Comments on: Back to the Beginning http://blog.janehaddam.com/2008/10/22/back-to-the-beginning/ Jane Haddam’s WordPress weblog Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:25:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.4 By: robert_piepenbrink http://blog.janehaddam.com/2008/10/22/back-to-the-beginning/comment-page-1/#comment-30 robert_piepenbrink Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:29:55 +0000 http://blog.janehaddam.com/?p=83#comment-30 Lottery Syndrome is about right. You might take a look at C. Northcote Parkinson's EAST AND WEST (1963.) As I recall, his observation was that as bureaucracy and taxation closed out an ambition based on frugality and hard work, the status of gambling and superstition--especially astrology--rose. Of course, that was a general historical observation on declining societies. When he wrote it, gambling in America was small-time and largely illegal. Heinlein in EXPANDED UNIVERSE commented on the rise in astrology in his lifetime. The cult of the mediocre celebrity seems to fit the pattern nicely. As for elitism, in my book an elitist is not some one who attended a particular range of schools, but a graduate of such schools who thinks that all knowlege and wisdom reside in his own circle. There seems to be no shortage of them in government and business from Robert MacNamara on. "You can always tell a Harvard man--but you cannot tell him much." Lottery Syndrome is about right. You might take a look at C. Northcote Parkinson’s EAST AND WEST (1963.) As I recall, his observation was that as bureaucracy and taxation closed out an ambition based on frugality and hard work, the status of gambling and superstition–especially astrology–rose. Of course, that was a general historical observation on declining societies. When he wrote it, gambling in America was small-time and largely illegal. Heinlein in EXPANDED UNIVERSE commented on the rise in astrology in his lifetime. The cult of the mediocre celebrity seems to fit the pattern nicely.

As for elitism, in my book an elitist is not some one who attended a particular range of schools, but a graduate of such schools who thinks that all knowlege and wisdom reside in his own circle. There seems to be no shortage of them in government and business from Robert MacNamara on. “You can always tell a Harvard man–but you cannot tell him much.”

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