I only feel okay when I'm alone.

[Anonymous No.4539368]

>>4539320
Letcher county Kentucky is one of the worst places in the world.

Kentuckians are awful and I spit on them.

At least you guys make good chicken.

[Anonymous No.4539438]

>>4538846
Right.

[Deep&Edgy !!BfzNblz4cXS No.4539451]

mostly by listening to a lot of talk radio

also by posting in this shithole and heckling complete strangers across the ocean

[Anonymous No.4539503]

>>4539368
>Abraham Lincoln
>awful

[Anonymous No.4539510]

>>4536588
NEEEEERD

[Anonymous No.4539515]

I'm trying not to have contempt. There really is no point like in anything else.

[Anonymous No.4539517]

>>4536598
This whole post, you commit to shitting on people you call pretentious, then justify reasons for why you're better than them, all under the assumption of our assumption that you are already better than the mix of "blue collar workers".

So who the fuck are you, and what you saying?

[Anonymous No.4539584]

>>4538265

[Anonymous No.4539673]

>>4538816
>cynicism and depression and isolation
Yes, it almost has to be. But that doesn't mean it has to include "cynicism and depression and isolation". There's nothing inherently bad about nihilism.

[Anonymous No.4539686]

>>4538816
Yes, it almost has to be. But that doesn't mean it has to include "cynicism and depression and isolation". There's nothing inherently bad about nihilism.