Thursday, 16 June 2016

They are different


F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Rich Boy (1926)

There is much that one could say about this quote. Few of us would turn down the chance to be rich if there were no insuperable caveats, but few of us would use it well. The rich are still different today and there are more of them, but not only the rich. Celebrities are different too, and as far as one can tell they are often different in much the same way because they think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are.

It is something we do to people via money or status, including political status. The problem affects both left and right political classes in that they think they know what is best for us. Those who don't tend to be corrupt in one way or another, apart from a modest few who actually try to leave political life in a better state than they found it.

In Wikipedia there is an interesting quote from Matthew Bruccoli about Fitzgerald's story.

"'The Rich Boy' is a key document for understanding Fitzgerald's much-discussed and much-misunderstood attitudes toward the rich. He was not an envious admirer of the rich, who believed they possessed a special quality. In 1938 he observed: 'That was always my experience—a poor boy in a rich town; a poor boy in a rich boy's school; a poor boy in a rich man's club at Princeton...I have never been able to forgive the rich for being rich, and it has colored my entire life and works.' He knew the lives of the rich had great possibilities, but he recognized that they mostly failed to use those possibilities fully. He also perceived that money corrupts the will to excellence. Believing that work is the only dignity, he condemned the self-indulgent rich for wasting their freedom."

Money corrupts the will to excellence, but not money alone. When the political classes become too secure in their status, their generous salary and allowances, their opportunities to mix with the rich and powerful, then they too seem to ape the self-indulgent rich. They too waste the freedom they have been given to make the world a better place. The will to excellence is easily corrupted.


James Higham said...

Perhaps most people look no further than being "comfortable". More than keeping the wolf from the door but a bit less than the celebs and their dysfunctional, drug-addled lives.

Demetrius said...

Agree entirely. Must go, have to get the lottery tickets.

Sam Vega said...

I think that we all, deep in our hearts, think we are better than others. The rich merely have that delusion challenged less often.

Henry Kaye said...

I don't think I have ever met a truly rich person. I would hope that they would be imbued with the same human attributes as the rest of us but I can see that they would likely be susceptible to using their wealth and position to wield influence. It would be interesting to ascertain the financial condition of those whom I consider to be successful in their attempts to influence commercial, social and political activities. Not all of the influence peddling actors are misguided of course; some act in ways that the likes of us approve!
The unrich, of course, have little or no influence unless they happen to be unusually eloquent and thus able to attract the attention of the media - and even then - ?
There seems to me to be no way to rid society of influential people and often the wrong influences succeed as - in my opinion - is the case today.

A K Haart said...

James - most do, but some seem to want it all.

Demetrius - but how much does an Eccles cake and a decent cup of tea cost?

Sam - I don't, not deep in my heart. Shallow me entertains the idea every now and then, but deep down I know it ain't so and shallow me usually knows it too.

Henry - and neither left nor right of the political spectrum have any intention of tackling the problem. They don't want a meritocracy.

DCBain said...

You wouldn't want a meritocracy if you'd got no merit!

A K Haart said...

DCB - indeed not. You would want promotion via cronies instead.