I’ve been giving a good deal of thought to the idea that’s been swirling around about Obama’s new role as archetypal American Dream success story—namely that he’s an inspiration and example to us all of what hard work, ethics, and some fantastic PR can do for a person. He’s the bootstrap president, or at least a bootstrap president.
Politics aside, I’m interested to see what sort of effect a President who is the product of pure hard work (ok, and more than a modicum of sheer giftedness) has on the educational expectations in our country. In other words, now that the U.S. is led by someone who made it to the top on merit, against all odds, will we feel a palpable trickle down effect on the aggregate American expectation of achievement, not only for us, but also for our children? Will it become cool to be an overachiever? Will it no longer be considered gauche to “try too hard”?
As much as we collectively triumph in a good old fashioned success story, individually we have been folks who strive merely to get by or get out, to work as little as possible, to keep up a façade of wealth that is not reflected in our bank accounts. We think we thrive on convenience and entertainment. We neglect education as a chief tenet of political campaigning, in effect, neglecting ourselves and showing our true colors as folks whose priorities have led us to such a historically precarious moment. In fact, during the 2008 election we turned elitism into a negative attribute, thereby throwing out regard for all that is elite with it. And while we have entertained ourselves into oblivion, the rest of the world has not stopped working, has not stopped striving, and suddenly the global community has grown much smaller and intimate.
Bailouts, taxes, left-wing and right-wing rhetoric aside, I hope that if anything is “redistributed” during this new administration, it is a new affirmation for the personal pride, hard work, educational merit, and continual striving and sacrifice on which our country is founded and to which we must surely return.
