The latest WSJ article features Kagan and the not-so-sudden disappearance of the old elite structure (old money and family connections), primarily WASP.
And this morning, world press has its day: Miss USA is originally from Lebanon (may I see your birth certificate, please).
If you flip to the back cover of Profiles in Courage, as I did, you will find a very simple description of the author: first Catholic President of the United States (JFK).
Back then, it was the Obama equivalence. Now, we have facts that are more real than fiction (The reluctant Fundamentalist, a fictional story that almost foreshadowed recent Times Square incident).
Currently two members of the Cabinet already came from Asian family background (Lok and Chu).
If anything is true, more will be coming, besides cheap goods imported from Asia. It’s the US brain gain, an unintended consequence of globalization.
At the end of the article, the heir of J&J was quoted as saying, ” generations of old money just get lazy”.
I have never looked at my humble origin as a stroke of luck. But now I do, given this new prism.
I could be among the near 600 escaped convicts from a North Vietnamese heroin addict camp had my family been sitting on serious mattress.
Instead, I seek continuously learning before Toyota came up with its motto (kaizen, continuous improvement).
I know a thing or two about the Protestant ethics and establishment. I spent a total of 6 years in the NorthEast, mostly in school. Back then, it happened to be the 80’s.
It’s natural to be “preppy” up there. Remember Mollie Ringer? (What automobile?) The Breakfast Club? Zero?
I would say, they got a bit more than “lazy”. They got cocky and condescending. Not all the time, and not among themselves. Only when a member of the minorities are around.
Prejudice by nature has always been quite subtle, it might even be concealed when they overextended and exaggerated their interaction (as opposed to acting natural as their Southern counterparts would in the comfort of their plantation). Now that we were supposedly equal and collegial, homogenized by the school uniform and code of conducts, we subscribed to a standard of behavior, at least during those years in college (those who could go beyond those minimal requirements went on to collaborate successfully to form YouTube, Yahoo and Google, but that happened more on the West Coast).
So, back to our WSJ article. With the crowning of last night’s Miss USA, the US is ready for a new chapter and new change. And we do have work (oil spill) to do.
We are all profiles of courage. Let’s not ask what this country can do for you…..You complete the rest of the sentence. You know what to do. Don’t just get complacent, because years from now, there will be “hungrier” show girls moving in to take the place you are now standing on. It’s called Progress. It’s called Amerika.
Thang Nguyen 555 