Why do Americans resent upward mobility?
1–10 of 19 posts
Re: Why do Americans resent upward mobility?
#2It might be true that our political leaders will become less educated and intelligent over time, but that will hardly be the case in other areas-- areas where higher merit actually correlates with success.
The main effect probably won't be a real shift in the types of people with actual power, but rather an increasing marginalization of our public institutions, like in other countries with ineffective governments.
Re: Why do Americans resent upward mobility?
#3The writer is so badly (or purposefully) confused it's hard to know where to start. Well,
by expanding their admissions to include women and minorities while keeping standards high.
No. Again, no. There are very distinctly two sets of standards, one lower than the other, and it shouldn't require much elaboration as to why that causes legitimate resentment. or why it deviates from any real notion of a meritocracy.
The result of that expansion is now with us: Barack Obama
Umm, no. It's fairly clear to every non-brainwashed observer that BHO's skin color was a huge part of the elite's attraction to him. That behavior on the part of the (noun) elite, is distinctly not compatible with the maintenance of an (adjective) elite class.
Despite pushing aside the old WASP establishment—not a single WASP remains on the Supreme Court—these modern meritocrats are clearly not admired, or at least not for their upward mobility, by many Americans
Sigh. Replace "WASP" with anything and I mean any other term, "Black", "Jewish", "Italian" anything in the world and ask yourself, "Why would the blacks/Jews/Italians not admire the other groups pushing them out of power?" Why would that be reasonable?
The stupidity is almost overpowering.
Re: Why do Americans resent upward mobility?
#4> I suspect the "anti-elite-educationism" Bell predicted is growing now
Much of this article would be improved if it could cite any other sources.
Re: Why do Americans resent upward mobility?
#5When I hear the word 'elitist', for me, it means 'one set of rules for me, another set for you'. Or, in another way, 'do as I say, not as I do'.
I'm not sure if that's the context of the word as described in the article, but I get the suspicion that it's not an educational consequence, but an attitudinal one. It might be a backlash against perceived favourable treatment of one sector of the economy/group of people rather than an attack on education alone. If Sarah Palin is getting traction on terms like 'elitist', then it must be because this feeling resonates with the voters. And I don't see that one's education level is the sort of thing to really provide a rich wave of support. Which, to me, means that it must be something else.
Re: Why do Americans resent upward mobility?
#6What I resent is being tricked into spending my time reading 1000 words that could have been edited down to "why is populism an effective political strategy?" just so that an author that I've never heard of can tell me that they went to Yale.
Re: Why do Americans resent upward mobility?
#7The writer is so badly (or purposefully) confused it's hard to know where to start. Well, by expanding their admissions to include women and minorities while keeping standards high. No. Again, no. There are very distinctly two sets of standards, one lower than the other, and it shouldn't require much elaboration as to why that causes legitimate resentment. or why it deviates from any real notion of a meritocracy. The…
I'm not sure I agree with you. But upvoted for not censoring yourself.
Re: Why do Americans resent upward mobility?
#8You know, it would be great if the author used something other than being accepted by the current "elite" (apparently defined by attending one of a few universities) as her definition of "merit":
"Barack Obama...Columbia and Harvard Law School...Michelle Obama...Princeton and Harvard Law School...Clarence Thomas...Yale Law School, and Supreme Court justice.[...]
In America, the end of the meritocracy will probably come about slowly: If working hard, climbing the education ladder, and graduating from a good university wins you only opprobrium, then you might not bother."
Glad to know that merit == went to Harvard/Yale. I wonder where the author of this article went to college?
Re: Why do Americans resent upward mobility?
#9From what I know of other cultures, the more appropriate question might be, "why do Americans resent upward mobility less than other cultures do?"
See:
In the rest of the English-speaking world, 'Tall poppy syndrome':
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_poppy_syndrome
In Japan, "the stake that sticks up gets hammered down" (though this may be more about nonconformity than success):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_proverbs#Sayings
In Scandinavia, 'Jante Law':
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jante_Law
(American individualism, materialism, frontier-mythology, immigrant-mythology, and rootlessness are all potential explanations for a warmer appreciation of the idea of the 'self-made success'.)
Re: Why do Americans resent upward mobility?
#10Wouldn't the opposite of a meritocracy be an entitlement society? Somehow putting the whole emphasis on acceptance into "gatekeeper" schools strikes me more as the latter.