Thank you for this reflective and nuanced piece on the form that aristocracy has taken today in American society. I also went to an Ivy, thinking that things were now meritocratic and that there would be a broad range of people I'd meet. Instead, I found that, in spite of other types of diversity, most people had similar upbringings and …
Thank you for this reflective and nuanced piece on the form that aristocracy has taken today in American society. I also went to an Ivy, thinking that things were now meritocratic and that there would be a broad range of people I'd meet. Instead, I found that, in spite of other types of diversity, most people had similar upbringings and were of a similar socioeconomic background. For most of the people I encountered, everything was about getting a certain kind of well-paying job—having "the same elite careers." I recently read Poison Ivy by Evan Mandery, and it makes several similar points!
"It really was a smart strategy to have two adults earning professional salaries, with one or two high-quality children, and then to outsource the child rearing to nannies and pre-schools." — Until rather recently, I used to believe most people thought of marriage as based on love. Then I realized that the attitude described in your essay was not uncommon, and that for some, marriage is simply "business," something to be considered coldly, objectively, professionally. A little heartbreaking, but one lives and learns!
Thank you Ramya! Yeah, I went thorough a bit of disillusionment exactly in the way you described. I somehow wasn't expecting so many of these interesting, thoughtful, free-spirited kids to get a job at McKinsey or Goldman at the first opportunity - and then to never look back.
Thank you for this reflective and nuanced piece on the form that aristocracy has taken today in American society. I also went to an Ivy, thinking that things were now meritocratic and that there would be a broad range of people I'd meet. Instead, I found that, in spite of other types of diversity, most people had similar upbringings and were of a similar socioeconomic background. For most of the people I encountered, everything was about getting a certain kind of well-paying job—having "the same elite careers." I recently read Poison Ivy by Evan Mandery, and it makes several similar points!
"It really was a smart strategy to have two adults earning professional salaries, with one or two high-quality children, and then to outsource the child rearing to nannies and pre-schools." — Until rather recently, I used to believe most people thought of marriage as based on love. Then I realized that the attitude described in your essay was not uncommon, and that for some, marriage is simply "business," something to be considered coldly, objectively, professionally. A little heartbreaking, but one lives and learns!
Thank you Ramya! Yeah, I went thorough a bit of disillusionment exactly in the way you described. I somehow wasn't expecting so many of these interesting, thoughtful, free-spirited kids to get a job at McKinsey or Goldman at the first opportunity - and then to never look back.
me neither! it was sad to see not only how the humanities shrunk but also how other students dismissed them as either “easy” or “useless”