We All Want Merit To Mean Something,

We All Want Merit To Mean Something, And We All May Be Tempted To Reduce That Meaning To Something Measurable And Concrete Like An Sat Score. The Reality, Though, Is That Who Deserves Entry Into An Institution Depends On What The Institution Exists To Do.

Why Does An Iphone Cost Only A Couple Hundred Dollars? Because, As The Stage Performer Mike Daisey Depicted In An Arresting One-man Show Called 'the Agony And Ecstasy Of Steve Jobs,' Apple's Shiniest Products Are Made By A Shadowy Company In China Called Foxconn.

Like The 'little Emperors' Of One-child China, Too Many Boomers Were Taught Early That The World Was Made (or Saved) For Their Comfort And Enjoyment. They Behaved Accordingly, With A Self-indulgence That Was Wholly Rational, Given Their Situation.

If Half-black Barack Obama Had Decided Years Ago To Call Himself White - Which His Genes Certainly Entitled Him To Do - His Story Would Have Carried Very Different Meaning. If Millions Of Part-black People Had Followed Him Into Whiteness, Then The N.a.a.c.p. Would Be In True Crisis.

Our Commitment Should Be To Leave Our Environment In Better Shape Than When We Found It, Our Nation's Fiscal House In Better Order, Our Public Infrastructure In Better Repair, And Our People Better Educated And Healthier. To Indulge In Immediate Gratification And Exploitation Is An Insult To Previous Generations, Who Sacrificed For Us, And Thievery From The Next Generation, Who Depend On Our Virtue.