In Catholic churches today the gospel is Lazarus and the Rich Man* , this is relevant because also in today’s Boston Globe magazine Jake Halpern gives us a depressingly awful look at the up and coming crop of selfish young things America's education system is turning out. While a few of the would be cream of their generation seem like they might not be so bad, the article is in praise of some really horrid brats. Halpren and a host of psycho-business babblers think that these self-centered little creeps are just what the world needs. Why doesn’t really become clear though there is some mention of how corporations are outsourcing new labs and such. Why these bright-young-brats, once they become successful owners of corporations wouldn’t follow the same profit-driven path as their elders in Me-Generation I isn’t much mentioned. The article says that it’s their narcissistic qualities and sense of entitlement are the best thing about them. Why theirs will prove to be less of a disaster for the world than the George W. Bush generation's cocky selfishness is far from obvious.
Are these little snots the face of the future ruling class? I doubt it will turn out as Halpern and his experts predict, though any prediction in a decaying empire is difficult. Some of us were predicting that eventually the evangelists of the bottom line would discover that India and other countries were producing a potential white collar class who would do at least the same quality of work as those living in the U.S. for much less money. I’d thought that this would lead white collars here to find the virtues of unionization and protecting jobs here. Maybe that will happen, though if the Globe Magazine has laid aside it’s current favorite subjects of conspicuous consumption of the home and fashion kind for this kind of rumination, it’s not going to be easy. Those who have every reason to know they’re not going to climb to the top are still being encouraged to blow life into the burned out tinder. They’ll have to give up that pipe dream before they’ll sign the union card.
As far as I’m concerned, selfish creeps of any generation can go to hell. Nothing good is going to come of them.
Update: An e-mail complains that the reference is too obscure and excessively religious. Without further comment.
Luke 16:19-31
‘There was a rich man who used to dress in purple and fine linen and feast magnificently every day. And at his gate there used to lie a poor man called Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to fill himself with what fell from the rich man’s table. Even dogs came and licked his sores. Now it happened that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels into Abraham’s embrace. The rich man also died and was buried. ‘In his torment in Hades he looked up and saw Abraham a long way off with Lazarus in his embrace. So he cried out, “Father Abraham, pity me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.” Abraham said, “My son, remember that during your life you had your fill of good things, just as Lazarus his fill of bad. Now he is being comforted here while you are in agony. But that is not all: between us and you a great gulf has been fixed, to prevent those who want to cross from our side to yours or from your side to ours.” ‘So he said, “Father, I beg you then to send Lazarus to my father’s house, since I have five brothers, to give them warning so that they do not come to this place of torment too.” Abraham said, “They have Moses and the prophets, let them listen to them.” The rich man replied, “Ah no, father Abraham, but if someone comes to them from the dead, they will repent.” Then Abraham said to him, “If they will not listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead.” – The New Jerusalem Bible