[T]hey were plenty wealthy, and appeared very comfortable with lying without compunction to get their way, and with throwing around hundreds of thousands of dollars in their quest to buy status. They were immediately fascinating characters to me: vulgar, entitled, and un-self-aware, they seemed to embody the latest version of the showy American id, not unlike Bravo’s Real Housewives, or the Kardashians, or, for that matter, the Trump family. ..
The people involved [in the admissions scam] were so self-satisfied and secure in their power that they greeted unethical, perhaps felonious proposals with complete nonchalance.
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If you’ve ever wondered why everyone’s always telling you The Great Gatsby is the great American novel…
March 15th, 2019 at 11:47AM
Recently, I was introduced to the work of Wilson Bryan Key. He was an academic who spent his career researching the effects of advertising on our subconscious. His work sort of follows Walter Lippmann’s belief that media’s job was the manufacturing of consent, getting the public to think they’re knowledgeable of things they know nothing about.
All that got me to thinking about this mess. USAAmericans have been conditioned to believe that wealth equates with intelligence and talent, and straight up, those folks are just a whole lot better than you. Can’t be they cheated, stole, bullied, or were gifted with nothing more than being in the right place, right time. It’s easier to overlook the obvious if we’re hammered from birth with the adulation of celebrity and wealth. But it ain’t true. If you want to know these people’s character, ask their maids and nannys, not their PR agents…,