One of the great errors of an elite education, then, is that it teaches you to think that measures of intelligence and academic achievement are measures of value in some moral or metaphysical sense. But they’re not. Graduates of elite schools are not more valuable than stupid people, or talentless people, or even lazy people. Their pain does not hurt more. Their souls do not weigh more. If I were religious, I would say, God does not love them more. The political implications should be clear. As John Ruskin told an older elite, grabbing what you can get isn’t any less wicked when you grab it with the power of your brains than with the power of your fists.
Another excellent article by William Deresiewicz—worth reading if only to discover the phrase “entitled mediocrity.”
This article is definitely worth reading, but it drips with this privilege that is somewhat difficult to stomach. At one point the article says, “Yet the opportunity not to be rich is one of the greatest opportunities with which young Americans have been blessed.” At which point I almost puked. It then goes on to say you can make a reasonable living as a teacher and mentioned somethign about our “current president” Bush, at which point I realized it was written in the summer of ‘08. I think it’s pretty colored by the moment before the bubble burst. I’d be curious to see if the author thinks if the attitude of college students has changed since the crash.
