Stop Me Before I Vote Again

Part five of a series. Previous installments

V. Kosniks are bad-tempered

The "vile piece of crap" comment quoted earlier is far from atypical. Here's another:

I'm an engineer,
and find your anti-science attitude profoundly offensive. Furthermore, you are an idiot. Evidently, you don't understand the meaning of the word "theory", as in Newton's Gravitational THEORY....
Has anyone ever mentioned to you that in the world of science and technology, we practice meritocracy? So don't even think of accusing me of being uncivil. Here's the deal -- if you step unto this turf, and cling to your ignorance, you're going to be called out, idiot....
Have a nice day, moron.

Smells like... status anxiety? Sociologically, Kosniks belong to the core liberal stratum -- people who are a little better educated than the average bear, a little more cultured. They probably got better grades in school -- partly, at least, because pleasing the teacher was more important to them. They bought into the theory of meritocracy. By rights, they ought to be in charge; and yet they are not. Ignorant, laughing, confident, unscrupulous Yahoos -- people who were 'C' students at best, and probably jocks into the bargain -- make piles of money and rise to lead large corporations.

Alongside them are the almost equally maddening, easy-mannered, well-spoken, empty-headed scions of hereditary wealth. These parasites could never have gone to Harvard if they weren't "legacies". And yet such undeserving drones end up running the Foreign Service. What ever happened to that meritocracy thing? What is a cultured, hard-working, conscientious, well-read striver like me doing in this beastly... cubicle? Que fais-je dans cette galère?