From a great piece by Matthew Continetti in the Washington Free Beacon:
Our politicians and celebrities, Democrat and Republican, paint an ideal picture of life where one’s success depends on hard work and initiative bolstered by community; where all Americans begin the race of life on an equal footing, and those who start off disadvantaged should be helped by some agency—whether in government or the private sector—until the contest is a fair one. The assumption is that, with the right institutional mix, one’s natural talents will carry one to the appropriate social station. It is not who you are but what you do that is supposed to count.
It is not every day that an article in Vogue magazine exposes the shaky foundations of democracy. But as I read “The Talk of the Town” for the second time I could not help noticing how these attractive, talented, up-and-coming thirty-somethings relied, again and again, on personal connections to get where they are today. Weisberg describes the couple’s success in terms of “personal intensity and random luck.” But the luck here is less random than he thinks. Kass and Wagner were lucky to be born to their parents, and if they have children their sons and daughters will be lucky to be born to them. They are members of a self-perpetuating milieu, a caste of right thinking yuppies whose position and wealth and patterns of consumption are the fruit of personal relationships spanning decades. There is income inequality, for sure, but there is also status inequality, and this latter form of inequality is a topic on which most bourgeois bohemians are silent.
As is often said, go read the whole thing.
And just remember this one bit, if there is ever another Republican president, some fawning media hack will write the same sort of article about aides to that administration. The two love birds in this future article will be equally cringeworthy know-nothings.
I know some people, but do I know enough of the right people to help ensure my children advance their careers along a path that they will enjoy? These are the sorts of things that keep me awake at night these days. My station in life is baked. I want to do the most possible for the Ace and Deuce.
Tags: Cronyism, Status Society