“Back when there were six big dogs in the pack, we had to stand at attention at mealtimes. And we did it, too. You know why? Because we didn’t get fed until we did.”
Or: Rather: To demonstrate having gotten ahead, since the Calvinist work ethic is more about competition than work itself. As with Marxism, stripped of the filigreed bullshit, Calvinism is ultimately pretty small: “I’ll show you my predestinate, unavoidable and unchangeable ultimate status in heaven!” The difference would be that the burning need to prove success brought forth a cornucopia of success.
Keeping the will to strive alive is hard to do, absent a putative pre-established status roster in the afterlife. One key clinging point for would-be elitists is The Marshmallow Test – which is seen as a more-mundane expression of the same inalterable ranking of souls.
While the test allegedly measures impulse control in children, it actually measures their parents’ parenting skills – to that point. Immediately afterward, the test tests the test, as you can easily demonstrate by administering it daily – resulting in perfect performance among a dozen kids in two or three days. If you want your dogs to sit at attention before meals, it could take a little longer, but, regardless, training is training.
What a crushing blow to Cautious and Driven parents: Their child’s self-control is their self-control, inherited as intellectual capital – not genes, talent, grace or destiny. A salve for their wounds is that teaching self-control to babies and toddlers sets them up for a life of success and satisfaction. This is the actual “privilege” the Marxists are bitching about.
All of the social sciences are built around stupid cargo cults – many, like this one, desperately seeking a Calvinistic predestinate determinism to absolve the cultists of the awful burden of free will. But the truth is so much better than any clinician’s cloying wishes: You can train your dog to wait for his dinner, train your kid to wait for his turn – and train your mind to embrace its illimitable potential.
In other news:
City Journal: Help Homebuyers By Expanding Supply: Down-payment subsidies won’t solve the housing crisis.
Issues and Insights: The More Alarmists Talk, The More We Know Global Warming Is A Scam.
Dennis Prager: The Single Best Thing Americans Can Do to Retake America.
Brian Brady says:
Buckhead is going Galt. The co-ordinated response from the grasshoppers will be “White Supremacy” and the effort will fail. But a growing question among ants will be, “Do we govern ourselves?” and more of these rebellions will happen across America.
Counties want to leave one state for another. The balkanization of America is going to happen whether the ruling class permits it or not.
June 8, 2021 — 8:50 am
Greg Swann says:
Buckhead can buy its way out of slavery. I’ve got the overs on a RiotScore++ Chief of Police if they do, though. There has never been a consistent anti-Marxist, ever, I don’t think. “Yeah, but” is a concession, yet that’s all anyone says in response to overt criminal nonsense.
June 8, 2021 — 9:30 am