See the essay What Drives Success? by Amy Chua and Jeb Rubenfeld. Excerpt below the fold:Read the rest of the essay HERE.
A SEEMINGLY un-American fact about America today is that for some groups, much more than others, upward mobility and the American dream are alive and well. It may be taboo to say it, but certain ethnic, religious and national-origin groups are doing strikingly better than Americans overall.
[...]
It turns out that for all their diversity, the strikingly successful groups in America today share three traits that, together, propel success. The first is a superiority complex — a deep-seated belief in their exceptionality. The second appears to be the opposite — insecurity, a feeling that you or what you’ve done is not good enough. The third is impulse control....
Your thoughts on what the authors have written? Of merit — or not?
The book The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America explains more. I'm reading the book right now.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteCOMMENTERS:
ReplyDeletePlease stay on topic according to the matter addressed in the body of the blog post.
Addendum:
DeleteEven comments of merit may be deleted by a blog administrator if the comments do not pertain to the topic at hand.
Oh I like that. Can think of another blog that could use your iron hand.
DeleteEd,
DeleteI don't always have time to delete comments -- nor do other administrators. But we do remove comments on an intermittent basis. And, actually, intermittent reinforcement can be more effective than consistent reinforcement.
Everyone would like to have a little help from their friends. If you don’t believe me, ask Joe Cocker, but it seems as though there are some interests in this country who take this concept to an extreme position—and here it is, in a nutshell: “But it would be ridiculous to suggest that the lack of an effective group superiority complex was the cause of disproportionate African-American poverty. The true causes barely require repeating: they include slavery, systematic discrimination, schools that fail to teach, employers who won’t promote, single motherhood and the fact that roughly one-third of young black men in this country are in jail, awaiting trial, or on probation or parole. Nor does the lack of a group superiority narrative prevent any given individual African-American from succeeding. It simply creates an additional psychological and cultural hurdle that America’s most successful groups don’t have to overcome.”
ReplyDeleteNo group has done more to perpetuate these unhappy circumstances than the Democratic Party and the neo-Communist movement (Progressive movement) in this country. The clarity by which Democrats seek to enslave black Americans to government largesse defeats any argument that the process is coincidental. It is not. It is by design ... aided and abetted by nitwits who are willing to trade their human dignity, their rights as citizens, for the opportunity to have an Obama phone. It is nothing less than profane ...
Sam,
DeleteAgreed.
In the book The Triple Package, Amy Chua and Jeb Reubenfeld spend more than a little time addressing the drawbacks of each of the three components. They also point out the problems that prejudices can cause -- problems which can prevent upward mobility and damage motivation. Overall, the book is quite balanced. Academia hates the book, of course.
ReplyDeleteThe authors also stress that individual -- not group -- achievement is good for America as a whole.
FROM the ARTICLE:
ReplyDeleteJewish success is the most historically fraught and the most broad-based. Although Jews make up only about 2 percent of the United States’ adult population, they account for a third of the current Supreme Court; over two-thirds of Tony Award-winning lyricists and composers; and about a third of American Nobel laureates."
Yes, indeed! But they he failed to mention the nearly absolute control Jews exert upon A) the ENEMEDIA, B) the Entertainment Industry, and C) the Educational Establishment, and the hugely disproportionate influence Jews enjoy over The Courts, The Law in general, and their ever-growing numbers in the U.S. Congress. (Schumer, Boxer, Feinstein, Franken, Sanders, et al.)
Of course, daring even to NOTICE this is taken as evidence of (GASP!!! Oh my GOD!!! NO!!!!!) anti-Semitism, and could get me fired from my job, if I had one, blackballed in many fields of endeavor, mocked, scorned, derided, upbraided and perpetually insulted on the net, or ostracized in what-now-passes-for Polite Society. in EUROPE and Great Britain, thanks to the fearful, ever-increasing power of SHOA BUSINESS, it could land me in GAOL.
And all that is precisely why I insist on DENOUNCING this new version of "Gentleman's Agreement" as frequently as I do. To put it simply and succinctly: TWO WRONGS HAGE NEVER MADE A RIGHT."
I'm frankly amazed the NYT would publish an assertion by a fellow Jew that Jews do, indeed have a Superiority Complex coupled with deep-seated feelings of inferiority and rampant paranoia. Quite a Cocktail! And oh how WE have been made to suffer for it!
The article does indeed mention Jews in the context of the thesis (the triple package). Other groups* are mentioned as well -- and commonalities drawn.
DeleteBTW, the superiority complex may not be, in the authors' context, the typical meaning of superiority complex, not a negative term in the authors' interpretation thereof. A better term might be self-confidence. However, the term self-confidence is too close to the concept of self-esteem, which the authors excoriate in the book The Triple Package.
