I’ve finally posted a response in the ongoing discussion Marvin and I are having about elites, rules and play, and aesthetics over at The New Sophists’ Almanac. Damn, I should post there more often, I kept him waiting a long time, and I think I even clarified a few questions I’ve been puzzling over about other things.

If you have comments about the new post, please post them there. Really, all in all, it’s be going back to asking whether we can in any way acknowledge expertise on the part of connoisseurs, and whether ignorant reactions to art (or anything else) “matter” as much as those by people who care enough about those same things to bother to educate themselves on the subject. (Not academically, necessarily, but at least enough to really get familiar with the subject.)

As you may imagine, I’m thinking this may be a major flaw in the system of vote-driven democratic government, where the votes of those who know absolutely nothing and are proud of it count equally to the votes of those who actually work hard to educate themselves on politics and the current situation.

I just can’t see what the alternative is, not clearly anyway. More thought, perhaps. A lifetime’s worth, perhaps.