Expressing yourself in correct English prose is essential to success in an English-speaking culture. The horrible reality of this statement reveals great insight into the character of English-speaking cultures; that English-speaking societies judge individuals in their community harshly based on each individual's educational background in standard written English. In Tense Present, David Foster Wallace provides several irrefutable points about the “seedy underbelly of US lexigraphy” and some very thought-provoking insights into its flawed perspective. One cannot ignore the unpleasant truth that standard written English is absolutely essential to success, but a dogmatic intolerance towards those who are not as elite in their proficiency in standard written English is needlessly vile. “The truth does not change based on our abilities.” digest it” (Flannery O'Conner). Wallace raises some excellent points that are virtually irrefutable, although it would be idealistic if they weren't. One point is that standard written English is necessary if you want your idea to reach beyond yourself. If an unprepared individual has an idea that he wishes to spread, it would be quite rare for it to be taken seriously by any group of scholars. Many American intellectuals would immediately see multiple signs of incompetence throughout their “table of ideas” and then immediately lose interest and respect for the idea. Just as Wallace said, there are many other dialects that would suffice just as well if not better; however, the intended audience of any great idea is almost always a bit elitist, so any other dialect used will be seen as a huge sign of incompetence... middle of paper... groups, clans, communities, religions , to countries, to races, and is now struggling to overcome dialects. The superb meme of universal empathy is slowly evolving and it is dogmatic people like “snoots” who are preventing the meme from propagating at a faster pace. Obviously the solution is not for all intellectuals to convert to descriptivism, since this would propagate exponential diffusion. expansive dictionary that would never end along with many other issues. Even more obviously, the solution is not that everyone is a persciptionist for reasons that should require no further explanation. Democracy as a beautiful formula of moderation: not being foolish through incompetence of standard written English, and not being obnoxious through rancorous intolerance towards those who are incompetent of standard written English, is the answer.