What do I see in today’s LA Times (intrusive registration required, use ‘laexaminer’/’laexaminer’), but an oped from Adam Bellow, pushing his book (which I criticize less harshly than it deserves below) and extolling nepotism. He suggests that the answer to the increasing concentration of power that he recognizes and lauds is – ‘trust us’.
Some observers warn that the return of dynastic families is a dangerous trend, but such critics underestimate the degree to which the values of meritocracy have been absorbed in American culture. Today’s successors generally hold themselves to higher standards than anyone else would ever set for them. Far from having a big ego, what they have is an inflated super-ego. This is our best protection against the darker side of nepotism and makes the return of dynastic families something to celebrate rather than fear.
It just keeps getting better and better. Some other folks have looked askance at Bellow’s article…I particularly like Kenneth Cavness’ Tom Paine quote, which is so good that I’ll reproduce it here:
But it is not so much the absurdity as the evil of hereditary succession which concerns mankind. Did it ensure a race of good and wise men it would have the seal of divine authority, but as it opens a door to the foolish, the wicked, and the improper, it hath in it the nature of oppression. Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.
Kieran Healey suggests another application for Bellow’s ‘Three Laws of Nepotism’; they apply perfectly well to affirmative action, as well. Go read the whole thing…
Saul must’ve dropped poor Adam on his head as a baby. What’s next, a return to the poll tax?
I got lucky with that quote, by the way; it’s not like I have Common Sense memorized. 🙂 I just happened to be reading the collective works of Thomas Paine as a patriotic Independency Day nod right at the moment you pointed out Bellow’s article.
It is a fantastic quote, though, isn’t it? Paine may have not been the most intellectual of the revolutionaries, but he could be the most persuasive.
For any Paine afficionados, the University of Utah produced a wonderful *one-man show* by a local named Hans Peterson who spent years studying him. It’s excellent, insightful and (as Paine could be) funny as hell, and worth the $20.
Ah! Another devotee of local theater. If you’re in the area, one man shows like this are often highly worthwhile.
My all time favourite is a very funny play by Eric Bogosian called “Pounding Nails In the Floor With My Forehead“. Apparently, it’s also out in Paperback and an Audio CD.
Poor Adam. His father is a titan of 20th Century literature – and he is nothing but a third rate hack extolling the virtues of nepotism. Too bad nepotism won’t help his piece of sh** book sell any copies.
When Bellow published an article in a similar vein, this is what I wrote to the Sunday Times:
Dear Sir,
In his June 29th article, Adam Bellow appears to have rested his personal demons regarding the good fortune bequeathed him by his father. Bravo! It is always fun to see beneficiaries of nepotism dress it up as meritocracy hard at work. It’s good that he exposes nepotism as rife across professions too – personal observation would lead me to include the House of Commons, management consultancies and evidently erm … some newsdesks in the bracket of being “vociferously meritocratic” in this new area of “meritocratic nepotism”. As an economist by education, it is my naiive understanding that nepotism is a defensive reaction by siblings/associates to the unforgiving realities of a true meritocracy – namely that sons, daughters and friends of talented people are often not as able as their patrons to choose and apply career direction relative to their peers. I see now that Tony’s Surprisingly Competent Cronies, Enron-Linked-Only-By-Association Management Consultancies, the Maxwell Dynasty and Messers Bellow may be pointing the way forward for the ambitious (but misapplied) among us!
However, as a “working man”, nepotism unfortunately has the same place in my life as dubbed polylingual TV ads and ringtone experimentation in public – unavoidable but damaging phenomena. I’m sure that in time, his own siblings will hear fantastic stories of a once thriving old boys “meritocratic” network predating Europe called “The City of London”, yet be all the more attentive and so much more sympathetic to his views on nepotism.
Paul Owen
Solihull