Superficial Success

[Martin Hash]

From the outside many people exhibit the public indicators of success: prestigious jobs, peer acclaim, and the accumulation of trendy goods. However, how much of their trajectory in life has been through behind-the-scenes circumstances & machinations in which merit played little part? Why should graduating from an Ivy League University play such an all important ingredient of their life? Why should being Jewish or Mormon be more of an advantage than a high IQ? Why should athletic ability confer more status than advanced degrees?

Also, society's lauding of honors & awards depends on the definition of "success," because in my experience, under even cursory scrutiny, the illusion that these people are superior to Community College graduates cannot be maintained. In fact, the only explanation for the superficial success of The 1% is a Virtual Class System which is mostly determined by the happenstance of birth. The occasional overachiever can still break through but that chance has become fleeting small. The American Dream has succumbed to aristocracy. The only reason it existed at all was because our ancestors started out mostly classless.

[katarn]

:goteam: