Kalhoun
September 9, 2005, 2:34pm
41
Lissa:
Well, I’m not so sure we should even be telling people that they do have equal opprotunity when in reality, they don’t. The ghetto kid, to be perfectly blunt, has a snowball’s chance in hell of seeing Harvard. Even if his grades were superb (unlikely given that he most likely went to a shitty school) and even if he could get a scholarship that would cover his tuition, how could he afford all of the myraid expenses that comes with going away to college? Money will always equate greater access and privledges.
I’ve often wondered if this optimistic if-you-try-hard-enough outlook was in of itself somewhat damaging. There are millions of people who bust their asses day and don’t end up as Great American Success Stories. They lead lives of quiet desperation, working as hard as they can but barely keeping their heads above water.
The implication of the if-you-try-hard-enough meme is that if you’re not a success, it must be your fault. We tell black and latino kids (and girls, for that matter) that they can be President when anyone looking at a row of presidential portraits could tell you that’s not gonna happen any time soon.
Does all of this create a bitterness against The American Dream? Do we urge a longing for prosperity which can never be realistically fulfilled while simultaneously forging a guilt complex?
We try to pretend we live in a class-less society, when nothing could be further from the truth. If anthropology has taught us nothing else, it’s shown us that it’s a fundamental part human nature to create class and status differences.
In the olden days of aristocracy and peasants, it was believed that peasants were poor because God had made it that way. He chose who was to live in the lap of luxury, and who was to suffer grinding poverty. The rich didn’t have to feel guilty-- they were simply living as God had decided they should live.
In this age, we blame poverty on lack of initiative because predestination is an idea somewhat in disfavor. In fact, we deny any obstacles at all-- that people are free from the cycle of poverty simply if they will it and that their options are limitless. The poor are portrayed as lazy and immoral, quite deserving of the circumstances in which they find themselves. We sometimes have an outright disgust for the poor.
I agree that equality doesn’t exist and I would never tell someone it did. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t teach our children that equal opportunity and basic human respect are worthy of striving for. Life simply isn’t fair. But you should always try to exercise fairness in dealing with people. Understanding that life isn’t fair is half the battle. Working toward making it so is the other half.
I’m glad life’s not fair. If I got everything I truly deserved, I’d be fucked.
Yeah, if you had everything, where would you put it all?
ccwaterback:
Well, I suppose if it was a person’s goal to be a successful hermit, then being a good bullshitter wouldn’t be of much use. But if you want to be promoted, and generally “liked” by your colleges, you had better be a fairly good conversationalist.
You don’t have to bullshit to be a good conversationalist.
Ok, I think everyone has their own idea of a good bullshitter. To me, a good bullshitter is someone that can talk to just about anyone for hours, AND keep their attention (not necessarily a car-salesman-type).
