Too bad the WASP elite isn't still running the country

[Tracy Riddle]

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10...TopStories

The old U.S. ruling class had plenty of problems. But are we really better off with a country run by the self-involved, over-schooled products of modern meritocracy?

What our new meritocrats have failed to evinceand what the older WASP generation prided itself onis character and the ability to put the well-being of the nation before their own. Character embodied in honorable action is at the heart of the novels and stories of Louis Auchincloss, America's last unembarrassedly WASP writer. Doing the right thing, especially in the face of temptations to do otherwise, was the WASP test par excellence. Most of our meritocrats, by contrast, seem to be in business for themselves.

Trust, honor, character: The elements that have departed U.S. public life with the departure from prominence of WASP culture have not been taken up by the meritocrats.

::face.palm::

Yes, the Dulles brothers, Henry Cabot Lodge, Joseph Alsop, Averell Harriman - ah, those were the good old days.

[Magda Hassan]

::willynilly:: Some people really need to get out more.