It's those very people who are complaining, the media, in politics and in academia who are creating this illusion of a barrier for their own benefit.
It's those very people who are complaining, the media, in politics and in academia who are creating this illusion of a barrier for their own benefit.Those in the media, in politics and in academia who seem determined to blame American society for individuals and groups who do not rise would be hard-pressed to explain why immigrants of various colors come in at the bottom and proceed to rise, both in the schools and in the economy — on both sides of the Atlantic.
T. Roosevelt said that “It is not the critic who counts . . . the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena” (taking risks in an effort at accomplishment). In 1910 when he said that, that was what liberalism meant.By the time the socialists got through with the word in the 1920s, they had inverted the meaning of “liberalism” to mean, in my own formulation, “Nothing actually matters except PR.” Obviously that is the precise opposite of TR’s formulation - and just as obviously, it favors the journalist/critic and sets the “man in the arena” at nothing.
Giving “the credit . . . to the man who is actually in the arena” promotes striving for virtue and excellence, leading to progress. The attitude that “Nothing actually matters except PR” saps the incentive to strive for excellence and leads to finger-pointing and an attitude of helplessness. And failing to strive for excellence causes not only stagnation but actual regression.