Steven Schwartz writes:

>In my opinion, elitism has nothing to do with the merit of the object
>and everything to do with the self-esteem of the elitist.

Much of this discussion of elitism has been predicated on various
interpretations of the word, usually prefaced by some form of "in my
opinion", reminding me rather of the "when I use a word I use it to mean
precisely what *I* want it to mean" or words to that effect, from, I
believe, Alice In Wonderland.  The meanings of words are not subjects
for individual opinions.  Elite and elitism are words with well defined
meanings, and one's opinions have little to do with dictating those
meanings.  If we wish to express something different from what the word is
generally agreed to mean, we should use different words.  To do otherwise
is to engender misunderstanding.

"You could look it up", as they say...

len.