Ivory tower

From RationalWiki
Jump to: navigation, search
Le mot juste

Jargon, buzzwords, slogans

Icon language.svg
Words have (no?) power

"Living in an ivory tower" is an expression used to indicate that someone is out of touch with common experience, usually due to spending much of their life in academia or privileged circumstances.

The origin of the phrase is in the Biblical Song of Solomon (7:4) but its original meaning is largely forgotten or overlooked. Since the early twentieth century the phrase has primarily been used to describe academia and privileged people or institutions which are perceived to be so caught up in their worlds of elitist isolation they lose touch with the every day world.

The term is also used contemptuously for any exclusive or esoteric field or event (Mensa meetings, art shows, physics lectures, etc.), particularly by anti-intellectuals, and is associated with various stereotypes about academics and intellectuals lacking common sense and basic life skills.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
Navigation
Community
Tools
support