Squaresville

I love this post from Ivy Style.

There is something so comforting about be square.  The pressure is entirely off to be cool, hip or trendy.  It's okay to shop at Macy's. 

It's okay to grill burgers in the back yard and hang out with your wife while watching the kids on the swing set.  This honestly isn't about being retro.  It's about finding those things that are comfortable and sticking with them, regardless of fashion.

Nelson Aldrich Jr.

The following article comes from the September 26, 1988 issue of People magazine.  I thought it was interesting to get some of this background on the author of not only Old Money, but also the article that I posted here some time back.

 

 

Born to the Manor, but Not to the Money, Nelson Aldrich Jr. Reflects on Matters of Class

By Deane Worth

 

Nelson Aldrich Jr., the son, grandson and great-grandson of millionaires, did not set out to live his life as a sociological experiment. Yet though he was raised with many of the trappings of great wealth—the schools, the clubs and the summer homes—he was conspicuously lacking in cash. It was this singular deprivation that led to his discovery that it was less "the reality of unearned wealth" that guaranteed one's position in the world of "old money" than "imagination and pure training." In 1926, F. Scott Fitzgerald pronounced the rich "different from you and me." Now comes Aldrich to explain those differences in his new book, Old Money, the Mythology of America's Upper Class.

Why Our Elites Stink

Again, I have to credit The Wasp Manifesto for this one. 

I love David Brooks.  If he and Mark Shields shared a Presidential ticket, I would vote for them in a heart-beat--regardless of who headed the ticket.

But onto our topic for today: meritocracy.  Below is an excerpt from David Brooks' article, "Why Our Elites Stink."  (Obviously, click on the prior link for the full text--it's well worth the read.)


"Over the past half–century, a more diverse and meritocratic elite has replaced the Protestant Establishment. People are more likely to rise on the basis of grades, test scores, effort and performance.

 

"Yet, as this meritocratic elite has taken over institutions, trust in them has plummeted. It’s not even clear that the brainy elite is doing a better job of running them than the old boys’ network. Would we say that Wall Street is working better now than it did 60 years ago? Or government? The system is more just, but the outcomes are mixed. The meritocracy has not fulfilled its promise."

 

"The WASP Ascedancy"

I posted, the other day, an excerpt from a posting by The WASP Manifesto.  As I work my way through old posts, I find some great stuff.  I am sincerely impressed by this blog.  If you have the opportunity, you should check it out.

Below is an excerpt from a posting of Joseph W. Alsop's article, "The WASP Ascendancy."  The following paragraphs really hit a chord with me:


"The greatest advantage, I should be inclined to say, was that the young had their careers laid out for them in advance so there was no foolish waffling and wavering about what to do. If you had special talents in science or architecture or scholarship or some other respectable pursuit, you sought very hard to get to the top of the tree you had chosen for yourself. If you had no such inclinations you could then choose between the various ladders that led to a respectable or even a high place in the WASP ascendancy of your time. The ladders were essentially the various professions, headed by the law, plus businesses of the kind then held to be respectable, with finance and banking at the head of the list.

"It’s too easily forgotten now, or at any rate it used to be too easily forgotten by the young people who complained this or that 'doesn’t turn me on,' that any healthy man is 'turned on' by the mere act of putting his foot on the lowest rung of the ladder. If he is a serious and ambitious young man he will then wish to get to the top of the ladder, in short to achieve a conspicuous success. These were the reasons why young men of the WASP ascendancy did not suffer from the kind of inner anguish and self-questioning that is all too common today. Even guilt, I fear, was an almost unknown quality in the WASP ascendancy, although its members had plenty to be guilty about, I suppose. Certainly the young people whose parents and grandparents formed the WASP ascendancy appear to me to be extraordinarily guilt-ridden."

...

"Above all, if you belonged to the WASP ascendancy, you knew pretty well who you were. I have never to this day understood the phrase “identity crisis” or, indeed, understood why people had identity crises. But this, again, is probably another sign of the narrowness and provincialism that too often marked the ascendancy in the old days."

Where I'm From

I just discovered a great blog, The WASP Manifesto.  It is incredibly well-written and thoughtful.  One of his (I say "his" although I'm not certain, as the blog is anonymous) early posts, entitled "Happens Every Day" (October 1, 2009) deals with the importance of community to WASPS.

It is definitely worth a read. I especially like this line: "If Middle America spent on beach cottages (on whatever beach or lake) what it spends on cruises, Middle America might find itself much more widely contented."  Coming from the Mid-West, all I can say is, "Amen."

Required Reading: Seven Deadly Sins of Preppy Dressing

I've been following The Daily Prep for quite some time.  I really appreciate Muffy's common-sense approach to style and living.  Her post, The Seven Deadly (or at least mildly annoying) Sins of Preppy Dressing is good stuff.  I'm posting this link, if for no other reason, so that I can easily find it again when I want it.

A Very Separate Peace

When I first started teaching, John Knowles' novel, A Separate Peace was a part of the curriculum.  When I first read it, I loved it.  Although the world of these students was fairly different from mine, I could still relate to a lot of what they were going through.  However, my students didn't have a clue.  But that's another post.

There is a lot of talk about other Ivy League/Prep School books.  But this is one that I rarely read about in the blogosphere, so I'd like to throw a few bits to the wolves.  Here are some great (if not seemingly superficial) excerpts to consider:

     The Devon faculty had never before experienced a student who combined a calm ignorance of the rules with a wining urge to be good, who seemed to love the school truly and deeply, and never more than when he was breaking the regulations, a model boy who was most comfortable in the truant's corner (16).

Many a pink-shirted patron should enjoy this one:

     Phineas was the essence of this careless peace. [...H]e began to dress, that is he began reaching for whatever clothes were nearest, some of them mine.  Then he stopped to consider, and went over to the dresser.  Out of one of the drawers he lifted a finely woven broadcloth shirt, carefully cut, and very pink.

     "What's that thing?"

     [...]

     "This," he then answered with some pride, "is going to be my emblem.  Ma sent it up last week.  Did you ever see stuff like this, and a color like this?  It doesn't even button all the way down.  You have to pull it over your head, like this."

     "Over your head?  Pink!  It makes you look like a fairy!"

     [...]

     He did wear it.  No one else in the school could have done so without some risk of having it torn from his back.  [...]  It was hypnotism.  I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything" (19-20).

He even goes so far as to wear the school tie for his belt--but, of course, gets away with it.

The clothing is interesting, but I think the attitude is what really draws my attention.  Anyone familiar with the novel knows that Phineas is not trying to push buttons or be a jerk.  It's simply who he is.  He's larger than life and unconcerned about what others think of him. Not that he doesn't care about others; he does.  He simply has an innocence in regards to others' opinions of him. 

This is something that a lot of folks try to affect, but it very obviously comes off as affectation.  Finny is their ideal, but, tragically, an ideal they can never reach, because they have already become self-aware.  Maybe that's a good place to stop for this post.  Not sure if I want to tackle that one...