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Feb. 2nd, 2004 08:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vicarzClassism?
A while ago I toyed with the idea of imagining myself having to go to a country in Latin America, barely knowing the language. I wondered what I could and would do to survive, whom I would talk to, if I'd embrace the culture around me or be an isolationist clinging onto the culture I was already comfortable with. My conclusions were often that I'd work long hours in restaurants, you know, like in college only worse. Health would be an issue, life would be a constant threat of danger, and criminals would rule the streets I called home. It would suck and survival would be difficult, never mind trying to get out of it and back up to middle-class levels. Wealth? Unlikely in less than 20-50 years, and even that just with luck. Define wealth.
Why is it I am able to work full-time while going to school, hitting the gym, and desperately trying to maintain a social-life in the midst of all that mess? Is it something I've learned to do that anyone in similar circumstances would? Is it just how I'm wired genetically? Am I merely showing the result of the morals my parents were successful in instilling in me? How much credit should I take for my achievements?
The other night I was talking to someone else about family history, and found a parallel in a family that had fallen from 'greatness' like my own. Someone in this country had started from the ground up, with a very base job, and brought the family back up to some measure of respectability. That's not the first time I've heard that kind of story, and it almost makes me look at a classist view, a nature angle, of who makes it and who doesn't. I already thought the guy was bright, but the history wasn't quite what I expected.
This leads me to wonder: Are some people just genetically wired to be more responsible, more cautious, harder working, and likely to succeed through their own efforts? IQ is a very strong genetic trait, and IQ is related to income. Is your genetic pattern really that strong an indicator of your place in society? Is it that some families push those values and those that fail are those in which the 'parents' are as immature in their 20s and 30s and some are in their early teens? If so, how much is this the case? Are some people just better than others, deserving the success they have - and making it acceptable to blame the poor for their own predicament?
Perhaps this view is brought about by living in a successful urban area where jobs are plentiful. I've never experienced living in an area where it was a challenge to get a job, just a question of how low you were willing to sink. In other areas fast-food work is coveted. The moving of jobs to overseas has led to entire cities being decimated, with no work available to sustain a local economy. What happens to smart and/or responsible people in those situations?
That's my incomplete line of thought on wealth vs. nature vs. nurture for today.
A while ago I toyed with the idea of imagining myself having to go to a country in Latin America, barely knowing the language. I wondered what I could and would do to survive, whom I would talk to, if I'd embrace the culture around me or be an isolationist clinging onto the culture I was already comfortable with. My conclusions were often that I'd work long hours in restaurants, you know, like in college only worse. Health would be an issue, life would be a constant threat of danger, and criminals would rule the streets I called home. It would suck and survival would be difficult, never mind trying to get out of it and back up to middle-class levels. Wealth? Unlikely in less than 20-50 years, and even that just with luck. Define wealth.
Why is it I am able to work full-time while going to school, hitting the gym, and desperately trying to maintain a social-life in the midst of all that mess? Is it something I've learned to do that anyone in similar circumstances would? Is it just how I'm wired genetically? Am I merely showing the result of the morals my parents were successful in instilling in me? How much credit should I take for my achievements?
The other night I was talking to someone else about family history, and found a parallel in a family that had fallen from 'greatness' like my own. Someone in this country had started from the ground up, with a very base job, and brought the family back up to some measure of respectability. That's not the first time I've heard that kind of story, and it almost makes me look at a classist view, a nature angle, of who makes it and who doesn't. I already thought the guy was bright, but the history wasn't quite what I expected.
This leads me to wonder: Are some people just genetically wired to be more responsible, more cautious, harder working, and likely to succeed through their own efforts? IQ is a very strong genetic trait, and IQ is related to income. Is your genetic pattern really that strong an indicator of your place in society? Is it that some families push those values and those that fail are those in which the 'parents' are as immature in their 20s and 30s and some are in their early teens? If so, how much is this the case? Are some people just better than others, deserving the success they have - and making it acceptable to blame the poor for their own predicament?
Perhaps this view is brought about by living in a successful urban area where jobs are plentiful. I've never experienced living in an area where it was a challenge to get a job, just a question of how low you were willing to sink. In other areas fast-food work is coveted. The moving of jobs to overseas has led to entire cities being decimated, with no work available to sustain a local economy. What happens to smart and/or responsible people in those situations?
That's my incomplete line of thought on wealth vs. nature vs. nurture for today.
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no subject
Date: 2004-02-02 05:56 am (UTC)BWAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!
Just wait till you try to find an attorney position in the DC metro area....
We have the most legal jobs in the country, but almost twice the amount of job seekers. DC is the most difficult legal market in the country.
You've got a leg up though. You already have the years of govt. experience. (especially if your supervisor wants to give you a legal job...)
-S
Re:
Date: 2004-02-02 06:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-02 07:29 am (UTC)It is like big cats...they are born with claws and teeth and speed and hunger, but if they are seperated from their mothers at too early an age they are not likely to be as good at hunting. So parhaps the inclination to strive is in your blood, but your ability to succeed you owe to you mom, just from watching her do her thing when you were a little kid.