The corruption that has now crept into the world of finance and the other professions is not endemic to meritocracy but to the specific culture of our meritocracy. The problem is that today’s meritocratic elites cannot admit to themselves that they are elites.
Everybody thinks they are countercultural rebels, insurgents against the true establishment, which is always somewhere else. This attitude prevails in the Ivy League, in the corporate boardrooms and even at television studios where hosts from Harvard, Stanford and Brown rail against the establishment.When I was back in my mid-to-late 30's I wrote a very similar thing about successful people needing to be okay with being successful and quit trying to win public relations battles that don't exist. Not everybody can be a rags to riches story.
Brooks is also a well-versed Xmastime fan, as his bit about
If you went to Groton a century ago, you knew you were privileged. You were taught how morally precarious privilege was and how much responsibility it entailed. You were housed in a spartan 6-foot-by-9-foot cubicle to prepare you for the rigors of leadership.
The best of the WASP elites had a stewardship mentality, that they were temporary caretakers of institutions that would span generations. They cruelly ostracized people who did not live up to their codes of gentlemanly conduct and scrupulosity. They were insular and struggled with intimacy, but they did believe in restraint, reticence and service.Mirrors my own
The reason people will still be talking about the Kennedys a century from now is that they were a part of the ruling class that tried to act in public service for "the people," and the reason nobody will remember the Bush dynsty a century from now is they were part of the ruling class that tried to act for the ruling class. The joke is that no matter what side they chose, both families stayed a part of the ruling class that was insanely wealthy.Maybe I'll spend my 40's learning humility
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