This is an attempt to understand why the United States began its descent into a mediocracy from a meritocracy. This article was inspired by a series of conversations over a period of time between my husband and me based on collective intergenerational experiences across a cross-section of people. I would also like to just say that this is in no way an attempt to undermine the success of immigrants, but more of an academic exercise to understand the joint impact of corporate greed and immigration patterns on the state of innovation in the US.
On the principle of collegiality and individual contribution to society at large
The principle on which the US was founded is this: The individual citizen is the basic building block of the country, and the quality of the individual dictates the future of the country (Teddy Roosevelt, Citizenship in a Republic, Sorbonne, France, 1910). The average citizen must be a good citizen for the republic to succeed. Therefore, every effort was made to ensure that a citizen could fulfill oneâs full potential. This freedom to pursue oneâs dreams was naturally predicated by the foundation of a relatively stable society where the basic necessities of life were well taken care of. While this respect for the individual citizen was of paramount importance, the same was also counter-balanced by the Protestant Christian principle of collegiality, which ensured that while individual citizens worked towards a better life, they also by and large pursued activities that could ensure the larger good of their society as well.
While the first wave of immigrants all came from western societies that shared similar principles, the latest wave of immigrants have come from countries where the individual citizen is almost incidental and the quality of the rulers is paramount. Extreme examples of such countries are Singapore and China. India too belongs to such a type of a governmental system, where ultimately only the top few matter, to steer the country down the right path. These new immigrants naturally do not relate to the original social contract that formed the basis of the United States.
Capitalism and the destruction of the family unit Continue reading On immigration, innovation and the American conundrum
Tag: Capitalism
đȘ Whatâs in a Name? Mukesh, Not Mukash.
Posted on Categories China, Culture, Geopolitics, Hinduism, India, Pakistan, X.T.M10 Comments on đȘ Whatâs in a Name? Mukesh, Not Mukash.While reading Brad DeLongâs fascinating newsletter on centi-billionaires and political power (I’m going to ignore Elon’s self-imploding stunt), I noticed something that jarred me more than it should have: Mukesh Ambaniâs name was misspelled as âMukash.â A minor slip, perhaps. But it was the only error in a list that included Bernard Arnault, Warren Buffett, and Michael Bloombergâmen whose names command a certain global familiarity.
What does it say that even after spending nearly half a billion dollars on a wedding for his son, Indiaâs wealthiest man doesnât merit a spellcheck? It says a lot.
đ§ The Chimera of Respect via Capital Continue reading đȘ Whatâs in a Name? Mukesh, Not Mukash.
Café Concord: A View from the Counter
Posted on Categories Culture, Race, United States, X.T.M6 Comments on CafĂ© Concord: A View from the CounterIâm writing this from a bakery-cafĂ© in Concord, Massachusettsâthe cradle of the American Revolution, where ideals like liberty and equality were born anew in the New World. The croissants are fresh, the espresso is bespoke (lavender), and the staff layout is eerily familiar.
At the front: white staffâstylish, aesthetic, articulateâhandling (bossing sometimes but in general everyone is exceptionally lovely & calm) model minority clientele with curated ease. In the kitchen: Mexican workersâefficient, invisible, foundational. Itâs the same setup across most of Americaâs cool, clean consumer spaces: the aesthetic and the labor silently segregated by race and language.
No one talks about it. Youâre not supposed to notice the subtle “Americanisation” at play (the American dream and its attendant complexities). But once you do, as a twice-immigrant (East to Britain, old England to New England), itâs hard to unsee. The roles arenât assigned by policy, but by a deeper algorithmâone that sorts people into place based on centuries of sedimented power: race, class, culture, even aesthetics. Continue reading CafĂ© Concord: A View from the Counter
Review: Enlightenment Now. Steven Pinker.
Posted on Categories Book Reviews, Science, Uncategorized4 Comments on Review: Enlightenment Now. Steven Pinker.
I have not so much read the book as scanned it. For most of the book he builds a case for his basic claim that life, for most people, has improved to an amazing extent in the last 200 years and we can thank science, reason and humanism for all this progress.
I assume he has to provide so much data because he knows this is an unfashionable opinion within the postmodern liberal intellectual elite and this bothers him. By listing all these facts and showing us all these graphs, he thinks he can convince even his most skeptical critics that progress is real, and that it is much more widely distributed than most people imagine. Is there something missing from his account of progress? I think there definitely is. I do not disagree with his claim that progress is real. Hunger, disease, violent death, these are not trivial concerns. The tremendous progress in these areas is real, and it is meaningful. Intellectuals who criticize Pinker by pointing to persistent or new forms of ill health, physical suffering or violence should take a break and actually read the book, they will find that he has the data and it is not bad data. Either argue about his data with better data of your own, or argue on some OTHER grounds. On THESE grounds, he is solid. Continue reading Review: Enlightenment Now. Steven Pinker.