Staggering Hypocrisy

AN ARISTOCRAT SPEAKS!

I happened to stumble upon a twitter exchange between establishment novelist Ayelet Waldman and Salon writer Dahlia Lithwick. Waldman was congratulating Lithwick on an article in The New Republic which criticizes the narrowmindedness of the U.S. Supreme Court—as all have Ivy League educations.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120173/2014-supreme-court-ivy-league-clan-disconnected-reality

Disconnected reality indeed! I made the mistake of pointing out that the east coast literary media is predominately Ivy League. I asked Ayelet Waldman where she was last decade when the Underground Literary Alliance tried to democratize the U.S. literary scene, and for its efforts was blackballed and destroyed. Ms. Waldman responded quickly:

Ayelet Waldman ‏@ayeletw 

@LiteraryCircus Seriously? You're questioning my advocacy? Because I'm not working on your issue in exactly they way you are? Fuck off.

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Yes, I was questioning her selective advocacy—which clearly steers away from her own field. Dare not one criticize one of the elite! These are questions, of course, which members of the literary establishment can’t debate. They know they can’t debate them. During the entirety of the ULA’s history, the response was the same: invective and blackballing.

Do I need to mention that Ayelet Waldman is a Harvard graduate, while Dahlia Lithwick is a graduate of Yale?

Incidentally, or not, here’s a NEW POP LIT blog post which looks at the mindset of New York-based publishing.

http://newpoplitinteractive.wordpress.com/2014/11/10/inside-out-or-outside-in/

Also be sure to read NPL’s latest Opinion piece, wrapping things up about the Tao Lin story, “Self-Marketing 101: Tao Lin”

http://newpoplit.com/opinion/self-marketing-101-tao-lin/

My co-editor refers to the piece as “Art of the Con.” One thing to be said about Tao Lin is that he isn’t Ivy League—not part of the power elite—and so may have decided that extraordinary measures were needed.

The Harvard-Yale Duality

The truth about the U.S. political system over the past 25 years is that presidential choices have narrowed down to an ongoing contest between two elite schools, Harvard and Yale. If Vladimir Putin wishes to stop being an amateur at rigging a political system, he should study how system-rigging is done in the United States.

Here are the recent winners of the U.S. Presidency:

1988: Yale (beating Harvard).
1992: Yale.
1996: Yale.
2000: Yale/Harvard.
2004: Yale/Harvard.
2008: Harvard.

Note that George W. Bush covered his bases by being a grad of both places.

It appears from the list that Yale has the upper hand-- but 2012 will likely be a battle of Harvard vs. Harvard. After all, it's still Harvard's turn.

Where's Our Democracy?

The New Yorker magazine has a long article by David Remnick in the current issue which argues the need for democracy in Russia. I'd like to ask David Remnick the question: Where's our democracy?

If Mitt Romney gains the GOP nomination, it will guarantee that the winner of every U.S. presidential election since 1988, through 2012, will have been a graduate of Harvard or Yale. Or a graduate of both.

2004 pit members of the same Yale fraternity against each other! This time out, if Romney's nominated, as expected, it will be Harvard against Harvard. (This is as bad as the literary world!)

Does anyone notice or care how outrageous this is? Where are Occupiers on this question? This narrow domination gives the media show/political game away for the fraud that it is. It demonstrates that right now America is a very elitist, hierarchically-ordered society.

The NCAA's college football BCS system is anything but democratic. It's heavily weighted toward a select number of power conferences. There's much outcry this year over two schools from the same conference playing in the title game. Can you imagine the outcry if the same two schools appeared in the championship game every year? If there were 24 years of two-school monopoly in college football? Or worse, if one school played against itself!

I ask: Will all the concerned writers who signed the Occupy Writers petition sign one against this outrage? Would you bet that ANY of them would? Will the alleged democrats at a journal like n+1 run by Harvard and Yale grads rush to the forefront of this matter?

What about David Remnick? Will he push as hard for democracy in America as he does for democracy in a nation halfway across the globe?

Where are you, Mr. Remnick?

Where's OUR democracy, Mr. Remnick?

WHERE'S our democracy, David Remnick?

Where's our DEMOCRACY?!

WHERE'S OUR DEMOCRACY!!!
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