http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/ … k/big-sell

To me this article smacks of a certain segment of society's distaste for ambition's use of presenting one's best face forward as a tool. Suddenly, ANYbody is going around trying to pass himself as a SOMEbody, and it's an abomination, I tell you!
And they fail so miserably, they look so pathetic trying to ape their betters!
This game is not new, and the anybodies have been paying to look like the somebodies for a long time, that's why you had Emily Post. Or you can read Thackeray to see the lives of such ambitious upstarts chronicled.
To be a contrarian, one could say that such striving gives society as a whole a positive tonic, a civilizing force as compared to today's generation of english rioters and american "occupiers" who revere the "natural". One group is aiming at the gentry, the other at the savages.
Personally I enjoy the strivers and would rather work with them, and compete against the liberated folk. Come to think of it, I enjoy more competing aganst a nakedly aggressive striver as it brings the best in me (provided I don't get too muddy).

So to all strivers and pretenders, gauche or adroit, Here's to you! (And may the best man win)

Last edited by Chévere (2011-12-14 10:09:46)