Smart & Special!

I think people who know me know how smart and special I am. I'm really, really smart. And really special. People who don't know me don't know what they are missing. In short, someone who is really smart and really special.

That's basically a summary of all personals ads, all blogs, all liberal bumper stickers and the rallying cry for most indie bands.

And really, it is just so sad.

I had the great good fortune to be raised in a family where the motto was "On the menu tonight: You." That taught me that no matter what the softies at school said about your enormous potential, it didn't mean %$#@ at home.

And if, by some mistake, they decided to coddle you at home, you got smacked at school. See, it evened out. You were bound to be beaten. Or beaten to be bound.

So when I see cutesy blogs about people who think they should occupy a few more millimeters of God's own sunshine than they already do, I think ... uh, maybe you don't deserve the space you do occupy.

Can you imagine your own grandparents if they had blogged? I can't.

The difference between the current landscape and the landscape even 90 years ago is unfathomable. And sadly, many many people judge today's environment against the high-water mark of liberal culture established in the late sixties/early seventies [and not against 1917, or even 1957]. But back in 1970, the liberals forget to tell you that women were not competing with men for jobs to the degree that they are now [because to do so would be to implicitly reference the impact: a gain in the rights of women meant that more women had income, which meant greater hardship for all women who didn't want to/couldn't work, and greater downward economic pressure on men's wages, at least temporarily], blacks and other minorities were similarly excluded, and many, many more countries were unable to reap any benefits from the gains the First World was making. Increased global trade means something positive to many more people than you'll hear about in the media. That ol' agrarian lifestyle ain't all it is cracked up to be.

So, yes, we work more hours than we did in 1980. But I would gladly make that tradeoff if it means greater opportunity for women and minorities [and it does]. Mind you, I don't want to pay any additional taxes to assuage someone else's liberal guilt.

I just want the playing field to be open for all players.