* Mormons, Nigerians, Asians, certain immigrants to America, and others
I'm taking about the aura of insufferable arrogance and presumption that many of these types perpetually tote around with them, and wear like a carapace or a suit of armor. They do NOT want to "help." They do NOT want to "fit in." They do not want to be "accepted." What they WANT is to RULE us -- even if it ruins their OWN security and destroys the not inconsiderable advantages "WE" accorded "them."
DeleteAs David Horowitz amply indicted -- for several YEARS running at FPM -- the descendants of Negro slaves have been FAR better off than they would have been had their ancestors remained on the Dark Continent, where life expectancy was something like 35 years at best, people drank the water in which they urinated and defecated, and where typhoid, malaria, amoebic dysentery, acromegaly, sleeping sickness, and Jungle Rot were constant companions -- and yet still the leftist scum USES these unfortunate souls as WEAPONS with which they beat "us" about the head and shoulders perpetually.
I've looked nto the eyes of of the likes of Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky and Greg Pallast when they were interviewed in C-Soan, and I saw the glittering, glowering, sulking, sulking, sullen, ever-watchful, predatory gaze of SATAN.
FT,
DeleteI understand what you meany by the aura of insufferable arrogance and presumption that many of these types perpetually tote around with them, and wear like a carapace or a suit of armor.
In the context of The Triple Package, the authors make the case for the importance of rising above mediocrity, particularly when mediocrity is the societal norm. In other words, they mean an I-can-do-this attitude. I've seen that attitude for myself in numerous students. They stand strong -- even when there seems to be a futility in continuing to strive for excellence.
All I'm saying is this: the authors aren't using that same definition. In the book, they do talk about the negative side a superiority complex, which every tyrant or tyrannical group has and uses to their own advantage so as to consolidate power over others.
I think that it was difficult for the authors to choose an effective terminology because so many terms have been co-opted by groups who espouse and practice the opposite of the authors' thesis.
thanks I hear its controversial but worth a try! :)
ReplyDeleteDefinitely controversial -- and worth reading (the book, that is).
Delete"impulse control...."
ReplyDeleteWell that explains my lack of success.
And mine, Ed. I am fiercely outspoken and always have been. So was my father before me. As a result, neither of us was ever slated to win a popularity contest. ;-) The one thing most cannot abide is HONESTY on the part of others. Hypocrisy, which some prefer to call "politeness," is the "grease" that keeps the wheels of society turning, but for all of that it's still bunk.
DeleteIn the context of The Triple Package, the term "impulse control" refers a great deal to immediate gratification -- in reference to deed as opposed to outspokenness.
DeleteFT, you'd love how the authors excoriate the Sixties in the book. Lack of impulse control as an esteemed value was a big theme of the Sixties.
Dave Miller said...
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that conservatives are the responsible party in all things evil.
First, according to many of your friends at self identified sites, it is us libs, libturds, idiots, socialists and commies that are responsible for all things evil.
I am sure you've seen the comments.
But to answer your question directly, let me try this... a guy shoots up a jewish center because he hates Jews, even yelling praises to Hitler as he is led away.
Which party do you think he votes for? As he has also been a White Supremacist, I'm guessing it is not the liberal side of the ledger.
When people spout off with racial digs at our president and other politicians, which party do they tend to favor at the ballot box?
If you guessed the GOP, you win the chicken dinner.
Unless and until people see conservative leaders, and bloggers, who drive the conservative base, step up and call these racist people out, sadly, reasonable conservatives will continue to suffer.
But this is not the fault of the liberals. Conservatives have long maintained that failure to police the more radical movements of a group is essentially agreement and it is fair to lump everyone together when that happens.
Conservatives want it different? Step up and demand change from the radical base of the GOP/Conservative party.
So much for Dave, and you people who think that he is SO fair and balanced!
Actually, Dave Miller ... the whacko who shot up the Jewish Center was a registered Democrat in the state of North Carolina, and he later registered as a Republican in Missouri to run for a seat in the senate. So you tell me ... is this a case of D vs. R, or is it a case of a man who yearns for the good old days of Democratic White Supremism. Now if you are here to argue that the KKK wasn't a paramilitary organization of the Democratic Party, then I'd have to conclude your knowledge of US history is nothing, if not pathetic. It is the consequence of believing leftist talking points and repeating them so often that even you, yourself, begin to believe them. You are truly pitiable.
DeleteTo add to what Sam just stated....
DeleteFurthermore: Glenn Miller tried to run for Congress in 2006 but all the parties he tried to file with refused to accept his check (In Missouri, the receipt of the filing fee check is required to file).
See this, a link which provides other information as well.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete