Charles Murray: Are You a Snob? Take the Test. | Big Think

Charles Murray: Are You a Snob? Take the Test.
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Charles Mrray designed this quiz to have a salutary effect on bringing to people’s attention the degree to which they live in a bubble that seals them off from an awful lot of their fellow American citizens.
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CHARLES MURRAY:

Charles Murray is a libertarian political scientist, author, columnist, and pundit currently working as a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He is best known for his controversial book The Bell Curve, co-authored with Richard Herrnstein in 1994, which argues that intelligence plays a central role in American society. He first became well known for his book Losing Ground: American Social Policy 1950–1980 in 1984, which discussed the American welfare system. Murray has also written In Pursuit: Of Happiness and Good Government (1988), What It Means to be a Libertarian: A Personal Interpretation (1996), Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950 (2003), and In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State (2006). He published Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality in 2008.
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TRANSCRIPT:

Charles Murray: The elite as I see it are the people that run the country. The broad elite consists of the people who are prominent in Kansas City or Indianapolis or individual cities. They’re the CEOs of the most important industries. They’re the mayor, the people who own the TV stations, et cetera. The narrow elite are those people who have effects on the nation’s culture and economics and politics. That’s a very small group. You’re probably talking about fewer than 100,000 people all together who have that kind of power. And that’s what I see as the class – the broad elite and the narrow elite who have drawn away from the rest of the country and formed enclaves and cultures of their own.

They eat different foods. They drink different alcoholic beverages. The upper class, for example, has a disdain of extraordinary force about domestic mass market beer. You will never see Budweiser in the refrigerator of a member of the new upper class. They raise their children differently. They go to different churches. They have different religious attitudes in general, if they go to church at all. In almost every way they have folk ways that separate them from mainstream America.

Take television for example. The average television set in the United States of America is on 35 hours a week. That’s probably too much, but the fact is, the people that are watching that television get an exposure to a popular culture in very large doses. What does the new upper class watch on television? Downton Abbey, Madmen – the more adventurous probably watch Breaking Bad – but aside from that, they don’t really watch TV. And, in fact, a lot of them will say to you, “Gee, we don’t even really have a TV anymore.” Okay, that’s fine. I’m not saying there’s something virtuous about watching TV 35 hours a week. I am saying that when you have that kind of divergence in that single behavior you have part of the reason that you have an ignorance of, and oftentimes a disdain of, mainstream America by the new upper class, which is very problematic in terms of the future of the country.

One of the things in the book that really worked was my Bubble Quiz. You know, I faced the problem of – because my audience really is upper middle class and upper class people, especially young people – and I wanted to convince them of the degree to which they are isolated in many cases. And since a lot of times you can’t bring too much quantitative data to bear on that, I said, “Well, I’ll let them prove it to themselves.” So I have a 25 item quiz in it, and a high score means you are not in an upper middle class bubble. And a low score means you are.

So some questions are – the importance is very obvious – have you ever lived in a neighborhood in which more than half of your neighbors did not have college degrees? For example. Some of them are a little mischievous – have you ever stocked your refrigerator with mass market American beer? Since the signature of - one...

[jbossnack]

I work now among many privileged people but also when I was younger I worked in factories and even dangerous conditions and frequently felt my hands continue to shake from the labor hours after I got off my shift. If you never had to struggle you don't know what most people go through each day. Struggling is what grounds people or they develop a narcissistic attitude.

[RayLRhodes]

"I personally prefer hand-crafted beer and don't watch television, and I am low-middle class."You are the exception. He is talking generally.

[philipmcgee]

You are so correct sir. To escape the bubble after becoming a professor at a major research university I remained living in the small southern town in which I was raised (80 miles away). Because my field is training and human development, I wanted to stay close to "real" people, people who actually work for a living. It was one of the best decisions I ever made, emotionally, spiritually and professionally. I am now retired and live in the same house I did 40+ years ago. What have I learned over the years? Snobbery and sophistication are not the same thing. Sophisticated people know how to put others at ease, snobs do not.

[Volvandese]

Dude, I'm pretty much flat-out poor, and you'll never see Budweiser in my fridge either. You don't have to be elite to dislike terrible beer.

[IKilledMufasa]

No test required. I know I'm a snob. I've been one since the day I fell from heaven.

[dmfc]

While I agree to a great extent with what he is saying I believe he is downing the inherent need for pluralism in society. Yes, I ignore popular culture because popular culture is inherently boring and trivial. I don't need to know what the newest reality show is or what idiots are involved in it. It serves no utility to society or my life. To believe people need to pay attention to popular culture to understand the needs of basic humanity is absolute nonsense. 

[pugapino]

“Have you ever lived inna neighborhood where more than half your neighbors did not have university degrees?” Why YES!!! When I was undergraduate at my elite university, my dorm was filled with high school valedictorians now pursuing their university degrees!

[stephenmuth]

No mass market beer, check. No TV, check. Disdain for mainstream America, check. Difficult university major, check. Never stocked fridge with mass market American beer. Never seen a factory floor close up. Hate pop and most rock, preferring jazz and classical (Murray mentions this in other interviews). Have held job that murdered my feet, though (student taught public HS, worked fast food). Currently live in neighborhood notoriously deficient in college grads. Have absolutely no influence whatsoever. I guess I'm a chimera-snob.

[thejasminelee]

"I'm not a psychopath Anderson, I'm a high functioning sociopath, do your research!"
-- Sherlock Holmes

[Voltanaut]

From the start of my schooling to 14 I was raised in the private system. I was told I, and my peers, were the luckiest and best in the country. Our school always boasted this. For 9 years I did poorly in school, never socialised and loathed my niche. However, in an unexpected twist, my dad lost all his wealth from a fraudulent business partner and I was transferred to the state system. I was always told that this was inferior in people, quality etc. I'm now 17 and I say "BULLSHIT!"

[PLZFILMZ]

I want an audiobook narrated by this guy

[LukeReed]

This was really good - but it is going over the head of a lot of commenters here...

[ariesrapid]

Love the ending question "have you ever held a job that caused a body part to hurt at the end of the day?". A no, I'am not a socialist.

[cron]

I've watched 50+ hours of Charles Murray lectures and interviews from the past 20 years, and I cannot believe how much bullshit he has to put up with. The fact that he is still out there talking and writing is extraordinary. He is a hero of American Ideals.

[wong]

I work 55 hour weeks with no days off and when I get home late at night I immediately get to work on a small business I have started with a friend. I only watch TV during football season and I rarely get to watch a whole game, except those 1 PM games on Sunday. And I have aches and pains everywhere and I just turned 30.

[letsgoBrandon]

It's called social class here in the UK. Been going on for centuries. It's simultaneously hilarious and infuriating.

[thesuccessfulone]

I love that last question. It resonates deeply with working class people.

[brightmoon]

Being intelligent & educated doesn't make anyone an elitist. It's what you do with that intelligence and education that does it. EVERYONE needs to get it through their very thick heads that people are not their job, not their politics, not their religion or lack thereof, not the beer they drink or the tv shows they watch. People are PEOPLE and we all have much more in common than many of us would like to think.

[Overonator]

Oh yes, I'm sure his quiz is as scientifically validated as the quizzes in Vogue magazine.

[GemmaHentsch]

There is in this world a mindset, a situation, a reality to poverty that many who have had advantages (and I include myself in that group) do not usually encounter.

I've experienced some of the aspects, but in many ways I was (and occasionally am) a tourist. I've buy the cheapest food, and alcohol available, but I always had a safety net, and I was given most of the advantages of an upper middle class upbringing.

I've never really lived with the fear that my parents could not help me.