Instinctively, when in far mode, I would be inclined to judge feelings by their costs and their benefits. I can see very little benefit to contempt (the emotion I see behind the sneer) - so far as I can determine all it gives you is a filter on the people you spend your time with and energy on. On the cost side, however, contempt impairs your ability to become acquainted, and this will cost you because:
Mundanes are a varied, populous, and influential demographic, many of whom will inevitably fail to conform to the stereotype. (I am a bit trigger-happy with stereotype-bad! arguments, possibly because I’m “half”-black. Moving on.)
Many mundanes are great potential friends.
Many mundanes know things you don’t know in precisely the same way that many geeks know things you don’t know—thanks to their different lives and life experiences. Even more importantly, they might well know things your geek friends don’t know that you don’t know.
I think this last point is the strongest—by cutting yourself off from a class of experiences, you cut yourself off from a field of knowledge. Even anthropological curiosity ought to impel you to give these people more consideration than this, and you won’t be any kind of competent anthropologist if you can’t treat your subjects fairly.
When it comes to being contemptuous of individuals, I’m not going to tell you what criteria to use, but geekdom is not some unique domain of philosopher-kings that absorbs all the worthy people of the world and gathers them in one family of subcultures. That kind of heuristic is as risky as confirmation bias.
This is all very true and really important for people to remember. At the same time sneering at outsiders is a great community building exercise. Just don’t take the performance literally.
Also, sneering at outsiders is something that normal people do…
Anyway, I don’t think that I was trying to sneer—just present other 99.9% of the world as they really are. They are not “bad people”. They, like us, are just different.
I apologize for making this a rant, but:
Instinctively, when in far mode, I would be inclined to judge feelings by their costs and their benefits. I can see very little benefit to contempt (the emotion I see behind the sneer) - so far as I can determine all it gives you is a filter on the people you spend your time with and energy on. On the cost side, however, contempt impairs your ability to become acquainted, and this will cost you because:
Mundanes are a varied, populous, and influential demographic, many of whom will inevitably fail to conform to the stereotype. (I am a bit trigger-happy with stereotype-bad! arguments, possibly because I’m “half”-black. Moving on.)
Many mundanes are great potential friends.
Many mundanes know things you don’t know in precisely the same way that many geeks know things you don’t know—thanks to their different lives and life experiences. Even more importantly, they might well know things your geek friends don’t know that you don’t know.
I think this last point is the strongest—by cutting yourself off from a class of experiences, you cut yourself off from a field of knowledge. Even anthropological curiosity ought to impel you to give these people more consideration than this, and you won’t be any kind of competent anthropologist if you can’t treat your subjects fairly.
When it comes to being contemptuous of individuals, I’m not going to tell you what criteria to use, but geekdom is not some unique domain of philosopher-kings that absorbs all the worthy people of the world and gathers them in one family of subcultures. That kind of heuristic is as risky as confirmation bias.
This is all very true and really important for people to remember. At the same time sneering at outsiders is a great community building exercise. Just don’t take the performance literally.
I’m not really comfortable with that. I have too often seen similar views seriously proposed.
Also, sneering at outsiders is something that normal people do…
Anyway, I don’t think that I was trying to sneer—just present other 99.9% of the world as they really are. They are not “bad people”. They, like us, are just different.